Hi Buddy. Firstly welcome aboard, nice to see new members, hope you will be embraced by the forum, as to your post, think the fight has been out there before, and the general consensus was Hagler would emerge the winner, after a exciting and vigorous battle, with Valdez putting up his usual stoic resistance. satay safe Wladimir, chat soon.
I think Hagler leans heavily on his footwork & boxing skills (a la the Briscoe fight) & outboxes Valdes to a dec.
Hagler UD. But that’s from late 79 onwards. Earlier than that and Valdez might just pinch it. Peak for peak definitely Hagler.
Valdez's style was just the type Hagler shinned against. Aggressive power punchers and brawlers /inside fighters. Hagler could use his entire offensive against those styles, especially his switching hitting and countering abilities. Hagler by UD, late ko.
Hagler outboxes and especially outmaneuvers Valdez to a UD. Late Hagler makes it a war but still gets the decision or gets the tko via cut.
Hagler racks up early rounds but iron-chinned Valdez remains unlettered and picks up the production over the second half and stings Hagler a couple times. A barnburner with Hagler's early work deciding the score.
He didn’t shine vs. Vito Antuofermo in their first meeting (the second he carved Vito’s scar tissue up like a Thanksgiving turkey and got a cuts stoppage). Vito was nothing if not a pressure fighter (albeit not a power puncher) so I could see Valdez beating Hagler. Hagler’s the greater fighter, but Rodrigo isn’t chopped liver. I like his chances H2H. (On a more comic note, I recently came across an old magazine that had an account of Hagler-Antuofermo I and the writer noted that most of the people at ringside who thought it was a bad decision were the Boston press who came to see their local guy crowned king. He made a pretty good joking narrative about how Marvin was the Uncrowned Champion and defended that uncrown successfully by the draw, thus would get to move on to his next defense, haha.)
It's weird how certain fighters could take Hagler out of his game. Though personally I feel Hagler beat Antefermo twice, he did leave the first fight open to interpretation. As he did a couple times earlier in his career. As he was by Duran. And later on by Leonard. Hagler is the best middleweight in history in my opinion. But unlike Duran at lightweight, Robinson at welterweight, or Ali at heavyweight , I do believe he had more weaknesses than the other three. And not physically but mentally.... Hagler seemed more robotic, than creative in the heat of battle against certain opponents. Yeah, it's kinda weird too me.... But Valdez fought more like Alan Minter than Vito Antuofermo..
