How long did it take for The Leonard-Hagler Super Fight to finally happen?

You can understand why.
I mean who wants to fight guys like Pryor when you can take on the likes of Hearns,Benitez and Duran?

Kalule was a superb fighter as well.Leonard has the best resume in modern boxing.Just because everyone wanted to fight him because he was the big draw doesn't mean he ducked everyone he never fought.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with that,but consider the fact that Ray looked **** in his last outing almost 3 years earlier.
That was all I was meaning in regards to your earlier post K.

 

Tyson-Spinks was also on a Monday night

 

Those were great days.If I'm not mistaken,most of the big fights in the 80's took place midweek.When we only had three or four channels here it was great when they sometimes showed a full Championship card through the night.
I remember Hearns-Barkley and seeing Uncle Roger for the first time through the night midweek.
I'm sure Hearns-Hagler was midweek too.

 

How is it that Hagler,universally regarded as being the absolute best in the world,loses to a natural welterweight,who had fought a single fight in five years - with a three year straight layoff - and,in many people's eyes,shouldn't have even been fighting given his eye injury? Could it be that Sugar Ray was simply that great? I'm not saying that this is the case,but I could see why someone would steer towards that argument.



Leonard destroyed Hagler.He didn't destroy him physically,rather he did so emotionally.Hagler went into hiding,indulged himself with drugs and alcohol and flipped out to such an extent that his wife had to file a restraining order against him.

 

I don't think I ever saw another fighter as great as Hagler, slow down so much in his mid 30's.

If one watches Hagler destroying people in 1981/1982, you wouldn't believe it was the same fighter.

But Leonard was a great fighter and that always helps.

 

Tell me,did you see Hagler "destroy" Marcos Geraldo? I didn't.I saw him defeat Marcos Geraldo,but I never say him destroy him like you'd expect a talent like Hagler to do to such an average boxer in Geraldo.Tell me,why is it that Hagler didn't destroy him?

 

You said its a fight, don't expect me to let you off for your own stupidity, you said something stupid expect to get picked up on it.

How wasn't he scared of Hagler, if he was he would have fought him earlier. He waited until Hagler slowed down and wasn't so marvellous and even then he didn't win a professional style fight. The referees scored it like an amateur bout :good.

People despise him due to his involvement in being on the better end of some very dubious decisions in deed the sort that appeared fixed in his favour.

 

I don't want you to let me off anything.You made silly imputations and I shot them down.Like I said,the only person saying I'm stupid is you,yet I've blown your ridiculous points out of the water.I've said in many threads that Tommy was robbed,yet you talk as if he made a career out of bad decisions.You can make an argument for Ray or Marvin winning that fight,so stop talking out your arse as if it was Abril-Rios.
I said sparring isn't the same as competitive fighting,you're saying it is.Good luck with that one.And you're accusing me of stupidity?
Let me off? Not on your greatest day and my worst!

 

Butthurt Hagler fans.

 

Ray started to handpick in his comebacks after his first real retirement. He knew Hagler was still champion so even if he was rusty, it would be seen as a win. Hagler had not lost yet since winning the title, so anyone beating him for any reason was a great win. But Ray got everything he wanted as far as Hagler rusty to gloves to timing.

 

you guys who come here and say fool and all this and getting all heated up about a boxing message board. State your facts and if they are good they speak for themselves more than getting mad because someone said something you don't like.
So that is what you want Duran to have an excuse for losing instead of being held responsible for his loss? especially to Ray in November of 1980 when he was champion. Duran is not responsible for defending his title? Well that is convienient. It goes along with Duran losing to all the great fighters he ever fought. Hearns,Benitez,Leonard,Hagler. Fact is my point was that Marvin had one year inactivity prior to Mugabi and then over a year inactivity prior to Ray. Duran was not inactive. The comparison is not the same.

Yet again I state Ray was defending his title for only his 2nd time and he was a young champion at the time. He was not the superfighter he became for Hearns in Sept of 1981. He fought Duran's fight and still he was not knocked out. Ray said it himself. I wanted to beat this man at his own game. I almost did. Angelo Dundee told Ray after that fight for the rematch 'now we will fight him our way and humiliate him" . Don't take my word on it. You say Duran had an excuse in the rematch and it was the Duran variable which lost the fight and Ray didn't win it Put the two fights side by side June 80 and Nov. 80 and see how Ray is fighting differently. In the first fight he is standing flat footed. In the rematch moving and Duran never could deal with great movement. The reason Duran quit was not because he had a stomach ache, it was because Ray was starting to land to the body and head in rounds 7 and 8.. And Duran turned his back and waved it off.

With Hagler it was a completely different scenario. Marvin always wanted the huge fight. He couldn't get Ray after 1982 when they proposed it, and he fought Duran , and the Hearns fight then was a big grudge match where he trained in Palm Springs intensely and was mentally and physically set for the fight and put everything into it. And in the fight he was cut and wobbled and came out of it with a win in dramatic fashion. Got the endorsements and took a year off. He looked off against Mugabi and Ray comes out and says he wants to fight him. I actually think the Hearns fight took a lot of Marvin's committment to boxing away. After Ray decided to fight Marvin and announced it at the Maryland TV studio, Marvin had a press conference after the June 23 fight where Hearns fought Medal and Duran fought Sims, and said he wasn't sure he would fight again. I remember thinking he is not really into boxing much anymore. Ray actually decided to fight him watching the Mugabi fight. So as it turns out, over a year later Marvin fights Ray and comes in 158. How is that the same as Duran in 1980? Or Duran losing to Benitez easily in Jan of 1982 when Duran was only 30? Yet people give Duran credit for beating Moore a year and a half after Benitez.

 

I agree, but Ray got everything he wanted for the situation. Had Ray been prime Hagler might have been more motivated, but Ray knew that the Howard fight was not really him and he was not focused. He knew that Hagler would get him to that fighting level other guys could not. He always said it.
I know something came out later that said that Quincy Taylor wobbled him and that is why he boxed Marvin instead of coming out trying to cut Marvin. More nonsense from Ray. He was brilliant the way he didn't engage with Marvin and said they were friends, and acting humble. Even his white suit at the first press conference was some sort of game.
You are right, Marvin was the favorite, but Ray was in better shape than he ever let on and not being worn out and fighting a lot like Hearns and Hagler did in those years, he was fresh and had his secret fights and I think Marvin was in the worst shape mentally and physically he had been in during his reign from the inactivity and the Hearns fight I reached a physical and mental plateau he never could get to again. Maybe in a rematch with Ray he could have, but he never really pushed it. He just got angry and even ignored Ray for years after that.