Why would you say he won then, didn`t he just catch the judges eye for 20 secs at the end of each round?
The final CompuBox stats showed Leonard landing 306 of 629 total punches (49%-52 per round) to 291 of 792 (37%-66 per round) for Hagler Leonard landed 258 of 490 power punches (53%) to 213 of 581 (37%) for Hagler.
does any of that really matter when the blow by blow analysis shows otherwise? psyche outs are irrelevant It comes down to blows scored Not blows that were caught on the gloves or missed by an inch nor is it won by how long a guy can move in circles
He beat Leonard at 154 which is almost as good I was in attendance at one of Marv's sparring sessions, Mar. 87 with the Weaver Triplets. Two of them had Norris - esque like speed and caused Marvin headaches, even causing him to go wild and fall thru the ropes at one point It was a clear case of outspeeding Hags Could Norris do the same to 1987 Hagler? Could he go all the way and win the big one??? He did it with Leonard
Spot on Robert … I mean people here are forgetting about the crucial mental part of the sport and staying focused !! A LA … Monzon
A) I disagree with your video’s call of what landed and what did not. B) You don’t just count punches and see who touched the other guy with his glove the most, add them up at the end and raise his hand — we score by rounds on the 10-point must system in professional boxing with four criteria; EFFECTIVE punching, EFFECTIVE aggression, defense and ring generalship. That’s the rules. You want to throw three of those out with the bath water. Imposing your plan on the other guy ... dictating terms of the fight ... is generalship. Leonard did that in more rounds than Hagler. He also landed, IMO, more effective blows. Defense ebbed and flowed, with both having their moments. Effective aggressiveness did also, although I’d say more of Ray’s aggressiveness (coming out of a corner landing and driving Marvin back, for instance) was effective than MMH’s (follow Leonard around the ring like a puppy dog). You are equating a right lead that lands flush on the nose to two guys in a clinch and one of them, with absolutely no leverage or punching form, taps the other guy on the side — you literally give Hagler scoring punches for those. No judge in the world considers that a proper punch and gives a guy a round based on it. At best what you’re doing is amateur scoring — if a glove ticks the other guy’s glove and still lands with impact, you say the punch didn’t land. That’s amateur, not pro.
Punches landed does not dictate who wins professional boxing matches. Norris had poor whiskers. Hagler would have knocked him out. Remember Norris was KOed four times in 9 pro losses. No one rates Norris over Leonard pfp. In fact Norris is not rated as an ATG pfp fighter. Leonard always is.
Scoring a pro fight can be quite subjective. Factors such as ring generalship, defense, effective aggressiveness, the power of blows struck vs volume. Also scoring a knockdown is given great weight while in the amateurs it’s considered as just one blow. Amateur bout scoring is highly OBJECTIVE as the quantity of punches landed is the overriding criteria for victory.
At the time it was close but the controversy was around the one judge that had it 118-110 or some wide like that. Some people didn't like seeing Hagler (a long time respected champion) lose his title that way. I think Leonard won it close but it took me years to accept that.
I dont know. It's just really hard to make a case for Leonard winning because while Leonard did have Marvin step back a couple times, I well remember Leonard did the majority of grabbing and holding so what I was forced to do in this case, is just go with the overall number of scoring punches. the effect which cannot be measured and is very subjective (especially when you know your man has lost). Besides that, do not jabs count? they are not considered the heaviest blows yet are still counted in scoring
Good post. Leonard played Hagler like a YoYo. At the end of the day Marvin Hagler probably got the last laugh because he never cameback to get KOd by lesser boxers.
