No era of the ‘Four Kings’

By Joe Scalzo

The Pavlik- Hopkins era is not like George Kimball’s new book.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Saturday afternoon in Atlantic City, more than 21 years after Marvin Hagler lost a controversial split decision to Sugar Ray Leonard in Las Vegas, promoter Bob Arum and broadcaster Larry Merchant got into a passionate discussion about the fight.

“Hagler was so envious about Leonard that I think, looking back, that he prepared for a fight that was in his own worst interest,” said Merchant. “He was going to show that he could out-box the boxing master. ...

“He let Leonard, as I said at the time, steal the fight fair and square.”

Arum, hearing that, winced.

“Fair and square what, except for the decision,” said Arum. “Hagler won that fight.”

Arum, who promoted many of Hagler’s top fights, accused all but one of the three judges in that bout of bias. Arum also admitted Hagler fought the wrong fight and said his fighter didn’t even want the fight.

Twenty years later, that decision — and that era of boxing — still resonates with promoters, fighters and fans. Saturday’s discussion was centered around George Kimball’s new book, “Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing.”

The other subjects are Thomas “Hitman” Hearns and Roberto Duran.

“This is sort of like arguing religion,” said Kimball, after listening to the debate over the Hagler-Leonard bout. “You don’t want to get into a discussion over who won the Hagler-Leonard fight. Twenty years later, half the people think one thing and half think the other thing. They’re fairly convinced in their view.

“It’s the surest way to get people [ticked] off.”

Kimball, a former sports columnist for the Boston Herald, had a ringside seat at all nine bouts between the four fighters in the 1980s. Although the heavyweights usually dominated boxing, most of the “Four Kings” fights took place at middleweight, capturing the public’s imagination.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever see an era like that again,” said Hall of Fame trainer Emanuel Steward, who trained Hearns. “It was an unusual time in history. So many great fighters in the same weight division during their prime years.”

The discussion was held in front of a backdrop promoting Saturday’s light heavyweight bout between Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins. The 17-year age difference between the fighters underscored the rarity of having four top fighters face off in their primes at the same time.

“These guys are meeting at different points of their careers,” said Merchant, who works for HBO. “The ‘Four Kings’ were all in their primes or close to their primes.”

Kimball said Pavlik’s career brought to mind Hearns’ status in the late 1970s. Both were relatively unknown outside boxing until a handful of fights shot them into the spotlight.

“Pavlik not only wasn’t supposed to win the middleweight title, he wasn’t supposed to beat [Edison] Miranda,” said Kimball. “It’s been a very quick rise. He’s gone from being known by very few people to being the dominant middleweight of his era.”

Hopkins’ rise wasn’t as quick. Although he held the middleweight title for 10 years, it wasn’t until he defeated Felix Trinidad in 2001 that he finally earned the respect he was desperately seeking.

“There are certain similarities between Hopkins and Hagler,” said Kimball. “Even though Hagler had the title, he was in a constant struggle for respect.”

The four panelists agreed it’s unlikely boxing will see another era like that. (They also made the point that, at the time, nobody expected it to be the last great era in boxing.) Arum said boxing’s sanctioning bodies are partly to blame.

“In those days there were only two organizations and if they made a fighter take a mandatory fight, it was against a really good opponent,” he said. “Now these guys who are champions have to fight mandatories against jokes. Because network television catered to the boxers, they had to put these nonsense fights on television.

“That diminished the product.”

There will always be arguments over which era was the best, and whether fighters of a certain era would beat fighters from another era, Kimball said. He wrote the book not because he necessarily thought it was boxing’s greatest era, but because it was his era.

“You could argue that Kelly Pavlik and Bernard Hopkins are fighters today that could have held their own,” said Kimball. “I think you’re gonna have people who are loyal to their own generation.

“These happen to be the ones [fights and fighters] I knew best. And I don’t think I even knew then how special it was.”

X“Four Kings” retails for $22.95 and is available at most major bookstores.