Was John Mugabi sort of the Earnie Shavers of the middleweight division ?

Mugabi looked to have a great chin, he just got a long drawn out beat down from Hagler and didn't have the same ferocity any more.

 

John Mugabi was in reality a very good L / Middle fighter from Uganda, who wasn't the sharpest tool in the box.

Just the sort of guy in fact that vermin like Mickey Duff preyed on, and got fat, and rich off.

 

Shavers had the better wins.

I'm going to call a spade a spade here and state that in my opinion Mugabi is one of the most overrated fighters of his era.

His actual win column is incredibly bare for someone of his reputation. Even the half recognisable names had been belted previously. Green had been belted out by the face first limited brawler Fletcher. Guiden had been recently been bombed out by the inexperienced Moore. Hargrove was outfought and stopped by Medal, fletcher pummeled by Roldan and then came Hagler. He had never beaten anyone notable pre Hagler but had gained big press because of his stunning power (vs lower level fighters no less) and intriguing background story.

I agree his effort against Hagler was superb, and a great fight. Mugabi gets basically ALL of his plaudits from this losing effort, because truth be told he never overly beat anyone before or after.

We are looking at a Hagler not far removed from retirement and on the downside of his career tho he could still fight. I do think Mugabi rose as high as he could possibly go in this one, trying to get that title.

I'm not 100% convinced when so many say the Hagler fight took everything out of him and he was never the same. He never actually proved himself prior! Certainly not to any big extent, to say the least.

Huge punchers are a very seductive breed, and there are myriads of them who have unwittingly tricked us over the years into thinking they were something they fell short of, often spectacularly. Mugabi for me is one of them. His immense power and convincing showing against Hagler had so many thinking the sky was the limit, but the truth was far from it.

So at the end of the day i agree the parallels are there. Tho himself limited (as you say) i think Shavers brought more to the table over a longer period of time and had a lot more substance on his resume.

 

I believe Mugabi issues were more about stamina than chin.

 

Great post. Kudos. :deal

 

I agree with this post. Mugabi was never the same after the Hagler fight, and frankly I think that Marvellous ruined him. Just watching the fight you can see that Mugabi is a quality, well rounded fighter with a great deal of momentum behind him.

Subtract Hagler from the equation and we'd still be raving about Mugabi today. I think Hagler broke him mentally, and he lost that self-belief that he had that he was invincible. I don't think that he tried nearly as hard as he could have in his later career. My 2c.

 

Shavers is undeniably one of the top 5 punchers at heavyweight ,I don't think you can say
the same for Mugabi at 160lbs.

 

Mugabi badly injured his right hand in the Hagler fight and nearly quit. after the 6th round.Mickey Duff his manager was working his corner with George Francis, they persuaded him to continue but after the fight his fist was very swollen.

 

After both had retired Marvin Hagler accused Duff of stealing Mugabi's money saying"you know he had half a million dollars to fight me" ,"how can a guy like that end up broke ?" Duff was pretty p*ssed off with this and checked his books to see what Mugabi's net purse had been for Hagler,it came to $320,000 .
Six weeks after receiving it he asked Duff to pay for an air ticket,during that six weeks Mugabi had bought 5 cars and given a shed load of money away.
When Duff was inducted into the HOF,Hagler was present, unbidden he got up and made a statement."I said something to Mickey Duff once.He know's what it was and I know.And I want to make a public apology".
Duff and Hagler then shook hands.

NB When Mugabi won the light middle title Duff bought him a £1,500 Rolex as a present .Mugabi later sold it for $100.
Some people you just can't help.
ps I was at Wembley one night, in the third row ,when the main event began a black guy in a white cowboy style suit and wearing Stetson came and plonked himself in the vacant seat in front,as the action warmed up he began to leap up and down and I eventually got tired of my very intermittent view of the fight. so I said, "sit f*cking down",I can't see f*ck all".
He turned round, looked at me and sat down.

My mate who had been frantically nudging me in the ribs to keep silent ,leaned over and whispered ,"that's John The Beast Mugabi,he's just signed to fight Hagler". If ever I wished I had been wearing brown trousers that was the time!

God protected a fool that evening!

 

Good post :good

Actually good thread altogether.

Reminds meof some dude that took a swing at Antuofermo ... didn't work out well.

 

Small addition but Duff said he mentioned the hand, they said you can't quit but also went on to say Mugabi never said anything about quitting and never mentioned the hand again.

 

Very good post.you was lucky.

 

The Beast may have been lucky. mcvey might have bobbed under the first and broke his ribs with a searing right uppercut!!!