The only fighter Hagler failed to intimidate in his career was Duran, and only one other guy in Hagler's career went a full fifteen rounds with Marvin. Roberto Duran and Vito Antefurmo have the distinction of being the only two of the era to take Hagler that deep into a fight, and if going a full fifteen rounds is "taking it light", believe me there is no way to "take it easy" against a guy like Duran. The explosive right hand of Thomas Hearns and the speed of Ray Leonard make for good press, but when it comes to gritty toughness and mental tenacity, few in history could equal either Duran or Hagler. When you take into account Roberto Duran was a lightweight (135 lbs) at his peak, and Hearns fought and won light heavyweight and cruiser weight titles, Duran's true greatness is put in perspective. With the exception of Sugar Ray Robinson, Marvin Hagler is arguably the second best middleweight of all time, and Duran more than held his own with Marvin. Only Duran beat Ray Leonard at Ray's peak, both Hearns and Hagler fell short of that accomplishment.

Historically I rate Roberto Duran as the best 135 lb. fighter of all time, the best lightweight in history, one of boxing history's ultra elite.

I put Marvin Hagler at 160 lbs. behind only Sugar Ray Robinson as the second greatest Middleweight of all time, and also as historically great as any in history.

Thomas Hearns was in my opinion the single greatest puncher in Welterweight history, nobody not even Ray Robinson or Henry Armstrong punched harder at 147 lbs than Tommy. Also one of history's greatest champions and another ultra elite fighter with no historical equals.

Sugar Ray Leonard beat all three of these spectacular, historically elite fighters and emerged as the greatest of the four greats, proving that in boxing during that particular era his skill and speed beat the equally skilled power, toughness both Hagler and Hearns and was enough to take two out of three against Duran. In truth I though both Tommy in the second Leonard fight and Hagler did enough to beat Ray, but historically only Duran owns a victory over Ray at Ray's best.

We will never see there like again, nobody today, including Floyd or Manny are even close to their equals.

1. All of those fights were top contenders & rising stars in the division fighting each other except for Duran-Hagler because it was Durans first fight in middleweight so he wasn't a great or a top contender at middleweight] while Hagler was the established king in the division.



2. No. Duran proved to be a formidable middleweight by beating men like Barcklay.



3. Duran, Leonard, Hagler, Hearns.

The Ring, The International Boxing Research Organization and ESPN all rank them in this order. Why?

It is easy to forget that Duran came into the first Leonard fight with a record of 72 wins 1 loss against the best at lightweight.

Duran made his mark from lightweight to middleweight.

Leonard made his mark at welterweight to middleweight.

Hagler made his mark in middleweight.

Hearns was great but never the best in any division in his day except 147lbs.

1) Hagler / Duran was not a great fight. You have a former Lightweight champ challenging one of the all time great Middleweight Champions of all time. The other fighters were closer in natural weight.

2) No. he just respected him for the great fighter he was.

3) Leonard, Duran, Hagler, Hearns

The other fights was more epic and entertaining. When hagler fought duran. It was not a good performance by him because he was not active enough. He could have done better. I would rank the fag 4 as all time greats in the top 25.

BQ1----Hagler was expected to crush Duran as it was Duran's first sally at the middleweights and although he was coming off three impressive wins at jr. middleweights over Jimmy Batten (UD), Pipino Cuevas (TKO) and Davey Moore (TKO) where he even won the WBC title, those did not detract from his successive earlier points losses to Wilfred Benitez and journeyman Kirkland Laing. I myself was disappointed with Hagler's showing. Could have been one of his rare off nights.

BQ2--- As i said, it could have been one of his rare off nights. I did not see the fire in his eyes.

BQ3----Leonard in my book is among the top five all time greats in the welterweights and junior middleweights. Hagler is my number three among the all-time middleweight greats. Duran is my top one among the all-time greats at lightweights while Hearns is my top one among the all-time junior middleweight greats and among the top 10 welterweights all-time.

BQ1. WHy is it that LEonard vs Duran, LEonard vs HEarns, Leonard vs Hagler, even Duran vs HEarns were the most frequently talked about but never HAgler vs DUran?

BQ2. Do you think Hagler just took it light against Duran?

BQ3. How would you rank the fab four in the all time greats?