Just how bad was Haglar robbed if at all against SRL?

He was very inactive by Hagler standards.

He fought Hearns in April, 1985, Mugabi in March, 1986, and Leonard in April, 1987. 3 fights in 3 years for Hagler was an all time low activity in his career.

 

I definitely feel MMH fought the wrong fight against SRL. Giving away the first 4 rds, while trying to outbox SRL, orthodox. And, not truly taking it to SRL , southpaw, cutting off the ring, and taking it inside to SRL. He did some of it later on in the fight. But, he kind of left the door open for Ray by not fighting to HIS strengths. I didn`t feel it was a definitive win, some rds close to call. However, SRL worked the rds carefully, lots ofg



boxing savvy and squeaked out the decision. I think if they had gotten the rematch, we would have seen a different Hagler, even though he was near the end of the line. Goody told me they pushed hard for the rematch, but when they realized it wasn`t happening, Hagler packed his gloves ...

 

I've heard Hagler was borderline mentally unstable with how badly he wanted and pushed for the rematch, but I think Leonard knew he caught lightning in a bottle that night where everything came together perfectly for him to squeek by with a razor thin decision.

 

leonard definitely won this fight for me. hagler didnt do enough. it wasclose but. was leonard all day

 

Boxers tend to be PRETTY self-aware. I've never met one who wasn't reasonably frank about his career in private.

I can all but guarantee Marvin knows EXACTLY what he would have done different.

 

That's the shitty thing about boxing- You get one shot. Nobody guarantees each other rematches out of contract. You want to make the question moot by WINNING.

Ray won with every single disadvantage. He didn't owe Marvin much of anything. And before anybody says "The title shot!", Hagler wanted Ray as badly as vice versa, if not moreso.

Sometimes, and I know firsthand, it comes down to wishing you'd just thrown more punches. For Hagler, maybe this was a good indication to him, deep down, that he was in fact slowing down and fading.

 

As much as I like Hagler, he was the one to "rob" himself before the fight (though, in retrospect, it was good for him as he retired in good health).

He was the champion after all, and still he agreed for anything SRL wanted. Larger ring, larger gloves, and 12 rounds instead of traditional (at that time) 15. All of those changes were obviously favouring Leonard. I believe without those changes Hagler would give much better fight.

 

That's probably why he wanted the rematch so badly. He felt he did enough (which wasn't much, especially by Hagler standards) to win the first time, and I agree with him. In a rematch Hagler would've been all over Leonard and done what he should've done the first time.

I think Ray knew it too and knew that he got off very, very easy in their one and only encounter and did not do a rematch because of it.