"Sugar" Ray Leonard, "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns, and Roberto Duran all formed the pantheon of boxing greats during the late 1970s and early 1980s—before the pay-per-view model, when prize fights were telecast on network television and still captured the nation's attention. Championship bouts during this era were replete with revenge and fury, often pitting one of these storied fighters against another. From training camps to locker rooms, veteran sports journalist George Kimball was there to cover every body shot, uppercut, and TKO. Inside stories, including recent interviews of each of the boxers, are full of drama, sacrifice, fear, and pain, resulting in a fast-paced, blow-by-blow account of four extraordinary adversaries and a remarkable boxing epoch.
About the Author
George Kimball is the author of FOUR KINGS: Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, Duran and the Last Great Era of Boxing, and of MANLY ART, a boxing collection (McBooks Press, 2011). On June 1, 2010 Fore Angels Press published THE FIGHTER STILL REMAINS, which he co-edited with John Schulian. A past winner of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism, he lives in New York City, and writes the weekly "America at Large" column for The Irish Times. Kimball (b. 1943) also co-edited the forthcoming anthology AT THE FIGHTS: American Writers on Boxing (with John Schulian) for the Library of America. A career newspaperman, Kimball spent ten years as sports editor of The Boston Phoenix and 25 more as a sports columnist for the Boston Herald.