Ranking the Top 10 Boxers of the 1980s

Boxing in the 1980s was marked by one of the greatest four-way rivalries of all time. Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Thomas "The Hitman" Hearns and "Hands of Stone" Roberto Duran all staged major fights against each other between welterweight and middleweight.

In the heavyweight division, it was the tale of two great champions, with Larry Holmes ruling the first half of the decade and Mike Tyson dominating the second half like few champs in history.

The light heavyweight division has rarely been better than it was in the early 1980s, and Michael Spinks stood tall at the top of the pack.

Boxing was still a major sport on network television. It was the last gasp of a golden age, and these were the 10 best.

Honorable Mentions

Azumah Nelson: Arguably the greatest boxer ever from Africa.

Mike McCallum: The "Body Snatcher" was a dominant force at light middleweight.  

Khaosai Galaxy: A highly entertaining sensation at super flyweight; never fought outside of Asia. 

Wilfred Benitez: Youngest ever world champion and a three-division world champ by 22, also a record.

Wilfredo Gomez: Most of his dominant run was in the 1970s, but he held titles in three divisions in the 1980s.

Dwight Muhammad Qawi: A world champion at light heavyweight and cruiserweight. Involved in two of the decade's best fights against Michael Spinks and Evander Holyfield. 

Salvador Sanchez: Perhaps boxing's most tragic "What if?" Died in 1982 at 23 as a dominant featherweight champion. 

10. Evander Holyfield

During the 1990s, Evander Holyfield held the heavyweight title on multiple occasions. During one of the greatest decades in heavyweight history, Holyfield was one of the division's top stars. 

But before that decade even began, he had already established himself as the greatest cruiserweight of all time. A member of the famed 1984 Olympic team, he turned professional later that same year. In 1986, he beat Dwight Muhammad Qawi in a 15-round war to capture the WBA title in just his 12th fight. 

Over the next two years he added the IBF and WBC belts to become an undisputed champion. By 1988 he was campaigning as a heavyweight and had beaten top contenders like Alex Stewart, Pinklon Thomas and Michael Dokes by the end of the decade. 

9. Julio Cesar Chavez

Most of Julio Cesar Chavez's biggest fights happened in the 1990s. But by the end of the 1980s, he had already established himself as a legendary star. 

Chavez captured the WBC light welterweight title in 1984 and ended the decade an undefeated champion. I sometimes see Chavez's list of opponents denigrated. It's true that it is padded with some lower-level fighters, but Chavez fought multiple times a year.

He also defended against top contenders like Edwin Rosario, Roger Mayweather, Rafael Limon and Jose Luis Ramirez. In the second half of the decade, he emerged as a major name in the sport.  

8. Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes captured the vacant heavyweight title via split decision against Ken Norton in 1978 in one of the best fights in the history of the division. He reigned as champion until the middle of the 1980s.

Holmes ruled over a mediocre class of heavyweights, and after the glory days of the 1970s, his time as champion could not help but lack some luster. As a result, he is an almost criminally underrated champion.

Holmes had outstanding lateral movement, perhaps the best jab in the history of the heavyweights and a great chin.

Holmes dropped the belt to Michael Spinks in 1985 and lost a rematch in 1986. I think he deserved to win both fights and that the rematch is one of the worst decisions of all time.

Disgusted, Holmes walked away from the sport for nearly two years. In 1988 he returned to face rising superstar Mike Tyson and was hammered in four rounds.

Remarkably, Holmes made a comeback in the 1990s and had one of the best over-40 careers in boxing history.

7. Roberto Duran

During the 1970s, Roberto Duran ruled the lightweight division and established himself as one of the best ever at 135 pounds. You can make a very strong argument that he was the best pound-for-pound fighter of that decade.

It's also impossible to imagine the 1980s without him. Hands of Stone started the decade in 1980 by giving Ray Leonard his first loss and capturing the welterweight title. Duran ended the decade in 1989 by beating bigger and younger Iran Barkley in a telephone-booth war to capture the middleweight crown.

Duran had some definite down moments in the decade. In his rematch with Leonard in 1981, he quit out of frustration seconds into Round 8. He was blasted in two rounds by Thomas Hearns and lost split decisions to second-tier opponents Kirkland Laing and Robbie Sims.

But anytime it looked like Duran might be all done, he came back strong. He was a three-division champion during the decade and involved in some of the biggest fights in the sport.

6. Michael Spinks

As a boxing fan who grew up in the 1980s, I always feel it's a shame that Michael Spinks' lasting image from the decade is getting blown out by Mike Tyson in half a round in his last fight in 1988. Because in the first half of the decade, Spinks established himself as one of the great light heavyweight champions of all time.

The early 1980s were one of the best eras in that division's history, and Spinks was unquestionably the top star. He won the WBA belt in 1981 by beating Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, but to even get that title shot, he had to beat tough contenders Yaqui Lopez and Marvin Johnson.

Spinks added the WBC belt in 1983 when he beat the great Dwight Muhammad Qawi. He added the IBF belt and become the undisputed champion before moving up to heavyweight and winning the world title from Larry Holmes in 1985 and beating Holmes again in a 1986 rematch.

I don't think Spinks actually deserved to win those fights. But just the fact that he was able to move up in weight, change his style and fight on those terms against a great like Holmes shows what kind of talent Spinks had.  

