By Jim Dower: Undefeated light middleweight Ronald Hearns (21-0, 17 KOs) put himself in line for an early 2009 fight with undefeated middleweight John Duddy on Saturday night by stopping an overwhelmed Canadian Paul Clavette (14-2-1, 2 KOs) in the 6th round of a scheduled 10-round bout at the Bell Centre, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Hearns, 29, the son of former boxing champion Tommy “Hit Man” Hearns, knocked Clavette down in the 6th round with a hard combination. He got up and continued to sustain punishment from Hearns, who staggered him with a powerful combination leading to a standing eight count.

Following that, Hearns unloaded on him with a handful of more power right hands, causing referee Michael Griffin to step in and halt the fight at 2:37 of the 6th round with Clavette badly hurt, yet still on his feet. Hearns, not a big puncher in comparison to his famous father, still showed good enough power in volume to cause Clavette all kinds of problems. Clavette was badly over-matched in this fight, although that’s not to say that Hearns is a world beater of any sorts, because he’s clearly not. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., the son of former boxing great Julio Cesar Chavez, in that Hearns is a good fighter, but probably isn’t good enough to ever win a title.

I could be wrong, but I find it hard to imagine that he could beat someone like Alfredo Angulo, James Kirkland or Sergio Martinez. I think Hearns is good enough to be competitive with them for a few rounds, but after that I see him going down relatively fast and getting stopped brutally. Kirkland, I think, would stop Hearns in one round. To stand a chance against fighters like them, Hearns is going to have to develop some power like his famous father in a big hurry, and given his age, I don’t see it happening.

As far as Saturday’s bout goes, Hearns looked good against a limited, C-level fighter in Clavette. Hearns used his long jab and right hand to dominate the first round, hitting Clavette often without having to worry about being hit in return. That’s a luxury Hearns won’t have if and when he faces Duddy, who will be firing back at him with mean intentions. In form, Hearns looks a lot like his father, except that his power is probably only half of his fathers’, if that.

Clavette, for his part, did next to nothing until the 3rd round, when he traded power shots with Hearns and found it easy to hit him. Clavette’s power is pretty much nonexistent, which is probably why Hearns was still standing at the end of the 3rd, because I think he would have been planted if he were hit as many times by someone like Angulo or Kirkland. At the end of the 4th round, Clavette landed a good left hand to the head of Hearns.

In the 5th round, both fighters traded shots again, with Hearns getting the better of it. Clavette had his moments in the round, landing some hard shots and appearing to anger Hearns at one point. In the 6th round, Hearns went right hand crazy, throwing one after another until dropping Clavette with a combination.

Hearns would hurt Clavette again moments later, staggering him leading to Clavette getting a standing eight count from the referee. After the action resumed, Hearns battered Clavette with punches until the referee stepped in and halted the fight.