YouTube Gold: Leonard vs. Hagler
Almost a half-century later, this Leonard-Hearns matchup still stuns with its ferocity and style.
American boxers Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns in action during their welterweight championship fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, September 16th 1981. (Photo by UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) | Getty Images Boxing is not what it once was, but for much of the 20th century, it was a huge draw. Fighters from Joe Louis, to Rocky Marciano, then later, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and George Foreman, came across as warriors in the ring.
Ali was widely acknowledged as the greatest, including by himself, and his fights with Frazier and Foreman are legendary. In the 1980s, though, four smaller, lighter fighters emerged. Known as the Four Kings – Robert Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, and Sugar Ray Leonard – had a series of fights that are just as legendary.
In this fight from 1981, Hearns and Leonard had a fight that people still marvel over. Hearns was taller, leaner, but punched harder. For his part, Leonard was smaller, but blindingly quick.
No one, with the possible exception of Ali, threw better, faster combinations than did Leonard. Yet for much of this fight, Leonard was cautious with Hearns, and understandably so: Hearns earned his nickname the hard way. He was a very dangerous puncher.