For those who were around, how popular were the big four in the 80's? Specifically in English speaking countries in US, UK, Canada, Australia etc. Did non die hard boxing fans know who Hagler, SRL, Duran and Hearns were? Were casual fans were more common? Were these guys mentioned in pop culture?
At least in the United States they were pretty much the center of attention in boxing. The spotlight wasn’t really on the heavyweight division until Tyson came along
The biggest, most popular boxers. Before the internet came along, everybody knew who the middleweight champion was. Everybody knew what happened in Hearns-Duran.. and Leonard-Hagler.
Sugar Ray Leonard had advertisement contracts with Franklyn, Golden Skillet, 7-UP and Ford (the latter, along with Larry Holmes) and a working contract with HBO. Roberto Duran had contracts with 7-Up (along with Leonard) and Cerveza Balboa in Panama, where he was a national hero. Hagler had an advertisement contract with Pizza Hut. Hearns, I dont know but I imagine he had some advertisement contracts in the Midwest. Add Wilfred Benitez to the mix and he was a national hero in Puerto Rico. The were mainstream celebrities internationally. And, let's not forget, people like Joan Collins, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Michael FOx, Michael Jackson, Sylvester Stallone, and Michael Jordan were going to see them fight.
Yep, they were relatively hugely popular. As someone already said, a LOT of non-boxing fans knew their names at the least, and many could also tell you a thing or two about them. And with very well known Mikey also tearing it up at HW, it was very good times for boxing.
When I was coming up in high school in the early 1980s, most everyone at my school knew who Leonard, Duran and Hearns were —- a shocking number of people knew who Hears was even before he fought Leonard and most everyone had an opinion on the big fights, and Hearns was the popular pick among people I knew to beat Leonard. Hagler’s recognition was hard-earned and came a bit later. He was a blue-collar guy who signed a deal with HBO, and in those days not a ton of households had HBO … sometimes you’d go to friends’ house who had it to catch the big ones (the PPVs usually aired a week after on HBO). Marvin earned his spotlight with consistency and then after he beat Hearns in that absolute war he became more of a household name … at least where I lived.
When they fought they were front page news and it was a pretty big event especially when they fought one another.