Product Description

By the late 1970s, boxing had lapsed into a moribund state and interest in it was on the wane. In 1980, however, the sport was resuscitated by a riveting series of bouts involving an improbably dissimilar quartet: Sugar Ray Leonard, 'Marvelous' Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran. The 'Four Kings of the Ring' would fight one another nine times throughout the decade and win 16 world titles between them. Like Ali and Frazier, Dempsey and Tunney, Robinson and LaMotta, these four boxers brought out the best in each other, producing unprecedented multi-million-dollar gates along the way.Each of the nine bouts between the four men was memorable in its own way and at least two of them - Leonard-Hearns I in 1981 and Hagler-Hearns in 1985 - are commonly included on any list of the greatest fights of all time. The controversial outcome of another - the 1987 Leonard-Hagler fight - remains the subject of heated debates amongst fans to this day. Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran didn't set out to save boxing from itself in the post-Ali era, but somehow they managed to do so. In "Four Kings", award-winning journalist, George Kimball documents the remarkable effect they had on the sport and argues that we will never see their likes again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7794 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

About the Author
George Kimball is an award-winning sports writer and has covered boxing since the era of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. For the past decade, he has written a weekly America at Large column for the Irish Times.

Customer Reviews

(Forgive me) Four-King Enjoyable Read
I share the first reviewer's scoring for this book, although not his affection for the brutal end of the sport. Rather, the history of boxing (like that of its poorer cousin, pro wrestliing, and its travelling companion, the mafia) fascinates me for sociological reasons. I agree that the author has omitted to choose his preference, but he's hinted at it by listing them Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and I'd guess this matches the public perception, with SRL at the head due to his show-biz image and the rest in that sequence due to the results of high-profile contests among the four. I personally favour Hagler, who first caught my attention by thrashing the evidently-overrated A. Minter, and Hearns, who upset me late on by beating the quiety capable Dennis Andries. Each line of this book drips with detail, and you could argue that the author is simply thumbing through results in Ring magazine except that asides and qualifications confirm that he's "been there". While the switching back and forth between the four angle characters can be hard to keep up with -- and the incidental biogs of supporting characters even more so, so that I had to backtrack -- this amount of detail makes the book more "liveable". The author is also frank about the seamier side of the fight game, suicidally so with some attestations. A good read for anyone who enjoys evocative newsreel of this atmospheric sport. (Dave)

Excellent...
I like how honest the author is. He doesn't pander to Ray Leonard like many of authors and journalists tend to. That is not to say Ray Leonard's skill and ability are overlooked by the author. Hearns, Hagler, Duran and Leonard are all treated equally and unbiasedly by the author.
My only "complaint" (without wishing to sound like a 9 year old boy) was I would have liked more photographs of the pugilists.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the period of boxing, it really is excellently written, many insightful comments and completely without prejudice to any of the four legends.

A good companion piece to the Fabulous Four HBO video
A good read generally with revealing behind the scenes insights to the major fights of Hearns,Duran,Hagler and Leonard. I found the first chapter a bit of a chore and almost put the book back on the shelf - skipped to the second chapter and then was hooked.If you have the dvd of the fabulous four, remember the fights and wish to know more then this is a book worth reading. It certainly made me more appreciative of the warriors and gave good glimpses into their respective characters. My fantasy wish now is that someone would make a cinematic 'Tyson' , 'When were Kings' style documentary on these amazing fighters - must be plenty of archive footage out there. The story itself is enough to ensure the film would take zillions at the box office...