Hagler took the loss hard and retired at age 32. Suppose Hagler never fought Leonard. How many more title defense could he have made? Would he have matched Monzon's count?
I think he would have fought on for years, and could have broken Monzon's record. I think he still would have mopped the floor with the other middleweights around. The Leonard fight deeply wounded him. Leonard owed him an immediate rematch, but was a smarmy little **** about it (surprise, surprise!), and instead just milked his fame as long as he could, avoiding Hagler. Marvin would have smoked him in a rematch.
just to throw this in the mix. Was Marv really 32? I remember seeing a report that he was 34 and in this report someone who would have been the same age (34) was quoted as saying that Marvin was in the year above at school and that 'it wasn't because of his academic performance' or words to the effect. I'm afraid the source for that is memory. Anyone else hear anything that Marvin was older than stated? Whatever, he fought better than most men 10 years younger and even today at nearly 62 (64, 65) looks more fit and well than men with 20 years on him. Incredible specimen.
Most likely he was 34, going on 35. At the time he fought Minter, it was reported he was born in 1952.
He wouldn't have had many more successful defenses. I don't know how much you know about Hagler but he had slowed down an extremely considerable amount and he was becoming less and less active leading up to the Leonard fight. Had it been a few years earlier then Hagler would have mopped the floor with Leonard. Oh well, that's boxing.
Always seemed to be an in joke that Marvin was older than advertised, like Archie Moore and Sonny Liston. Both Leonard and Dundee hinted at it during the build up to their fight. As to the question, Hagler was already considering retirement before Leonard. Had the Leonard fight not materialised, I think he would have retired anyway.
Aging Hagler would have struggled against the fresh new crop of athletic 160-lb fighters. Probably wouldn't have fared all that well, unless he found more undersized opponents to bring up to 160...
Hagler was slowing down SRL picked the right time to take him on .if hagler hadn't fought him he was due to fight Graham that would have been interesting if he got past bomber Graham he probably would have met kalamba that would have been a very tough fight for hagler at that point in his career don't think he could of beaten sumbu .
You don't sound like you're a fan of Hagler; sounds like you're ignorant of the subject matter. Sounds like you weren't following boxing when Hagler was champion, if you were, I doubt you would make snide, ******y comments like your last one...Hagler was massively respected, admired and feared at the time. A great, great champion such as Hagler doesn't deserve such thinly veiled criticism. It's not like Hagler was the ONLY champion ever to fight guys coming up in weight. As MW champion, Caveman Lee aside, Hagler pretty much faced either the mandatory contender or the fights where there was a high public demand and interest and plenty of moolah for all parties (Duran, Hearns, Leonard). Furthermore, Hagler's body of work BEFORE he became champion was highly impressive.
Agree with the sentiment of this post. Against Graham, I'm not sure the Bomber would have had the self-belief & winning mentality to defeat Marvin at the time. Around the time of the Hagler-Leonard & Kalambay-Graham 1, I suspect Hagler would have been the bookies favourite (Sumbu was still a fairly well kept secret this side of the pond up to the Graham fight), but the decline in Hagler that became apparent during the Mugabi fight and very clear during the Leonard fight would have made Hagler-Kalambay a winnable fight for Sumbu.
I tend to agree most of this. Leonard waited for the perfect time to accept the fight and won the negotiating rules for ring size, and 12 rounds instead of 15. This does not excuse Hagler's doing very little the first four rounds of the fight! Hagler was too risk adverse for his own good, even vs smaller men until he found himself behind or in a close fight. See Duran or Leonard. And he really was initially outboxed by Mugabi too. I tend to think Hagler would have more fights left in him if he did not fight Leonard. The Leonard defeated wounded his warrior spirit. Would he have broken Monzon's record? Depends on who he selected or was forced to meet. Mike Nunn, I think had the tools to defeat an aging Hagler.
