One of my favourite philly fighters, what are your thoughts on him? any one got any good interviews with him?
I can't think of another American City which has produced more tougher fighters at one weight: Eugene"Cyclone"Hart Bennie Briscoe Bobby"Boogaloo" Watts Willie"The Worm" Monroe Frank"The Animal"Fletcher Joey Giardello Bernard Hopkins Curtis Parker Oh God, I could go on and on...
He actually gave Hagler a good run for his money until deciding to give up for no apparent reason - surprising, since he seemed like a decent, canny, quick fighter with a fair bit of promise. He was also doing damage to Autuofermo before he lost motivation. Maybe, with a bit more killer instinct, he could have cracked the top level.
I think Hagler said he was the hardest hitter he faced although I think he said that about Mugabi as well.
Hart got his strength from being in a wheel chair I think from childhood polio, but his arms got very strong. he had one of the best double and triple hooks ever but his legs were weak. He rocked Vito but the tough Italian came back hard to take him out.
Hart was the epitome of the kill or be killed fighter, if he didn`t blast you out of there with his vaunted left hook he usually got flattened himself, lotta fun to watch. Just recently I re-watched his bouts vs Nate Collins and Jose Gonzalez, both good action fights. Collins came back to KO Hart in the 8th after getting decked early and taking a shellacking in the first few rounds, apparently the story goes that after decking Collins Hart made a very insulting remark of a personal nature towards him, after Collins got up he turned the tide shortly afterwards and kept it up until the KO. Against Gonzalez Hart just got battered from pillar to post for the most part, got dropped a few times early and then went into survival mode on the ever advancing Rican. Hart really was a frontrunner, if he felt you wouldn`t succumb to his power or be intimidated by it he usually fell apart mentally and the end wasn`t too far off. Either way though he was a lotta fun to watch, could use a guy like him around today to liven things up at jr.middle/middle.
Did eugene have a long amature career? cause alot of philly fighters hopkins, chandler, qawi, watts and hopkins all had very little amature experience
Without a doubt, Hagler made it quite clear he was the hardest hitter he ever faced. When that includes one of the P4P most devastating punchers ever in Tommy Hearn's, you take notice. Just the way he wrapped that hook around his entire body before throwing it... ****ing literally spun himself around at times because of how hard he had thrown the shot.