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Four Kings: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing
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Product Description
Their names are legendary: Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hit Man Hearns, and Roberto Duran. They were exceptional boxers with unique combinations of power and speed. In another era, with few rivals of equal caliber, each might have held championship belts for years on end. But as it was, they matured together in the 1980s and fought each other as middleweights. With unforgettable courage and skill, they ruled the ring and ushered in the last Golden Age of boxing.
George Kimball takes an authoritative look at the rivalries that fueled this great era in sports history. Veteran sports journalist Kimball reported on every one of the Four Kings’ nine internecine fights. Here his eye-witness coverage is enhanced by recent interviews with each of the boxers and other seasoned analysts. The result is a fast-paced, blow-by-blow account of four extraordinary adversaries and a remarkable boxing epoch.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #244911 in Books
- Published on: 2008-10-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9781590131626
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Consider the state of boxing today. Not easy, is it? It’s hard to name a prominent fighter. The audience that once gravitated to the sweet science has been diffused among an alphabet soup of competing organizations presenting overhyped, pay-per-view events. It wasn’t always so. Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, and Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns were all household names in the 1980s, held multiple titles in or around the middleweight division, and fought among themselves nine times. Kimball, a columnist for the Boston Herald for 25 years, covered all nine of those epic confrontations among 400 other title bouts. He relies on his notes and recollections of the fights as well as fresh interviews with the fighters, their handlers, their managers, and others of note. His accounts of the fights are riveting blow-by-blows, the “big event” context is palpably rendered, and each of the fighters re-emerges from the mists of memory as colorful and compelling as ever. Boxing fans with a little gray in their hair—paraphrasing Pete Hamill’s foreword—will savor Kimball’s work. Younger fans? If they find their way to the book, maybe they’ll understand the difference between greatness and hype. --Wes Lukowsky
Review
Chosen for Booklist Online's 10 Top Sports Books of 2009
"Kimball's accounts of the fights are riveting blow-by-blows, the 'big event' context is palpably rendered, and each of the fighters reemerges from the mists of memory as colorful and compelling as ever. Boxing fans . . . will savor Kimball's work." —Booklist
"Boxing's last Golden Age gets the book it deserves. Kimball's breezy, detail-packed book . . . provides vivid, knowledgeable accounts of the action. He also draws clear colorful portraits of [the] four fighters." —Sports Illustrated
"George Kimball is one of America's best-loved sportswriters and Four Kings shows why. With skill, grace, and humor, he brings to life a remarkable era and four uniquely gifted athletes." —Jeremy Schaap, ESPN reporter and author, Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History
"Four Kings is a thriller and George Kimball a prince among sportswriters . . . an epic poem of a book, a book that lifts the heart." —Frank McCourt, author, Angela's Ashes, 'Tis, and Teacher Man
"Kimball writes with insight and humor. The bigger the fight, the better he tells it." —Thomas Hauser, author, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times
"A a terrific book. Kimball was there and never missed a moment of it. His account of the fighters, the fights and the colorful supporting players is rich with insights and details." —Vincent Patrick, author, The Pope of Greenwich Village and Family Business
About the Author
George Kimball spent a quarter-century as a sports columnist for the Boston Herald. In 1985 he was awarded the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism from the Boxing Writers Association of America. He was an eyewitness to all nine of the bouts between the Four Kings and has covered nearly 400 world title fights in a four-decade sports writing career.
Customer Reviews
Fantastic Book covering a Fantastic Era in Boxing
George Kimball absolutely nails one out of the park with this well researched book covering a time in Boxing that he lived through covering the sport.
Each fighter: Duran, Leonard, Hagler and Hearns are each given equal coverage and there is absolutely no bias or spin from the author. Given Kimball covered the Sport in Boston for the Herald, Hagler's backyard, this is VERY refreshing.
The book does what you hope it does, cover the nine fights that each of these four greats had against each other, but George adds so much more insight and background and PERSONAL perspective about the fighters and fights, that you are never bored or disappointed.
All Sports books should strive to be this great.
George Kimball has set the bar very high here. I don't anticipate it being reached any time soon.
Hawk
Workmanlike effort to cover boxing's last golden age
"Four Kings" is a solid effort by veteran Boston Herald sportswriter George Kimball in his efforts to describe the nine fights fought against each other by Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Tommy Hearns, and Roberto Duran in the 1980's. Younger sports fan may not recall that boxing was once considered the fifth major sport, since today it is very much a fringe affair not covered at all by most daily papers.
Kimball attended all nine of the fights and works hard to bring the reader back to these important and usually memorable bouts. For anyone who watched all the fights, or at least some of them, "Four Kings" brings back some wonderful memories.
As a Boston sports fan, I can recall when Hagler was as important to the local sports scene as the Bruins or Patriots. He was massively popular in the late 70's and 80's, his heyday. And his greatness is given full credit herein.
So read this book if you recall these fights, as Kimball does a solid job recapturing a lost era.
One note: a free pass is given the heinous boxing promoter Bob Arum. Apparently, Kimball and he are on good relations. Arum is almost as bad as Don King, and in my view is almost as responsible for boxing's demise.
Memories
If you are no longer interested in boxing; If Don King's world of Pay Per View and the lack of personalities in the sport have killed your interest; Please allow George Kimball to take you back to another era. If you're under 40 you probably won't believe me. Once upon a time, boxing was bigger than football.
