I believe it was the second Hamsho fight Hagler had many doubters, many of them in the media, that he was a worthy champion and his stock went down after two shoddy performances. Did the second Hamsho fight bring it back to life?
I'll go against the grain on this and say something like Scypion. For a kind of strange logic. Everyone knew Marvin was a pretty good fighter. By the time the Scypion fight was over, it seemed like everyone finally acknowledged nobody was going to beat him for awhile. But it sure took Marvin about 50 fights to arrive on most folks' radar. Funny sport sometimes. Arum really didn't back the guy either ike DKP backed his top dogs. I just think overall he was the Ricardo Lopez type guy & it was his perserverance and continued winning that won everyone over. If he was a Rid**** Bowe type with just a few A+ performances, can you imagine the level of admiration he'd be getting today? For losing to a coming out of retirement welter?
As a youngster and a huge fan of my hometown hero Alan Minter, Hagler seemed a very legitimate threat to Boom Boom. Thus it was pre Minter to me. And although not a fan at the time, I get the impression reading material of the time, Hagler was considered the 'uncrowned' champ going into the Antuofermo fight.
1ST Vito fight:deal.. Everybody in the World knew Hagler would be Undisputed middleweight champion, in a year or 2, after Vito 1, a fight where about 85% roughly thought he won:yep That fight right there made Hagler a lot better than he already was:bbb
I think the Scypion fight was where Hagler was at his most invincible, just before he came down to earth in the Duran fight. Following the Roldan fight, he had to rebuild his image and the rematch with Hamsho alone seemed to actually restore his former lustre
That's what I think. Boxing insiders and fanatics knew he was the real goods going back to all those tough Philly fights. But the casual fans sure didn't. And the sport was in a funny state where flash was selling. That's what was popular. And Hagler was at the other end of the spectrum from flash and certainly was not going to be wearing tassles on his shoes.
I'll go further out and say it was the Cyclone Hart fight, well before he won the title. He'd already lost to Monroe and Watts (debatable decision against Watts aside) and he was suddenly 0-2 against the big Philadelphia gatekeepers. Losing a third fight to one of them would have turned a lot of people off for good I think. He had to have that win to remain a serious threat to anyone down the line, and he came up big against Hart. Confidence then surging, he rematched Monroe and crushed him twice, moved on to comprehensively outpoint Briscoe, etc., etc.......... It was the Hart fight that was really the pivotal point in his career. That kicked it off.
I don't believe that Hagler or many other great fighters would be as great today as they were then, because they wouldn't have such a had road coming up to being an elite fighter.
He was considered the genuine article several fights before he fought for the title first. Every fighter has "doubters", that never stops.