The quartet fought each other nine times in an unofficial round robin-like manner throughout the 1980s and delivered a decade of memorable matchups that are still talked about today.

Recently retired five-division champion Terence Crawford believes he could have held his own and mixed it up with any of the four legends if he fought in their era.

“To be honest, I had a little bit of all of them,” said Crawford. “I wouldn't say I only had one of their styles because I do so much in the ring. Like Marvin Hagler, I'm a southpaw. Like Sugar Ray Leonard, I can box on my toes. Like Roberto Duran, I can roll with the punches, catch, shoot, and throw from underneath. With Tommy Hearns, I can fight from the outside with a good, sharp jab. I'm all of that in one. … [I would fight] any of them – just pick one of them.”

Crawford is certainly cut from a different cloth and would be able to hold his own in the fantasy fights. After all, in the last fight of his illustrious career, he climbed up two weight classes to unseat super middleweight king Canelo Alvarez in September.

In December, however, the 38-year-old Crawford called it a career and hung up the gloves.

“I'm great where I am at. What more can I do? What more can I accomplish?” said Crawford. “I'm happy, thankful, content, blessed, and grateful for what I did in the sport of boxing? What better way to finish after what I did?

“It was a sigh of relief [retiring], but it was a bittersweet moment. It was like, dang, this is my first love, and it's all coming to an end right here. I am happy that I got to the pinnacle of boxing and that I don't have to go through the things I went through anymore. I was sad that I had to give up something that I loved so much.

“It feels great to be one of the pioneers who paved the way for younger and up-and-coming fighters.”

Years down the line, a select few might emerge from the generation that follows “Bud” and be billed as “the next Terence Crawford.”

But for now, as Crawford compares himself to the Four Kings, how would he have fared if his card were drawn to fight one of them?

As you think about it, we’ll leave you with this: Below is how the nine fights unfolded between Leonard, Hagler, Hearns and Duran.

Leonard: 4-1-1

Hagler: 2-1

Hearns: 1-2-1

Duran: 1-4

Manouk Akopyan is The Ring’s lead writer. Follow him on X and Instagram: @ManoukAkopyan.