{"id":357193,"date":"2025-08-19T16:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357193\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:08:09","slug":"iran-barkley-faced-thomas-hearns-roberto-duran-and-james-toney-and-has-no-doubt-who-was-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/357193\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Barkley Faced Thomas Hearns, Roberto Duran And James Toney And Has No Doubt Who Was Best"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three-weight world champion Iran Barkley shared the ring with some of the greatest fighters to have ever laced up the gloves during his career, not least Thomas Hearns<\/a>, Roberto Duran<\/a> and James Toney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Known by his moniker \u2018The Blade\u2019, Barkley entered the paid ranks back in 1982 and would embark on a 17-year professional career where he would capture world titles at middleweight, super-middleweight and light-heavyweight along the way.<\/p>\n

He locked horns with a number of generational greats throughout the course of his tenure<\/a>, including the likes of five-weight world champion Hearns, Panamanian icon Duran and James \u2018Lights Out\u2019 Toney to name just a few. Barkley was pulled out by his trainer following intense punishment against Toney, and was dropped by Duran on his way to a split decision loss.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most famous victory of his career came against \u2018Hitman\u2019 Hearns back in 1988 when he stopped his countryman in the third round of their showdown in Las Vegas to capture the WBC world middleweight title.<\/p>\n

In a round of \u2018Best I Faced\u2019 with The Ring Magazine, Barkley revealed Hearns as the best fighter that he ever crossed paths with, paying homage to the Hall of Famer\u2019s thunderous punching power and boxing skills.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201c[Thomas Hearns] Because of his punching power and his skills, his ability to jab, move and be that tall to be able to box.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Barkley and Hearns<\/a> would face each other again four years on from their first encounter. \u2018The Blade\u2019 got the better of his countryman once again to capture the WBA world light-heavyweight title at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in the spring of 1992.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hitman\u2019 is still considered to be one of the greatest fighters to have ever graced the sport however, becoming a member of the iconic \u2018Four Kings\u2019 during the peak of his accomplished professional career alongside Duran, Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three-weight world champion Iran Barkley shared the ring with some of the greatest fighters to have ever laced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-357193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115056299427184363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}