Tony Zale vs the Fab 4

Fair enough but zale never got in the ring with any of those three despite all three being ranked number 1 at one point. Burley in particular defeated Bolden and Soose who had their way with Zale pre war.

 

The only problem with a pre war Zale is he never actually beat anyone great. There were plenty of great middleweights out there...he didn’t fight any of them. Abrams was his best win, but he missed out on Burley, Moore, Bivins, Charles, Marshall, Booker etc....Nate Bolden, defeated him twice. Bolden lost to Burley. Billy Soose defeated Zale easily. Soose lost badly to a Burley and Bivins. Steve Mamakos nearly knocked out zale and was ahead on points after 12 rounds. Charles knocked out Mamakos in 1 round.

How good was a pre war zale? We will never know. He didn’t fight the best out there

 

Yes they were top flight fighters.

 

Hearns arguably caught Duran cold as well,...why didn't Hagler do likewise?

 

Carter, despite being inferior to Hagler in almost every way, did have one shot power...he was an up front, singular power puncher, whereas Hagler was not.
Plus, look at Griffith's career...that ko loss to Carter was an anomaly if there ever was one.

 

Hagler did not fight like Hearns, neither did he have his one punch power .

 

Hearns got ko'ed by Iran Barkley, it's very possible he could lose to a prime Tony Zale at middleweight