Marvelous Marvin Hagler
(No, I haven’t lazily mis-spelt “marvelous” by using the American. It’s officially his name!)
lease don’t misunderstand me. I hate the brutal
sport of boxing. However, in the 1970s I became caught up with the legend of Muhammad Ali.
His skill and grace made boxing seem like high art. It romanticised the sport, and I
must admit to loving archive footage of the great heavyweight champion.
My interest in Ali didn’t turn into an interest in boxing, but in the 1980s I became similarly caught up in an emerging legend — a man of such complete skill that he held the middleweight championship of the world for seven years.
I first saw Hagler in action in 1985. Hagler had dominated the middleweight
division for years and was seeming unbeatable. His
eleventh defence of the world title was to be against
superfast superstar Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns.
Hearns had been world welterweight and light middleweight champion. Younger than
Hagler, with a longer reach and a frightening knockout punch, Hearns was looking
pretty unbeatable himself. The match achieved such press furore it couldn’t escape my attention.
Hagler and Hearns went to war in round one (pictured, left). Hagler started atypically aggressively. His strategy was to stay close to Hearns and disallow him the use of his long arms, working the body to slow Hearns’ legs. Hearns’ first arms-length assault wobbled Hagler and resulted in a huge gash over his right eye, but the champion gritted his teeth and continued. Success swung evenly between the two till near the end of the round when Hagler was able to work Hearns on the ropes. Hagler continued to back-foot Hearns in round two, and started blocking Hearns’ punches more effectively. Hearns tried to box on the move but near the end of the round Hagler flatfooted him close and troubled him with superior in-fighting.
Hearns’ corner were concerned. They
asked him to jab on the toes, at the cut for a TKO.
He did, and drama ensued when
Hagler’s cut re-opened. Referee Richard Steele interrupted
the fight for the ring doctor’s examination. It was deemed
safe for Hagler to continue, but it was ominous.
Hearns’ legs were weak, however, and a leaping
Hagler right soon
sent Hearns staggering awkwardly. Hagler leapt in with to deliver the blows that
crashed Hearns to the canvas. Hearns managed to stand at nine but his eyes were glazed,
his arms limp.
Richard Steele waved the fight over and
Hagler became a boxing legend.
I began to read about Hagler. He fascinated me. By 1976 he was undefeated in twenty-six pro fights, and travelled to Philadelphia to start a campaign of defeating all the other top contenders for the title. By the end of 1978, Hagler had twice kayoed tough Kevin Finnegan, outpointed Bennie Briscoe and stopped Willie Warren. After defeating Olympic medallist Sugar Ray Seales in just one round, Hagler appealed to champion Hugo Corro for his long overdue title shot.
Corro ducked Hagler, opting instead to fight the safer
Italian Vito Antuofermo. Vito took Corro’s crown, however, and
accepted Hagler’s challenge in 1979. Hagler was a 4-1 favourite. Vito boxed the fight of his life to
resist Hagler (left) and even had some good rounds in the later stages when Hagler tired, but
when the final bell sounded the experts agreed
Hagler had won the fight. Bizarrely, the officials ruled a draw
and Vito retained the title. It was unjust, and robbed Hagler of the potential to
be the longest reigning middleweight champion of all time. However, this may have been the injustice that
turned Hagler into one of the divison’s most fearsome champions.
Hagler, angry at this unjust rebuttal, earned his second shot by knocking Loucif Hamani clean out of the ring in the second; stopping Bobby Watts in the second; and outpointing the very difficult Marcos Geraldo over ten.
The title had
passed to England’s Alan Minter. When Minter and Hagler met
at Wembley in September 1980, Hagler vowed
to not leave the decision in the judges hands.
He was awesome against Minter (right), whom he punished
for holding the belt that was rightfully his. It was a marvelous display of skill and
power. With no less than three wounds on Minter’s face after two rounds,
Hagler executed in round three.
Hagler went on to hold this title for nearly seven years with twelve successful defences. It was a healthy era of middleweight boxing, with many tough and talented opponents who would have been world champion themselves in any other era. But Hagler’s greed for the title was relentless.
In 1981, undefeated number one contender Fuljencio Obelmejias was Hagler’s first victim, stopped in eight rounds. Hagler then revenged himself on Vito Antuofermo. An accidental clash of heads caused a cut on Antuofermo’s brow in round one. Vito’s corner delayed the start of round two while they petitioned for a no contest decision, but it was not forthcoming. Hagler was quick and sharp this night, scoring a knockdown in the third round and expertly working on that cut. Vito’s corner retired at the end of round four.
