Thoughts going in to Hagler V Leonard?

I thought like you did. 6 rounds or maybe less.. It was thought that Ray would show up and Hagler would take over and knock him out and Ray got to fight him.

 

After seeing Haggler demolish Thomas Hearns it wasn't easy to imagine Ray Leonard avoiding the same outcome if he came in significantly below his former prime condition. However, if Leonard could give a performance close to his former prime-then I considered it possible he would win on points based on his evasiveness and superior hand speed. It all depended in what condition Leonard would show up for the fight.

One thing to keep in mind about why Hearns was knocked out is that he attempted to slug it out with Haggler. If he had stuck and moved as he did in his bout with Leonard, then he might have won on points. In short, any boxer attempting to mix it up with Haggler like Hearns did ran a big risk of either been outpointed or KO'd.

Leonard understood this and pulled off the win. He also understood that his superior hand velocity would give him impressive moments after which he would cunningly resume his backpedalling frustrating evasiveness.

 

Hagler had slowed down...Ray wouldn't fight him around time of the Hearns fight...Leonard saw that Marvin had slipped somewhat after the Mugabi fight....knew then that he had a chance....and I went into the fight thinking
SRL was going to get the decision...I knew it as the fight went on....

 

Publicity won it for leonard, the impossible comeback etc etc.

They hyped it so much he was always going to get the decision, terrible decision also in my opinion.

Hagler won that fight, it was close but not that close for it to be hand clapped to srl.

 

I thought SRL must have thought he had some sort of a chance to be taking this fight. He was just so canny and smart when it came to boxing and whilst i doubted he could truly pull it off i thought he was worth a few bucks.

 

Hagler brought the defeat down on himself.....and postfight to this day, knows it.

 

This content is protected

 

I agree. He didn't fight Hagler after Hearns. And Hagler was inactive a year after Hearns, and rusty with Mugabi and would be even more rusty for Ray.

 

I thought Leonard would get stopped

He had fought once in 5 yrs, and was dropped by journeyman 154 lb. Kevin Howard in that one fight.

It's basically unheard of for a fighter, no matter how good he had been, to shake off that type of ring rust and go right into a title fight and beat the dominant champion.

 

I figured Leonard would get KO'd.