Mike Tyson has assessed Terence Crawford’s chances against the Four Kings, determining how successful ‘Bud’ would have been in such a competitive era.
With Crawford calling time on his decorated career last December, after becoming a five-division world champion, many have wondered how he would fare against the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran.
During this iconic era, all four of champions competed at the highest level for a number of years, with Leonard, Hearns and Duran campaigning across multiple weight classes.
Hagler, meanwhile, remained at 160lbs for the entirety of his career, making 12 successful world title defences before losing a controversial split decision to Leonard in 1987.
During his near seven-year reign, though, ‘Marvelous’ scored a unanimous decision victory over Duran and stopped Hearns in the third round of a firefight which, for many, stands alone as the greatest of all time.
As for the other Four Kings, who also campaigned at welter, super-welter and super-middleweight, it could be said that their careers are closer aligned with that of Crawford’s.
Regardless of the weight class, though, former heavyweight champion Tyson has told Ring Magazine that Crawford would have shone brightly in the Four Kings era.
“That would have been some beautiful fighting. There were people back then that weren’t as good as [Crawford] was, [but they] were champions.
“He would’ve done good [in that era].”
Despite never previously fighting at super-middleweight, Crawford was able to dethrone Canelo Alvarez and become a three-division undisputed champion last September.
His greatest success, however, arguably came at 147lbs, where the American halted seven opponents before engineering a destructive ninth-round finish over Errol Spence Jr in 2023.