Fighters that you would favor to beat all of the Fab Fours (SRL, Duran, Hearns, Hagler)

Kindly explain why are you so sure Roy beats Marvin. Other than some obvious size advantage what else brings Roy to the ring to be so sure he beats Marvin?

 

Mike McCallum is one.

For the big guys it really just boils down to whether you favor them to beat Thomas Hearns. There's lot's I'd favor to beat 2 or 3.

 

Nunn the night he beat Tate ?

 

It was a shame that the fight between Nunn vs Hearns never came to fruition. It was so close too as Tommy was given the option to either rematch Leonard or face the rising superstar Nunn.

 

Mike Tyson. No one that’s their weight. Maybe Roy Jones at middleweight beats them. But Duran Hearns and Sugar were best at lighter divisions so middleweight wouldn’t be their prime.

 

...question, not a statement and I guess this has to be done on the eye test and gut feeling as he never faced near the class of those four, but how does the best version of Bud do against them...?

 

48 rounds against Hopkins, Toney, McCallum and Reggie Johnson. 32 combined MW world title defenses. 2 LHW champs and a HW champ. Roy went 42-6 with 2 shutouts.

All 4 of those guys would beat Hagler.

 

No.. No they wouldnt

 

I think when you count beating SRL and Duran at 160, the question really just becomes who can beat a prime Hagler. So I'm gonna say a more interesting question is who can beat the fab 4 at their best?

Duran at 135 in 1978
Ray Leonard at 147 in 1981
Thomas Hearns at 154 in 1984
Marvin Hagler at 160 in 1982

Maybe the exact years are off but roughly at these time frames and weights is when these guys were at their best.

The only guy off the top of my head who has a real shot is Ray Robinson. Robinson had a few fights in the early 1940s at the lightweight limit, and he obviously can make the other weights just fine. Now does Robinson actually pull it off? I would say probably not. Green Ray Robinson vs Duran is going to be tough and I think the Leonard and Hagler fights are coin tosses.

I mean who else is a contender here?

Mayweather didn't fight at 160 and also Hearns is a bad style match up for him.

Pacquiao didn't fight at 160 and goes 0-3 against the rest of the fab 4 anyway.

Langford has fights at the correct weights but has too little footage and might be too far removed from the 1980s to adjust to the rule changes. I wouldn't be upset if someone did pick Langford to pull off considering he has wins over atgs at all of those weights but I think the footage is just too lacking for me to favor him over some of the best h2h boxers of all time.

Crawford doesn't have much of a chance against prime Hagler

Armstrong could maybe do it but I think it again comes down to Hagler just being a bridge too far.

 

It was a pity Tommy didnt go for Nunn, but his decision makes perfect sense: Sugar was the top drawer and a bigger purse.

 

I think the best of SRR could beat Duran/Hearns/Leonard at 147, and Hagler at 160. I am talking pre first retirement Robinson. It sure wouldn't be guaranteed, but there's quite a decent chance he'd get the job done.

Jones is pretty hard to include due to the rehydrating in recent years. His waalk around weigfht was alledgedly in the high 170's. Hagler wasn't a big middle and the others were smaller so they'd all be at significant disadvantages. Jones would be at a major one too if they did same day weigh in. So it's a tough ask. I do wonder if it gets exaggerated at 160 tho because he had some closely spaced bouts here and there all the way to Hopkins where he weighed inside 160 and fought again inside 160 not long after.

If Charley Burley was as good as projected he'd have a chance, particularly with spaced out bouts that became the norm later. Personally i don't think he could have cleaned hosue.

Carlos Monzon at 160 has as good a chance as anyone. I mildly favor him over Hagler and i think he's get past the smaller guys.

I think Hopkins could do it but again we have the rehydration issue.

A smokey might be Holman Williams. Another smokey would be Mickey Walker.

 

True, but it still makes me think what could have happened if the two did fight. I think out of all Tommy's missed opponents that were available to him, Nunn and McCallum would have been the most interesting matchups due to their styles.

 

At 147 I would favor Robinson. Napoles, Griffith, Luis Rodriguez, Oscar, Pacquiao, Crawford are competitive and could be 50/50 fights.

At 160 I think there as argument to be made for Greb, LaMotta, Robinson, Jones Jr.

 

Ward won Olympic gold at 178, he's never making 160 in the 80's.

 

Yes, matching them up with great fighters who are that much bigger isn't really fair.