In their own words, Hagler vs Leonard

Close fight but hagler's stupidity early on cost him

 

Why blame Hagler for Leonard starting so well? Why not give credit for Leonard's fast dominant start? He was too fast early and actually fought the fight of a front runner, tiring himself out early by starting so fast but banking the early rounds.

 

Rattler! Thank you for these.

 

Great read. The bit about the spying intrigued me the most. I wonder how often it happens in the sport :think

 

Did Hagler know that Harry Gibbs scored the first two rounds of Hagler-Hearns to Hagler?
If he would of kept Gibbs as referee it would of been defense number 13.

 

Someone whom I know who is well acquainted with the fight business suggested that Hagler fighting righty in the opening rounds may well have been another one of the concessions necessary- besides gloves, ring size, etc, to get Sugar Ray to agree to the fight. How else do you explain his unexplainable decision to fight that way for the first part of the fight?

 

LOL -- how do you expect such a stipulation would have been enforced?

If he came out lefty, would the ref have stopped the fight? Would Leonard have called timeout? Would the commission have disqualified him?

What a joke.

Great oral history. Friend emailed me a link before I saw it here. Must read.

 

You missed out that one where Leonard only agreed to the fight if Hagler promised not to hit him above the neck for the first four rounds? atsch

Oh and the 12-round distance is another thing that's overblown. Hagler fought Mugabi and Hearns over this distance too and hadn't had a fight scheduled for 15 since 1984.

 

Leonard deserves credit for the win. And yes,Hagler contributed to his own downfall in that one as well.

 

hagler was stupid not fighting in southpaw from the start and seems like a lack of respect - karma's a ***** lol. leonard surprised everyone - great performance. i scored it a draw - that would've been the fair result - nothing in it.

 

How many times have you seen hagler fight well out of the orthodox stance?

Once hagler returned to his usual stance they pretty much exchanged rounds imo which was in stark contrast to ray's early dominance making him look a level above marvin.

The reason I blame him, to use an extreme example of my thought process here: I blame ortiz for standing in front of floyd with hands down rather than praise the accuracy and power floyd's ko punch.

 

That is not a tremendous comparison.

 

I did discalim it by saying I'd be using an extreme example.

but baiscally my thinking is if one boxer is stupid and the other capitalises I award more blame for stupidity than award praise for opportunism.

maybe ray would have fought just as good had hagler come out swinging as a southpaw, but we'll never know will we?

 

But this is overstated as is most things about this fight. First of all, Hagler often switched between leftie and rightie during fights, so this was no anomaly. Second, he switched to southpaw after two rounds, but still lost the next two. After that Leonard faded quickly and went into survival mode except for a couple of rds; it wasn't really about anything Hagler did better.

What I think stands out with this fight is how ineffectual Hagler looked. Even when Leonard was exhausted and had absolutelly nothing on his punches, Marvin never had him in serious trouble. I e; I don't think Hagler looked at his worst when fighting as orthodox and failing to catch a still fresh Leonard in the first two rds, but rather when he couldn't do more against a badly tiring and quite stationary Leonard in the middle rounds.

I don't know how much of this is down to Hagler having gone downhill or just never being that fantastically good in the first place.