1980
- February 2- Salvador Sánchez becomes WBC world Featherweight champion with a fourteenth round knockout victory over Danny Lopez in Phoenix
- June 20- Roberto Durán conquers the WBC world Welterweight title defeating Sugar Ray Leonard by unanimous decision over fifteen rounds in Montreal, Canada.
- August 2- Thomas Hearns becomes WBA world Welterweight champion, knocking out Pipino Cuevas in two rounds in Detroit. In that same undercard, Samuel Serrano loses his WBA world Jr. Lightweight crown to Yasutsune Uehara, by knockout in round six.
- September 27- Marvin Hagler becomes world Middleweight champion, knocking out Alan Minter in three rounds in London. The boxers then have to be protected by police from rioting Minter fans.
- October 2- Larry Holmes retains his WBC world Heavyweight crown with an eleventh round technical knockout over Muhammad Ali. This fight is seen by many as one of the most despicable events in the history of the sport: Ali had been in a hospital for treatment for a good portion of the months before the fight, and it has been alleged that Don King made him fight for Ali to pay King the hospital bills King had gotten from Ali's stay at the hospital.
- November 25- The No Más Fight, Sugar Ray Leonard regains his WBC world Welterweight title with an eighth round knockout of Roberto Durán, who quit inexplicably, leading to many rumors.
Read more about this topic: Boxing In The 1980s