By Byron Wallin: I recently read a fascinating book entitled the Four Kings, written by George Kimball. These Kings are as follows: ‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas “The Hitman” Hearns and Roberto ‘Hands of Stone’ Duran.
Between them these warriors fought each other a staggering nine times, for the honour of the sport, and to prove that they alone were the best. During these fights all four men earned victories as well as incurring defeats. It is still a matter of great debate as to who really was the best of the Kings. The record books would point to it being Leonard, as he was the only one of the four to defeat the other three. However, I believe Marvin Hagler would argue otherwise, as he has always remained convinced he should have been given the decision he lost to Leonard.
Sadly, boxing fans have not since been treated to a generation, where the best four fighters in the world are campaigning at similar weights, thereby creating a circumstance where the pound for pound crown can actually be contested within the ring, as oppose to un-provable theoretical logic. However, a time has come, and will sadly soon pass, where the two universally recognized best fighters on the planet are roughly the same age, and campaigning in the exact same weight class.
Unfortunately, these two men are not Kings, they are not courageous, honourable and obsessed with proving to the world that they are the best. Instead, they happily dance around one another, speaking through agents or social networking sites, taking the easy matches and phenomenal guaranteed pay days. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao frequently present statements such as ‘I don’t need him’, when both men, should not need but want each other. The likelihood is that the fight will never happen, and if this proves to be true, then neither man will ever be in the same league as any of the Kings. For a fighters greatness can only be measured by the greatness he conquers.
In this writers opinion neither Mayweather nor Pacquiao would last the distance with any of the Kings in their Primes. The Kings were true warriors, born to fight, and all with the hearts of lions.
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