Close encounters with Marvin Hagler

[Bennyleonard99]

A fitting tribute to the Marvelous one the week of his heavenly birthday. Marvelous Marvin was everything that's great about boxing - perfect fighting machine, class act ambassador, dominated the sport with honor and brilliance. Always looked like he was cut out of a Roman marble statue.

[max baer]

A fitting tribute to the Marvelous one the week of his heavenly birthday. Marvelous Marvin was everything that's great about boxing - perfect fighting machine, class act ambassador, dominated the sport with honor and brilliance. Always looked like he was cut out of a Roman marble statue.

Very well said my friend. He was a no nonsense warrior.
Do you think he beat leonard? Some say he won it. It was such a close fight.

[BattlingNelson]

A fitting tribute to the Marvelous one the week of his heavenly birthday. Marvelous Marvin was everything that's great about boxing - perfect fighting machine, class act ambassador, dominated the sport with honor and brilliance. Always looked like he was cut out of a Roman marble statue.

Well said.

He also stuck with his blue collar team (the petronellis) through his career. No fancy hyped trainer for him.

[Bennyleonard99]

Very well said my friend. He was a no nonsense warrior.
Do you think he beat leonard? Some say he won it. It was such a close fight.

On fight night it appeared that Leonard boxed the perfect masterpiece. But decades later my view changed because of a series of bizarre aspects of the fight. Hagler inexplicably boxing righty for the first four rounds, foolishly negating one of his advantages. Hagler and the boxing establishment not demanding the immediate rematch after a controversial decision, it would have sold even bigger too. Then there were all the Leonard control factors. Leonard was the A side, he was the only option for Hagler to make the really big money at the end of his career. It's plausible Leonard used his leverage and star power to squeeze Hagler to not fight at his full fury, rage and intensity? Remember SRL made Hagler wait for years to finally get that fight. It's plausible that's how long it took for Hagler to say WTF and agree to ALL of Leonard demands? I'm just not sure if it was an authentic fight and not a business deal. Hagler and the public absolutely deserved and wanted a rematch. For Leonard to not want it doesn't make sense. These are the problems that can arise when there is an A side money fighter like Leonard who makes a ton of revenues for the establishment, and Hagler's money making abilities were not in the same league plus Hagler as we know was mid to late 30s (real age) and near the end.

[Bennyleonard99]

Well said.

He also stuck with his blue collar team (the petronellis) through his career. No fancy hyped trainer for him.

There was nothing that anyone could dislike about Hagler. He was denied for years of his first title shot. Then he was robbed of the title in that first title shot (vs Antuofermo). Then he finally won the title vs Minter in London and the crowd treated him worse than a *********. Despite all the injustices and unfairness, Hagler was always a class act. Marvin Hagler is everything that was right about boxing. Leonard seemed to get all the preferential treatment and everything handed to him on a silver platter. Very much admire and adore both of their careers but I will always rate Hagler as the true King of the Big Four. He wasn't allowed to beat SRL IMO for business reasons. It wasn't personal it was business. Don't take this wrong, we all adore all four of the big four they all were heroes in their own ways. But Hagler was the most impressive one of all. And that's saying a lot.

[Anomalocaris]

FWIW I scored the fight 115-113 for Ray.

I have seen it many times and the score remains the same in my mind.

Utterly remarkable for a natural.welter who had had one bad fight in five years.

Marvin did himself no favours by holding a grudge against Leonard until he passed.

The only one of the Four Kings who never made excuses for his rare defeats was Tommy.

[BattlingNelson]

There was nothing that anyone could dislike about Hagler. He was denied for years of his first title shot. Then he was robbed of the title in that first title shot (vs Antuofermo). Then he finally won the title vs Minter in London and the crowd treated him worse than a *********. Despite all the injustices and unfairness, Hagler was always a class act. Marvin Hagler is everything that was right about boxing. Leonard seemed to get all the preferential treatment and everything handed to him on a silver platter. Very much admire and adore both of their careers but I will always rate Hagler as the true King of the Big Four. He wasn't allowed to beat SRL IMO for business reasons. It wasn't personal it was business. Don't take this wrong, we all adore all four of the big four they all were heroes in their own ways. But Hagler was the most impressive one of all. And that's saying a lot.

I was a Leonard man myself, but my appreciation of Hagler has grown over the years. Hagler vs Leonard is perhaps the fight I’ve watch the most times, and I gotta say I cannot get a hagler win. To me he fcked up by going orthodox for the first rounds, but another mistake he made was by agreeing to 12 rounds instead of 15 in exchange for the bigger slice of the purse.

[Bennyleonard99]

FWIW I scored the fight 115-113 for Ray.

I jave seen it many times and the score remains the same in my mind.

Utterly remarkable for a natural.welter who had had one bad fight in five years.

Marvin did himself no favours by holding a grudge against Leonard until he passed.

The only one of the Four Kings who never made excuses for his rare defeats was Tommy.

What if that grudge was based on inside information we are not privvy to? Marvin was always a decent fair person, SRL must have done some things to embitter Hagler. The logical assumption is SRL used his leverage to force MMH to play soft to get that career high jackpot. Watching the fight years after it did look like MMH held back and didn't unleash his full wrath. A few times he had the target in position but didn't fire. Not hating on either for this, but the sport is business. And when one has the leverage and value advantages and generates more revenues for the establishment, it's only smart business to exploit that.

[Bennyleonard99]

I was a Leonard man myself, but my appreciation of Hagler has grown over the years. Hagler vs Leonard is perhaps the fight I’ve watch the most times, and I gotta say I cannot get a hagler win. To me he fcked up by going orthodox for the first rounds, but another mistake he made was by agreeing to 12 rounds instead of 15 in exchange for the bigger slice of the purse.

It made no sense for Marvin to do that, box righty for FOUR rounds. The pattern of the negotiations was that SRL dictated EVERYTHING. And it was SRL who did not want the rematch. It's not complicated to figure out why. He didn't want to fight the REAL Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

[Bennyleonard99]

I adore all four of the Four Kings. Doesn't matter who won or lost. What matters most is these four icons together lifted boxing to new heights. They proved that boxing at it's best is the ultimate sport on earth. People still talk about these four in awe and wonder. They raised the bar and the next generations failed to carry the torch as they did. Now the sport is in critical condition. In a way they saved the sport but they also they killed the sport. Because too many of the top fighters today don't have the fearlessness and courage they did. I'd rather watch Marvin Hagler or Roberto Duran skip rope or shadowbox than watch any Canelo or Floyd snoozefest.