By Tom Stokes: During the 1980s the boxing world was treated to some of the most exciting matchups in the ring, courtesy of four very different but very talented fighters, I’m of course talking about Tommy Hearns, Marvellous Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto Duran.
During the 1980s these four fighters mixed it with each other in the ring in several very brutal and punishing matches, with Hearns brutally knocking out Duran in two rounds, Duran taking Ray Leonard the distance and beating him, Ray Leonard’s TKO of Hearns, and Hagler finishing Hearns in a thrilling 3 round battle.
These were some of the most exciting boxing matches in the 1980’s, now almost 30 years on from the four kings glory days there are four fighter who I believe when they retire will be considered as great in the sport of boxing as Hearns, Hagler, Duran and Ray Leonard.
Floyd Mayweather, Juan Manuel Marquez, Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton, these four fighters are undoubtedly the most exciting fighters in boxing at the moment. Marquez and Pacquiao have both fought each other twice, in two very close fights the first ending in a draw and the second going to Pacquiao on a split decision, although many dispute this decision and saw Marquez winning.
Ricky Hatton is the weakest out the four in my opinion, but he’s shown a lot of courage and heart to get in the ring with both Floyd and Pacquiao and although being knocked out and outclassed by the them he says he wants a fight with Marquez, if he beats Mayweather, and although Hatton probably hasn’t got the skills to beat Marquez I admire him for putting his career and record on the line against the p4p champs, that’s why he deserves to be added in this list, if more fighters had his mentality we would be seeing a lot more exciting matches and boxing probably wouldn’t be losing fans to MMA.
Marquez and Mayweather are going to meet in the ring on the 19th of September this year, and assuming Pacquiao gets through Miguel Cotto (which he undoubtedly will) we could be in for either Mayweather/Pacquiao or Marquez/Pacquiao 3 either would be a win win situation for boxing fans.
However down the line these fighters will meet each other in the ring without a doubt, there’s to much money to be made for these fights not to happen, Mayweather has always been a PPV attraction and a fight with Pacquiao would be mouth watering, and Marquez/Hatton would also be a fight a lot of boxing fans would want to see, and eventually Pacquiao and Marquez will have to meet for a 3rd bout to settle to score once and for all.
Just watching these fighters battling each other in the ring reminds me of the four kings, each with their own unique style Mayweather the defensive expert, Marquez the counter puncher Hatton the aggressive come forward fighter and Pacquiao with his explosive southpaw style, colliding together, weight fluctuating to fight each other, boxing is very lucky to have these four fighters. It’s like a second coming of the four kings, and once these guys have retired and we look back on their fights with one another there’s no doubt that Mayweather, Marquez, Pacquiao and Hatton are the four kings of this generation.
Comments are closed.