Hagler,Duran and others I wish I had appreciated earlier.

First off,my usual apologies if this has been done before.
I read an excellent post by Lithmus Test about Marvin Hagler the other day and "Marvelous" has been in my thoughts since.
I was always a Ray Leonard fan and whilst I was watching boxing from an early age,I was 12 before I knew that I took it more seriously than my friends and started to really know what was going on(scoring etc)
To my eternal shame,I didn't start appreciating Hagler till after the fight with Ray,but I became a huge fan and agree that outside of serious fans,he didn't get the credit he deserved.The same happened for me with Duran,I only really got into him when it was too late to follow him,but what a treat it was when I did.
Later on,the same happened with Toney and more recently,whilst I appreciated his sublime ability,it was only after the De La Hoya fight that I really started to appreciate Floyd.
Do any of you have fighters who you were old enough to watch them,but didn't appreciate till they were retired or at the tail end of their careers?
Any thoughts on Marvelous Marvin would be appreciated too.

 

I wouldnt call them undervalued, for me its Hopkins, I didnt really value him that high until he schooled pavlik, it made me a big fan of the man and respect his atg ring iq.

 

Agree specially on Hagler!

 

I know wht you're saying,I meant more Hagler in a crossover sense.

 

Wilfredo Benitez was truly one of the All-time greats but never really received the attention he should have. This guy was an amazing fighter, and fought all of the top guys. Hearns, Leonard, Duran and many others at lower weight classes. I love Duran, but Benitez made him miss punches that no one could make duran miss. Hearns and leonard the same thing. As far as Hagler goes, he was the best at middleweight. He should have been appreciated more in his earlier days. That guy was a monster. I think he got screwed in the Leonard fight, but Leonard knew how to charm the crowd and the judges. Hagler could have handled himself with any middleweight in the history of boxing. I recall the classic fight with Hagler & John The Beast Mugabi. A masterpiece of a fight by Hagler. He broke Mugabi down with precision.

 

Duran, undervalued?

Everyone loves Manos de piedra.

 

Yeah everybody loves him but he is still undervalued. Cause the more casual fans will only know him from the fights against the rest of the Fab 4. That doesn't do him justice. He was old and way above his weightclass against Hearns and Hagler.

He basically ruled lightweight a decade long before that. And has with Barkley had a very notable win years later.

For me he is def top 5 p4p all time and arguably even top 3.

I've seen a lot of lists where Sugar Ray Leonard is ranked above him. That irritates the hell out of me. I think these people are undervaluing him.

 

Marvin Hagler was very, very popular, even before he fought Hearns. He certainly surpassed Duran in popularity after Roberto disgraced himself and boxing against Leonard in New Orleans.

He just had a different image than a lot of the crossover appeal boxers (Ali, Leonard, De la Hoya).. his image was "no nonsense" always. You see, boxing was on free network TV (ABC, CBS, NBC) in those days. That **** fight last night?.. that would have been on Sunday CBS afternoon and nobody would have cared, because Cintron was involved. Boxers were more popular then.

Leonard-Hagler was HUGE going in, and very few really believed that Leonard could pull it off against the by then legendary Hagler.

 

Yeah.I realise I maybe should have worded it a bit better.Meant more that I didn't truly appreciate them till late in the day.

 

Duran and Hagler are certainly not undervalued on this site, Pity. Wanna talk about under-valued? Johnny Tapia. Michael Spinks. Jeff Chandler. Under-valued in their own time and in ours.

 

I really should have changed the heading Addie.The point I was trying to make was that I didn't appreciate them till very late in their careers and I wondered if anyone else had fighters they didn't truly appreciate till they were retired or not far off.Hands up,got the title wrong.:good

 

I wasn't trying to derail your thread, brother. To be honest, I probably do undervalue Duran and Hagler. I haven't seen a great deal of their fights outside of the obvious. I've never sat down and properly studies either one of them. I should sort myself out.

 

Never really appreciated James Toney when he was in his prime.

Looking back at his fights now makes me wish Id paid him more attention.

 

duran and hagler were awesome to watch,they were special fighters,true greats

 

I wish people would appreciate Bones Adams.