5. Mike Tyson

At the start of the 1980s, Mike Tyson was a junior high student in reform school. But he was soon to be hand-picked by famed boxing trainer Cus D'Amato as the ideal candidate to build into a heavyweight champion. By the end of the decade, Iron Mike had staked his claim among the best in the division's history.

Compact and explosively powerful, Tyson was the perfect physical specimen for D'Amato's peek-a-boo style. In 1986, Tyson broke previous D'Amato-pupil Floyd Patterson's record as the youngest heavyweight champion of all time when he stopped WBC champion Trevor Berbick.

In 1987, Tyson beat Tony Tubbs and James Smith to add the IBF and WBA belts and become a unified champion. He spent the rest of the decade wreaking havoc.

It's not unusual to see Tyson's list of opponents from the 1980s dismissed. This is a mistake. Tyson was crushing legitimate heavyweight contenders such as Frank Bruno, Pinklon Thomas and the previously mentioned Tubbs and Berbick.

He walked through Larry Holmes and Michael Spinks, two all-time greats. Tyson's life fell apart in the early 1990s and he was never the same fighter in that decade, despite winning another title.

But the Mike Tyson of 1986 through 1989 would be a dangerous opponent for anybody who ever lived.  

4. Aaron Pryor

In the early 1980s, Aaron "The Hawk" Pryor emerged as a second-coming of Henry Armstrong. Like Hurricane Hank, Pryor was a crowd-thrilling, violent whirlwind of destruction.

In 1980, Pryor won the title by knocking out all-time great Antonio Cervantes in four rounds. He then went on a five-year reign of terror. His Round 14 stoppage of Alexis Arguello in 1982 was among the great fights of the past 35 years.

Pryor's career came off the tracks in the second half of the 1980s, due to drug addiction. In 1987, he received his only career loss against Bobby Joe Young.

In retirement, Pryor turned his life back around and has been an inspiration to other addicts to quit. He remains an extremely popular figure with the fans at events like the Boxing Hall of Fame induction weekend.

I would rate Pryor as easily the best light welterweight of all time. It is regrettable that he never got to fight some of the decade's other great champions like Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran and Wilfred Benitez.

3. Thomas Hearns

On his best nights, Thomas Hearns was as great as nearly any fighter who ever lived. If he'd had a slightly better chin and conditioning, we might very well be talking about him as the greatest of all time, let alone of the 1980s.

Hearns was in the first generation of great champions from Emanuel Steward's legendary Kronk Gym in Detroit. He was an outstanding technical boxer with a brutal overhand right.

In 1981, he faced Sugar Ray Leonard in a welterweight champion vs. welterweight champion showdown. In one of the sport's great fights, Hearns led all the way to Round 14, before he went down by TKO to a furious Leonard rally.

Hearns captured the WBC light middleweight title from Wilfred Benitez in 1982. Among his defenses was a stunning Round 2 TKO of Roberto Duran in 1984.

In 1985, Hearns lost by TKO to Marvelous Marvin Hagler in the most exciting fight of the past 30 years.

In the second half of the decade, Hearns would add titles at middleweight and super middleweight. His only true blemish came when he was stopped by Iran Barkley in three rounds in 1988.

In 1989, Hearns fought a long-awaited rematch with Leonard. In another classic, the fight was ruled a draw, though Hearns knocked Leonard down twice and truly should have won.

2. Sugar Ray Leonard

Sugar Ray Leonard was the media darling of the legendary 1976 Olympic boxing team. He was a household name before he even turned pro.

Leonard was at the center of some of the greatest boxing storylines in history in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1979, he captured the WBC welterweight title from fellow great Wilfred Benitez.

Leonard dropped the belt to Roberto Duran in 1980 but won it back five months later by frustrating Duran so badly that he quit at the start of Round 8. In 1981, Leonard came from behind to capture Thomas Hearns' WBA welterweight belt via Round 14 TKO.

The six opponents Leonard faced in 1980 and 1981 had a combined record of 273-7. Leonard was taking no easy fights at this point.

After stopping Bruce Finch in 1982, Leonard retired for almost two years. He made a one-fight comeback in 1984, stopping Kevin Howard in nine.

In 1987, Leonard shocked boxing by coming back and taking the undisputed middleweight title from Marvin Hagler, via split decision. This remains a hotly disputed decision to this day, but Leonard's performance after such a layoff was remarkable, no matter how the fight is scored. 

Leonard would add titles at super middleweight and light heavyweight before the decade was over. He fought rematches with Hearns and Duran, beating Duran and getting a draw he probably didn't deserve against Hearns.  

1. Marvelous Marvin Hagler

Marvelous Marvin Hagler's run at the top of the middleweight division in the 1980s is among the most dominant reigns of any champion, at any weight, in the sport's history. After spending much of the 1970s as the sport's most-avoided fighter, Hagler finally captured the middleweight crown from Alan Minter in 1980, stopping the Brit in London's Wembley Stadium in just three rounds.

Over the next six years, Hagler would make 12 defenses with only Roberto Duran going the distance. Hagler during the 1980s seemed as invulnerable as any fighter in my lifetime.

When Leonard came out of retirement to beat Hagler in 1987, it was a shocking event and hotly disputed. I will note, even though Hagler was my favorite fighter at that time, I did feel Leonard deserved to win on points, 115-113.

I also think Hagler made some tactical mistakes he would have avoided a second time and a rematch would have gone differently. Unfortunately, it was never to be, as Hagler chose to retire instead.