Floyd Mayweather considers himself the greatest fighter of all time, but where does he rank the likes of Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns?
Those four names, collectively known as boxing’s Four Kings, defined a golden era in the sport where the best fought the best. Leonard has the best record against his rivals as the only man to beat all three, though he did lose to Duran in their first meeting.
That was Duran’s one win from the round robin – he was defeated twice by Leonard to complete their trilogy, lost a unanimous decision to Hagler and was stopped by Hearns in two rounds. The Panamanian, however, was the naturally smaller man, moving up in weight to make the fights happen after his most dominant stint coming at lightweight.
It is that outside factor that leads Mayweather to put ‘Hands of Stone’ as his third best fighter of all time, behind himself and Pernell Whittaker. In that top five list, recited on the Fat Joe podcast, the American overlooked the rest of the Kings.
“I’mma go Roberto Duran … Duran was arguably the greatest lightweight ever and became one of the ‘four kings’ at welterweight and middleweight.”
Duran fought 119 times during a career defined by incredible grit and scary power. He became champion in four divisions and is widely considered one of the best of all time.
Following a near-fatal car crash in 2002, the Panamanian icon retired from the sport at the age of 50. He has said that he would have fought on otherwise.
