The Hagler that fought Mugabi versus the McClellan that fought Mugabi

Hagler gets knocked down and stopped after taking too much punishment. The only reason I say this is because this was one of the worst Hagler performances IMO. Hagler at his best gets a knock out late on.

 

Hagler might be the only man to beat McClellan h2h. But this in arnation of hagler was a bit past it, not by alot but noticeably, the best hagler vs the best McClellan I'd say hagler by u.d. but in this fight wed probably see hagler not allowed to continue after 3 knock downs, would hate to see that cause a t.k.o. on his record would crush hagler's spirit probably worse than it did to foreman.

 

The 86 version of Hagler would still win. McClellan would be a hell of threat though.

 

Hagler was uninspired and not motivated for Mugabi. I honestly think the Hearns fight was what he always wanted. The acclaim and recognition and he got it. Pizza Hut, Coke commercials. Right guard I think? And he didn't look good before the fight. I think he reached what he wanted and he didn't know how to get out of boxing. And Ray noticed the slip and said I want to fight him. Hagler should have retired after Hearns. His legacy would have been pretty strong.

 

I went to McClellan/Mugabi (the Bruno comeback), I walked away being underwhelmed by Mugabi, not high on McClellan. Thus I take Hagler.

 

Hagler by decision.

The version of Mugabi that Hagler faced was of course prime, while the version McClellan faced was an empty shell.

But, Mugabi has nothing to do with why I'd pick Hagler.

Hagler would take McClellan into deep waters and drown him.

McClellan never won a fight in his whole career that went past eight rounds.

 

Benn beat McClellan and the Hagler that beat Mugabi would have beaten Benn, G-man had no defense at all v Benn, Hagler was harder to hit, don`t forget Mugabi was throwing tons of shots at Marvin.

 

The dog killer is wildly overrated, any version of Hagler ****s him up

 

Gerald had brain damage before that fight even happened, and it started to show at round 2. Also I wouldn't say benn really beat him anyways, he showed alot of heart but was losing on the score cards and was taking a much more brutal ass whoopin than McClellan was before he fell into a coma

 

Even if you give him a pass for the Benn fight, McClellan still lost two decisions to nobodies as a prospect and all of the sparring footage I've see of him shows him getting schooled (by Toney, Hearns, and I think McCallum). I'm not convinced he was better than Pavlik.

Hagler would find a way and probably stop him, any version.

 

Hagler, even the Hagler that fought Mugabi defeats any version of Mcclean. If Mugabi, Hearns, Briscoe, Sibson, Roldan, Lee, and other noted punchers only pissed him off after the landed on him ( Hagler) , I don't see McClellan able to do much better. Were not talking about a shot Mugabi, or past prime natural Jr. Middleweight like J Jackson. Or like Benn showed a great chin prior to his fight with McClellan ( He was stopped twice by average punchers like Eubanks and Watson, and his ass was on the canvas by other fighters and that was before his fight with McClellan) I think Mccelean gets more noise than he actually deserves when you look at his opponents closely and when he fought them . Sure he could hit hard but he was pretty much 1 dimensional. Hagler, even the Hagler that was past prime, and had to go to war with Mugabi would do the same to Mccelean. Probably even earlier. Question should be could the version of Mugabi that looked so powerful against Hagler and had never tasted defeat until that night. Could Mccelean had ruined Mugabi the way Hagler did. And that's very doubtful to me. I don't think he beats prime Mugabi at all TBH.

 

Some good points here.

Just to add to them, Hagler would make a lot of people's list of the best chins in boxing history. You can count the number of times he was visibly hurt on less than three fingers.

I agree (to a degree) about McCellan's power and it being a little overrated. I don't think he was as proven a puncher as Julian Jackson for example. In a way he was similar to Mugabi in that he was blowing out lesser opponents and looked awesome because of it. He could obviously really bang but Hagler wouldn't just let him tee off. Even '86 Hagler still had enough on him to stick and move when required.

As has been mentioned already, Hagler wasn't motivated by the Mugabi fight and that affected his performance probably more than a physical decline. But once he got dragged into trench warfare, he showed his remarkable resiliency and the presence of mind to bide his time to finish Mugabi off.

McCellan didn't go past 10 rounds in his career once. Hagler's big fight experience (and superior boxing ability) would show here. He would have to weather the early storm that McClellan would inevitably bring but I trust Hagler's chin, experience and all-round ability to trump G-Man's early round bombing.

Hagler TKO 8.

 

Jackson is more proven as a puncher for sure Jel as he has knocked out top 10 and top 5 contenders albeit not a pile of them. The way he pole axed some of those lesser fighters is also very telling. Mugabi certainly punched very hard but Jackson is one helluva P4P puncher.

For me even an 86 Hagler is much more vulnerable to a slick boxer than a puncher. Even this version would be hell to have to go thru and for me Gerald certainly isn't doing it.

 

Gerald is not in Haglers class, Marvin stops him in 9