Who was the greatest fighter out of the fabulous 4?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by mirexxa, Nov 12, 2023.

  1. mirexxa

    mirexxa Heavyweight Champ Full Member

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  2. ikrasevic

    ikrasevic War for Souls Full Member

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    Rey Sugar Robinson
     
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  3. ThatOne

    ThatOne Boxing Addict Full Member

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    The one that whupped the other three.
     
  4. TipNom

    TipNom Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Either Leonard or Duran. I personally lean towards Duran
     
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  5. Vince Voltage

    Vince Voltage Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Hagler.

    Arguably only lost once.
    Only once knocked down, sloppily.
    Never close to being knocked out or even hurt.
    Didn’t play around with weight.
     
  6. Rubber Glove Sandwich

    Rubber Glove Sandwich 'Iranian flag green' reflecting pool Full Member

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    Ironically you can just as easily say that Leonard got "whupped" by the other three.

    he lost in Montreal
    The Hearns rematch is extremely controversial. You could make a reasonable scorecard that has Hearns winning.
    The Hagler fight is also controversial. You could also make a reasonable scorecard that has Hagler winning.
     
  7. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

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    Duran, Leanard, Hagler, Hearns. Got nothing really between Hagler and Hearns but whenever two fighters feel that close, one sending the other to the netherworld usually splits them when that has happened.
     
  8. My dinner with Conteh

    My dinner with Conteh Tending Bepi Ros' grave again Full Member

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    Duran. The only one of the four with multiple 'world' titles and a great championship reign (12 defences).
     
  9. ThatOne

    ThatOne Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Ray actually stopped two of the three and decisioned a third. He's the only one of the Four Kings who can say he whupped the other three.
     
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  10. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

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    I think it's reasonable to say that everyone who logs on to this forum knows that.
     
  11. Addie

    Addie Myung Woo Yuh! Full Member

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    Sorry Rubber, this is mighty disingenuous.

    ...But won the subsequent rematches, with the second fight taking place a mere 6 months after Montreal. The trilogy ended 2-1 in favour of Leonard.

    Perhaps, but the fight has no historical significance and tells us nothing regarding who was the better fighter. Both were well past their best and fighting up at Super Middleweight. It's an irrelevancy.

    Ray was a career Welterweight that hadn't fought a professional round of boxing in almost three years when he challenged Hagler for his Middleweight title. Hagler should be embarrassed that it was even competitive, never mind actually losing.

    It's a crying shame that fight fans spend more time debating who won what rounds rather than acknowledging Leonard's efforts for what it was - an all time great achievement in a boxing ring.

    Leonard, Duran, Hagler and Benitez were all fantastic fighters, but it just happens to be true that Ray Leonard 1-upped all of them in terms of their respective fights with one another.
     
  12. My dinner with Conteh

    My dinner with Conteh Tending Bepi Ros' grave again Full Member

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    No way!!! Wow. Every day's a school day on here.
     
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  13. My dinner with Conteh

    My dinner with Conteh Tending Bepi Ros' grave again Full Member

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    Surely their third fight is an irrelevancy, if, as you stated, the Hearns rematch is?
     
  14. Rubber Glove Sandwich

    Rubber Glove Sandwich 'Iranian flag green' reflecting pool Full Member

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    I personally do acknowledge Ray's efforts and consider him the second greatest out of the four. I was only pointing out the problem with what the other poster said.

    If Duran's win doesn't prevent the claim that "Leonard whupped them all" then I don't think Leonard's wins over Duran prevents the claim that he got whupped by all of them. Again I don't think that really hurts Leonard. I personally scored the Hearns rematch and Hagler fight against him yet still rank him higher than Hearns and Hagler. I was just pointing out that you can just as easily make the case that he lost to each of them.
     
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  15. ThatOne

    ThatOne Boxing Addict Full Member

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    THIS
     
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