In a few months,on April 15th,this awesome 3 round shootout will one approaching it's 30th anniversary.Two great champions abandoning their skills and going toe to toe. Greatest fight ever? Possibly.Hagler was a beast!! How do ya think it would have played out had Hearns not broken his famous right hand? Hagler still catching up to him or Hearns able to do more damage,possibly stopping him only on cuts by the way. Marvin's chin was too much,but ya never know.
Hagler just to strong and durable for Hearns broken hand or not, if they would have fought 10 times Hearns would have been 0-10, he DIDN'T have nowhere close the chin Hagler had, you can't win a fight if you can't take a hard shot, simple as that..
Hard to believe it's been 30 yrs. I remember the build up in KO Mag and The Ring. Once cover showed Hearns and a quote "Hagler is Shaking like a Leaf on a Tree." Another cover had hem stand back to back. Hagler says "I'm the Baddest." "No You're Not Says Hearns." Classic stuff. A lot of people favored Hearns simply because he blew away Duran and Hagler labored to a decision against him. Well, Styles make fights and we all know just because a destroys b and c struggles with b, it doesn't mean a will beat c.
I remember the back to back picture, Hearns looking about a foot taller!! I have to say though, just like the Mugabi brawl, I feel Hagler takes the pain and keeps firing back till the job is done, broken hand or not. I always felt Hearns could have done better keeping MH at long range.
30 years flew by quick.Even if Tommy didn't break his hand, Hagler still marches him down for a late ko.If Tommy was a dirty fighter, he could have used his Jheri curl to his advantage.
Hearns problem wasn't so much his chin as his legs. Very early in the Hagler fight and in other fights his legs always seemed a bit shaky. I think Hearns pretty much shot his load by the 3rd round and if he somehow survived Hagler would have ground him down eventually.
Definitely one of the best fights ever. I still feel,though,that even if Hearns had n't have broken his hand and fought a different fight,Hagler would still have won.
My favorite fight of all time. If I remember it on the date, I'm going to watch it on its 30th anniversary.
I think so too. I know Hearns did say beforehand he was planning to war with Hagler, so maybe Hearns had the wrong gameplan, but I just credit Hagler for making him fight that fight. Hagler usually boxed patiently and even when he was more aggressive, he didn't come out so crazy and bull-like as he did against Hearns. But it was the right tactic. Hearns was so tough to outbox from the outside, and his power in the right hand was most deadly when he got distance and leverage on it. By making it a fight at closer quarters, Hagler not only made it tougher for Hearns to use his range, but also took away some of his power. Hearns did try to box from the outside mid-way thru the 1st round, and had some success landing some rights (some of them looped around Hagler's guard). But Hagler cut him off and once again closed the distance. By the end of the round, Hagler hurt Hearns. Hearns tried to use more movement after that, but Hagler kept getting to him.
Same here! I remember staying up in the wee small hours to listen to the fight. It sounded even more mental than it looked! I remember the late Harry Mullan from Boxing News being a co-commentator and he couldn't believe the ferocity of the fight. Great memories, indeed.