Book review: Four Kings
By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com
(in all their glory, The Four Kings: Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran)
With the state of the economy, Boneman’s Christmas and birthday were pretty light. But one present did stand out: The Four Kings by George Kimball.
The book chronicles the four kings of the 1980s: Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Tommy Hearns and Marvin Hagler.
Not old enough to remember any of the fights live, this was a fantastic look at how things were and describing the atmosphere.
The quartet of greatness fought each other nine times. Leonard was 2-1 vs. Duran, 1-0 vs. Hagler and 1-0-1 vs. Hearns. Duran was 1-2 vs. SRL, 0-1 vs. Hearns and 0-1 vs. Hagler. Hearns was 0-1-1 vs. Leonard, 1-0 vs. Duran and 0-1 vs. Hagler. Hagler was 1-0 vs. Duran, 1-0 vs. Hearns and 0-1 vs. Leonard.
Most of the book was written from Kimball’s notes from the fights, and he does a great job of giving you enough backstory without hitting you over the head with minute details.
Think about what some of these confrontations led to: arguably the greatest welterweight championship fight ever in 1981 when Leonard knocked out Hearns in the 14th round.
The infamous “No mas” fight where Duran quit vs. Leonard in the eighth round of their second bout. Duran had no idea he would be looked upon as a coward. His mindset was sort of like ”this guy won’t fight, so I’m getting out of here.”
Hagler and Hearns in 1985, which may be the most ferocious eight minutes of fighting ever seen. If any fight occurred like that today, boxing would work its way back up the sports pages. For as great as the first round is (and will always be), the second round could win Round of the Year in any other fight. Hagler finished the deal in the third round.
And of course, a little controversy with Leonard defeating Hagler in 1987. That may have been the best written piece because Kimball did a great job of showing the confidence/arrogance of Hagler going into the fight. He gave in to a lot of Leonard demands (only being 12 rounds instead of 15, a bigger ring, etc). You also got to see the gamesmanship of Leonard and how great he was at getting things to go his way.
What I found most interesting was the dynamic between Leonard and Duran. In fact, Duran may be the most polarizing figure in the book. That’s probably because he’s the only non-American, so I don’t know as much about Duran. But that definitely has my interest in maybe his biography.
Not really much else to say about the book. It’s a great account of the emotion and intensity that existed in all the fights. And if you don’t know what happened in the fights, it’s another great reason to pick it up.
It’s about 300 pages, and at the end, it has the ring record of all four fighters, so that’s a treat, too.
Will there ever be another quartet like that? Thought there might be a chance with any combination of Shane Mosley/Oscar de La Hoya/Floyd Mayweather/Miguel Cotto/Antonio Margarito/Tito Trinidad/Zab Judah/ who else? Anyway, there was a chance for a golden age, but it didn’t really materialize.
***
Absolutely disgusted with what happened to Sergio Martinez on Saturday. Thought maybe a couple of days after that I wouldn’t be so fired up, but I am.
Martinez landed a crushing left hook in the final seconds of round seven against Kermit Cintron. Cintron thought it was a headbutt and took a knee. Referee Frank Santore began counting, and Cintron was still complaining.
Cintron was rising up at the count of 10, but too late, I says. Fights have been called off for less. Santore initially, I thought, called off the fight. But after about a three minute delay/confusion, Santore ruled the fight must go on.
Huh?
In the end, I had Martinez comfortably ahead and all he got was a majority draw. 116-110 for Martinez and two 113-113 cards. Oy.
***
Another UFC event is just around the corner. UFC 95 is Saturday night on Spike from London. The main event is Joe Stevenson vs. Diego Sanchez.
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your take on the cintron/martinez fight is interesting. i was there and cintron clearly beat the 10 count. the referee make a mistake by making the gesture he did and corrected that. i feel he did the proper thing since cintron was indeed up before the 10 count. as for the fight itself, martinez was the quicker guy but other than the one punch where cintron walked into it (the knock down) he didn’t do much else to claim this what you call lopsided victory. watch the fight with the volume down. the hbo guys are clueless especially the round by round “expert”. cintron won the first 4 rounds. the hbo brass have watched the fight and agree. so, cintron is up 4-0 after 4 and martinez is digging himself out of a hole. he wins the middle rounds and takes a 10-8 in round 7 but…loses a point later. you can argue that but you can’t blame cintron for that. at the fight I thought this was very close with cntron possibly down a round going into the 12th. after watching on tv several times i had cintron up going into the 12th and winning the 11th a key round. two of the judges had cintron up after 10 rounds. if so they must have had him losing 11 and 12 with the point making one a tie. so they had him losing round 11. watching it over i think he won that round. just my opinion but i feel a lot of people must be making their judgements based on what was said by the hbo guys not from what actually happenend. cintron hit harder and controlled most rounds for the first 2 minutes. martinez was quicker and flashier but other than the left in round 7 didnt do much to cintron. all in all i say the draw is fair
Jacques – Appreciate the insight. Still think the fight should have been stopped because that huge delay negated any advantage Martinez rightfully deserved from the knockdown. It’s a crushing left hand, talk about punching through a target. Whether Cintron got up at 9-9 1/2 doesn’t mean much to me, he should have been up at 7 or 8 (at the latest) to not leave it in the ref’s hands like that. As for the draw, well, guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one. Though I will admit that I’m more a fan of cute boxing and have always enjoyed the work of the Pernell Whitakers of the world.
- Bone