[mack]

The Fab Four- Boxing's last Golden Age gets the book it deserves
Richard O'Brien

It may be cruel to ask a contemporary boxing fan to read George Kimball's Four Kings, a little like handing a starving man a menu from a four-star restaurant that's gone out of business. The bounty once available only underscores how bare the cupboard is today. Kimball's breezy, detail-packed book chronicles the careers of Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas Hearns, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran, regal figures indeed who between them held 16 world titles and whose internecine battles during the 1980s defined their greatness. The book's subtitle calls those years the last great era of boxing. Nothing going on today challenges that.

Kimball, a longtime writer for the Boston Herald who was ringside for most of the fights described here, including all nine that his protagonists waged against each other, provides vivid, knowledgeable accounts of the action. (And there was plenty: During their careers each of the four beat at least one of the others and each of the four lost to at least one of the others.) He also draws clear, graceful portraits of four fighters whose styles in and out of the ring were so markedly different, and shows how interwoven their lives became.

The most engaging parts of the book, though, concern what went on between the main events—in the gyms, training camps, hotels and, not infrequently it seems, the barrooms—when the business of the sport was conducted. The colorful cast of characters includes such quintessential figures as Angelo Dundee, Emanuel Steward, Howard Cosell and Goody and Pat Petronelli, the Brockton, Mass., brothers who turned Hagler into a champion. Inevitably, Don King and Bob Arum strut and bluster their way through these pages as well, proving that some things haven't changed.

But so much has, of course. Kimball's four kings are no longer on their thrones. Thankfully, all four retired with their minds intact and their fortunes more or less so. (The profligate Duran spent as he fought, with glorious abandon.) It is the sport that is hurting.

[tommiecoughlin]

mack....Wilfredo Benitez was a pretty good welterweight during the early part of that time frame as well....back then they used to show a lot of fights on regular TV and I remember seeing a fight between Benitez and I think Duran or it might have been Pipino Cuevaz.... Benitez was ahead on points and got a severe head butt from Duran and his forehead opened up in a flood of blood.

I think that was it for Benitez and he was never the same...1979 or so.

Also remember going to the Rosemont Horizon to see the first Leonard/Duran fight on a big screen....20 bucks which was a lot of bread back then....and the place was packed.

It truly was the golden age of boxing.

[mack]

Yes, Benitez was right up there too for a while. Maybe you're thinking of the fight he had with Sugar Ray Leonard in 1979, that's where he got the head butt (6th round). The ref stopped that fight with seconds left in the 15th round in favor of Leonard. I remember seeing that fight (but had to check the internet for some of this info.) It was kind of a fight where they were mirror images of each other... lots of defense. I remember being a little let down watching it, I thought it was going to be a real doozy but it wasn't near as good a fight as all that.

Benitez actually beat Duran when they fought in 1982 in Las Vegas, a unanimous decision. Benitez was only 18 when he won his first title against Antonio Cervantes! (Benitez was ranked when he was 15!).

I read that Benitez is living back in Puerto Rico now, lives with his mom, subsists on a $200 a month pension from the World Boxing Council... and suffers from "an incurable, degenerative brain condition many believe was caused by the blows he took in the ring."

Plus since 2004 he's had diabetes. The fight 'game' is a very tough way to make a buck... unless you're a promoter, manager, etc. But for the fighters themselves... very, very tough on them over the long haul and they are easily exploited and cheated by all the sharks that surround them.

[Bilbobaggins]

what???????
no Alan 'I ain't ever gonna let a black man beat me' Minter?

[soi 2]

Good review mack. I like sporting books. Just had a look on ebay.co.uk and this is going for about £12 brand new including postage. I enjoy watching boxing but don't claim to know much about it. Did a youtube search on Wilfredo Benitez who I must admit I'd never heard of. Kin'ell he was a fighter.