Duran Leonard Hearns Hagler

[Poet682006]

You're right.
I've seen some Duran footage a few weeks ago and was quite impressed. But the thing is his record shows him fighting weak competition alot. That's what probably made me think less of him.

But even if I rank him last of the fab four that doesn't mean I say he's bad. Because they're all still incredible.

My current list looks like this:
1. SRL (he had it all: power/speed/skills)
2. Hagler / Hearns / Duran (I seriously don't know how to rank these men)

It could be that I'm overrating SRL because he was very close to losing vs Hearns (twice) and vs Hagler. But none the less he fought the best of the best and won. Kinda like his idol, Muhammad Ali.

I have 30+ Duran fights in my collection and he is indeed very impressive. In his prime Duran fought Ken Buchanan, Esteban DeJesus 3 times, Ray Lampkin, Edwin Viruet 2 times, Saul Mambay, and Hiroshi Kobayashi: Not as weak a lineup as people make out. Past-prime he fought Carlos Palomino, Ray Leonard 3 times, Wilfred Benitez, Pipino Cuevas, Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, and Iran Barkley: That's a murderers row lineup and was faced past-prime and over his best weight.

My rankings of:

1. Duran - Prime: Lightweight
2. Leonard - Prime: Welterweight
3. Hagler - Prime: Middleweight
4. Hearn - Prime: Welterweight
5. Benitez - Prime: Welterweight

is based on the fact that these fighters were in their primes at 3 different weight classes so I had to consider them on a pound-4-pound basis. If I based them solely on when they actually overlapped weight classes the list may look a little different:

Welterweight

1. Leonard
2. Hearns
3. Benitez
4. Duran
Hagler didn't fight at Welterweight.

Middleweight

1. Hagler
2. Leonard
3. Hearns
4. Duran
Benitez didn't fight at Middleweight (that I know of).

Poet

[JAB5239]

For my money its,

Duran
Leonard
Hagler
Hearns

I take into account longevity, ability to adapt, accomplishment and toughness.

[Hearnsz]

Btw; alot of you probably already know this but it's handy for everyone to know that,

1980 - Duran Desicion15 Leonard

1980 - Leonard TKO8 Duran (no mas)

1981 - Leonard TKO14 Hearns (Hearns was winning on cards)

1983 - Hagler Decision15 Duran

1984 - Hearns TKO2 Duran

1985 - Hagler TKO3 Hearns (I personally think that Hagler got in a lucky shot, and that otherwise it might have been a draw)

1987 - Leonard Decision12 Hagler (Many people think Hagler was robbed)

1989 - Hearns Draw12 Leonard

1989 - Leonard Decision12 Duran

Duran only won one fight in the fab4 collection. But the way his record went down quickly after his first loss to Leonard kinda explains him just passing his prime and fighting better oposition. Add to that that Duran was a lightweight. None the less he fought champions until 2001, being 50 years old!

As for Hearns it seems to me that for every loss of him there is a reasonable excuse.

[mr ko]

I watched a video called The Fabolous Four about 15 years ago. They showed highlights of all the fight between the four guys except Leonard-Duran II. I must've rented this video about 5 times. Has anybody else ever seen it?

[Panamaniac]

I watched a video called The Fabolous Four about 15 years ago. They showed highlights of all the fight between the four guys except Leonard-Duran II. I must've rented this video about 5 times. Has anybody else ever seen it?

Leonard/Duran II is on Youtube.