Next up in 1981 was the tough, undefeated Syrian, Mustafa Hamsho. He had beated other contenders with ease but was no match for Marvin Hagler. Hagler was patient, perhaps letting the fight go longer than it needed to. Nonetheless, in round eleven Hamsho was utterly defeated, battered by the many guns of warship Hagler.
1982 was a spectacular year for Hagler, starting with a first round knockout of brawler William “Caveman” Lee, and continuing with a fifth round knockout of returning contender Fulgencio Obelmejias in San Remo.
Hagler’s first 1983 opponent was Leicester’s Tony Sibson (left),
a stocky challenger who
was considered exceptionally tough. Hagler was sharp from the word go.
He was fast, crisp, moving beautifully. For four rounds Hagler utterly outclassed Sibson — Sibson hardly landed
a thing while Hagler couldn’t miss. In round five Hagler landed three crunching jabs that badly
cut Sibson’s right eye. In the sixth, Sibson tried to get back into the fight but Hagler
continued to land in powerful combinations. Sibson was soon distressed
referee Carlos Padilla stopped the bout. From this fight, Hagler earned
the awe of boxing writers worldwide. Sibson called him a master of disaster and a class of one.
Sugar Ray Leonard called him awesome, suggesting that future Hagler opponents might
actually fear the intimidating prospect of facing Hagler.
Wilford Scypion was defeated even more convincingly, flattened to his back in round four. A superfight between Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard was wanted, but Leonard had retired. Thomas Hearns also had his eye on Hagler, but Hagler’s first superfight is destined to be against Roberto Duran (below), one of the greatest ever lightweight champions and legendary for being the only fighter to have defeated Sugar Ray Leonard. Duran was past his prime, and fighting above his natural weight, so Hagler was expected to win handily. Duran surprised all, however, by showing himself to be rejuvinated. He was fast, cunning and powerful as a middleweight. Hagler boxed a little too cautiously and allowed the scoring to be a little too close going into the final stages. He was clearly the superior, however, and finished on a drumroll to secure the votes of the judges.
In 1984, Hagler faced bulky Argentine Juan Roldan. Hagler slipped in
round one during the first exchange. Erroneously, it was scored a knockdown — the only
one on Hagler’s record.
Hagler was disgusted, and became impatient to assert himself
on Roldan. Roldan’s awkward style and powerful punches
frustrated Marvin Hagler, who lets his composure slip.
Roldan took advantage of this to
win the first few rounds (right). Though there is little doubt that Hagler would have won anyway, but the fight
became spoiled when Roldan’s eye was accidenally thumbed by Hagler’s glove in round three.
Though he recovered quickly, the eye closed, and with the disadvantage the fight turned into
a one way contest. By round ten
the Argentinian had taken too much punishment. A brief
Hagler combination knocked Roldan down. Roldan rose but told
the referee he wished to retire from the fight. Hagler won by technical knockout, but the result seemed
marred by
the eye injury — we weren’t meant to know how well Roldan might
have done had he not hurt the eye.
The press was not too impressed this time, questioning how a fighter they considered
limited made life so difficult for Hagler. They wondered if Hagler was beginning to get over the hill.
The truth is, he probably was. He was now in this thirties.
In 1984, talk of a Hearns fight was accelerating but first Hagler had
to discharge championship duties by facing Mustafa Hamsho again. Hamsho
was unbeaten except for his first challenge of Hagler and had rebuilt his position as world number
one contender by beating all comers. Hamsho was determined to use everything to win this time,
including his head and elbows. Hagler kept his cool and outboxed Hamsho. In round two, Hamsho
tried to ambush Hagler on the ropes, but Hagler, in a very low stance ripped out three counter
punches that wobbled Hamsho’s legs. Hamsho tried to bull Hagler to the ropes again but the champion
ripped out a perfectly placed right hook counter that knocked the challenger’s
head back. It was a sweet, precise performance back on the form of the Sibson win. In round three Hamsho
used another blatant headbutt and Hagler decided to tolerate the challenger no more. He continued
to knock Hamsho’s head with precise and stiff two punch combinations. He bid his time till he could
position right and then launched a fierce three punch combination that knocked Hamsho clean to
the floor. Hamsho rose unsteadily. Hagler again picked his shots till the position was right and used
the same leaping right again. Hamso crumbled (left). The referee started
to count but Hamsho’s manager entered the ring to withdraw his fighter. It was a calculated
execution.
Then came the Hearns superfight, discussed above.
