Boxing Legends That Never Die
Isn’t it funny.
On a base level, it would seem that human beings have always needed a hero in life. Of some description. People that transcend culture regardless of time or irrelevant ways of the world.
Muhammad Ali in boxing springs to mind.
Some might call it false idols. Others simply taking inspiration for the purposes of good.
Or, men simply acknowledging that they are standing on the shoulders of giants from years gone by.
Boxing is a sport that can conjure up this magic and infallible ideal more so than perhaps anywhere.
That idea, you know, that people need a good guy to come and save them. Integrity vs deception. Loyalty vs snake. Fight vs flight. Winning vs losing. Good vs evil.
Boxing has always had characters in this regard. Some bloody good ones too.
The so called good cop-bad cop story line, maybe.
One thinks of the Lennox Lewis vs Mike Tyson story line in 2002 at the time.
But in all of the sport’s history, there was perhaps no better four heroes, for a time, than this era and these four boxers:
If you are a boxing fan, the above looks like it will be worth a watch. To say the least.
Four different characters but perhaps equal in their heroicness in how they fought in the ring.
Champions outside the ring as well. Heroes in what they stood for as time went on, and their characters developed.
With Marvin Hagler’s passing recently, this is perhaps an apt time for such a documentary.
Hagler and Hearns shared what is still regarded as the best ever fight in a boxing ring to this day.
Leonard and Duran also sharing an infamous bout in particular — with Duran’s famed ‘No Mas’.
People always mention that in that era the best consistently fought the best but it is always hard to compare different eras in fairness. It isn’t always true either that the best don’t fight the best today.
Today’s times are seeing boxing return to mainstream media in its own right. That’s happening for a reason.
The numbers speak for themselves with the interest in the sport again. Largely that has been driven by the compelling action in the ring.
Even over the past year and a bit. Taking into account the adverse world situation.
Some of the young boxers in the sport have delivered spectacular displays in this time. Growing as fighters and improving all the time. Working on their weaknesses and developing their strengths quietly behind the scenes.
Then delivering in the ring. Berlanga for instance. Davis, Ennis, Lopez and so many others as well.
Done so even without fans in attendance.
The quality of matchmaking has increased noticeably too.
The standard of fights is getting better all the time in boxing. Certainly, certainly compared to what it used to be.
Not many talk about this however.
Obviously, to make the really big fights more, fans in attendance are needed — but as the summer and later in the year develops — expect to see more of this accordingly. As we’ve mentioned time and time on here again, reality is on the way. As you know, we don’t get it wrong.
It’s about the fights at the end of the day and the four boxers above embodied this concept in an era for the sport like no other.
Some boxing heroes never die.
This era of boxing can produce new ones.
No matter the detractors of the sport, boxing always has done that.
And it always will.
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