hagler's next fight was against john mugabi in another awesome slugfest. he fought mugabi cuz mugabi was #1 on all lists and i think he was the mandatory. after the mugabi fight, there was the infamous hagler/leonard fight, which hagler lost and subsequently retired when leonard refused a rematch.
hearns, however, stayed at 160 for one more fight, then he moved back down to 154, then moved up to 175.
hagler first had to take care of mugabi then retired after his fight with leonard. hearns kept changing weight classes to really go for a rematch.
Following their meeting, Hearns took on the 22-0 James Shuller for the NABF middle title about a year after the loss to Marvin (Won by KO1). He TKOd Mark Medal for the WBC Jr. Middle title three months later. Defended his NABF middle title against Doug DeWitt (UD12) and then took the WBC Light Heavy crown from Dennis Andries.
While Hearns went title shopping, the clamor was for Hagler-Leonard. Not for Hagler-Hearns II. Understandably so. Leonard had earlier TKOd (14) Hearns, in their first meeting. The promoters went to work... For about two years.
In the meantime, Hagler took on "The Beast". And then, finally, Leonard.
Disgusted with the result of the Leonard fight, Marvelous left boxing for good. He refused to be lured back by any bait: not Leonard, not Hearns, not anything.
Hearns took one of the ownerless belts (WBC Middle) after Hagler's retirement by flatening Juan Domingo Roldan in the 4th. He lost it to Iran Barkley in what was widely regarded (including Ring ****zine) as Upset of the Year '88. That meant, there was even less reason for Hagler to come back and take on Hearns again at that time.
Marvin had taken to acting in Italian westerns, went around the world and appeared to have had a real good time; self-assured (even with his morose nature while in boxing) that he had given Hearns a decisive beating and that there was no point in doing it again.
The Leonard matter still seemed to grate him, though. He consistently refused to talk about it at length. He also refused to face Leonard again, believing that he would never get a fair shake.
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