In 1986, after almost a year off, Hagler rose to another stiff challenge. A young, undefeated power house was destroying every opponent in his path. John “The Beast” Mugabi had won all of his contests by knockout — many spectacular; many in the first few rounds of the fight. He possessed incredible knockout power and provided Marvin Hagler with yet another classic encounter. Hagler was evidently in decline now. Ageing, he seemed slower, but was simply too tough and had too many ring smarts for Mugabi. Mugabi successfully had Hagler moving back in the first few rounds but once Hagler established the jab, he outboxed Mugabi. The sixth round was the crucial one. Hagler needed to get Mugabi moving backwards and initiated a toe-to-toe war in which both fighters landed powerful blows. Hagler’s skill outmatched Mugabi and after what seemed like thirty seconds of unchallenged target practice, in which Hagler landed every punch in the book, Mugabi finally staggered backwards. The beast in Mugabi was crushed in this round, though it took Hagler till the eleventh round (by which time he had a swollen eye) before Mugabi finally went down. Exhausted, Mugabi let referee Mills Lane complete the ten count. Hagler was applauded for yet another gladiatorial showing, though Sugar Ray Leonard had taken note of Hagler’s decline. He saw a trick.
Leonard had been a dazzling welterweight and light middleweight champion in the early 1980s.
He was the only other fighter to have beaten Thomas Hearns but had been inactive
for three years. It was for this reason that the experts gave Leonard little chance of defeating Hagler.
But Leonard had a plan. He reckoned that with Hagler’s slowdown he could steal
a good points lead by putting all his energy into the first few rounds. All he needed to do was keep
that up for as long as possible and then do just enough to keep the lead once established.
He insisted on a larger ring so he could circle more widely and escape Hagler.
He insisted on the shorter twelve round distance.
He made Hagler wait a year, to ensure he would decline even more and get rusty, and he taunted
Hagler to get him to fight Leonard’s kind of fight. As if a student of Sun Tzu (The Art
of War), Leonard was smart enough to ensure he’d won the fight before the first
bell rang by capturing the advantage in the relevant warring principles — moral influence, terrain,
command and doctrine.
It all worked. A rusty and slowed Hagler gave away the first four rounds trying to box with the rejuvinated Leonard before correcting himself in round five. He had superiority in the fight from that point on (see picture, right) but Leonard stuck to his plan and did just enough to stop Hagler wiping out that lead by stealing two or three of the remaining eight rounds. It was enough to win. One judge awarded the fight to Hagler, but the other two voted for Leonard. The decision was close and hotly disputed by fans. Many felt Hagler had done enough to eliminate Leonard’s early lead, but many others protested the decision was just. I scored the fight six rounds each, a 114-114 draw. Nevertheless, Hagler finally lost his title. A rematch was justified but Leonard denied it. Hagler would probably have regained the title had the it been granted, but without the opportunity he chose to retire. His record was sixty-two wins, three defeats and two draws with thirteen world title fight victories out of fifteen world title matches.
Was Hagler one of the all-time great champions?
Boxing fans like to argue about who were the greatest champions of all time. Would Hagler have beaten Sugar Ray Robinson? Jake La Motta? Carlos Monzon. In truth, it’s not that simple. No one champion is black-and-white better than another.
There is no doubt that Hagler was one of the best middleweight champions ever. He was the perfect fighting machine. Lean. Mean. Extremely skillful. His fast fists and quick witted movement combined with perfect posture, poise and balance to make him a hard hitter who could fight on the advance or the retreat; who could go to war on the inside or box from the outside with precision and cutting stiffness. He switched between southpaw and orthodox styles to confuse his opponents, and though he didn’t possess a singularly powerful punch, but his ability to punch in combinations earned him a very high knockout ratio. He could fight for fifteen rounds and proved himself capable of taking even the biggest of punches without flinching.
Marvin Hagler’s five greatest performances
- KO3 Thomas Hearns. A greatness defining victory.
- KO6 Tony Sibson. A perfect display of master class boxing from the champion.
- KO3 Alan Minter. A brutal deposition.
- KO3 Mustafa Hamsho. As complete a victory as you can imagine.
- KO5 Vito Antuofermo. Victory by outclassment.
Marvin Hagler’s four most disappointing performances
- L12 Sugar Ray Leonard. A fading Hagler failed to press potential advantages.
- KO10 Juan Roldan. Hagler wins by KO but struggled to solve his opponent.
- W15 Roberto Duran. A win, but Hagler ought to have pressed home a wider margin.
- D15 Vito Antuofermo. Though a duff verdict, Hagler ought to have shone more in his title shot.