Hagler would box his way to a decision. His smooth boxing skills (including very good lateral movement) and jab would play a big part. Rodrigo's best bet would be to keep the pressure on and hope he tires later on but he'd wear some leather.
I'd pick a prime Hagler to take a decision. A Hagler who was Monzon's age when he fought Valdez, ie all but 34 and 35 might struggle. Hagler didn't look so good at 32 against a 3 years out Leonard.
In April 1978 Gil Clancy was Valdéz's manager and had been deliberately avoiding Hagler since Valdéz beat Briscoe to win the title five months prior. This led to a small on-air confrontation just after Hagler KO'd Doug Demmings on the Monroe Brooks - Bruce Curry undercard, which Clancy happened to be broadcasting on CBS. From Sports Illustrated: "After having rendered Doug Denning (sic) almost senseless last Friday night, Marvin Hagler, a bare-skulled and brutish figure, pushed across the ring at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles and began shouting down at Gil Clancy, who was at ringside working as a CBS-TV color commentator. Clancy also is manager of Rodrigo Valdes (sic) the middleweight world champion. Hagler shouted, "I want Valdes bad. Real bad." Clancy is seldom at a loss for words, but now, staring up at Hagler, he was mute." So even Valdéz's management doubted he could win at the time. You can see most of the incident at the very end of this clip: This content is protected
Valdez was shot by that time in '78...it would have proven nothing at all. Rodrigo was about to lose to Hugo Corro.
It does depend a bit on how Valdes approaches this. If he decides to come at Hagler, Marvin will pick him off. If Valdes boxes (which he could do when he wanted to), it would be closer, but he generally preferred to brawl. Hagler UD but it would be competitive. The Valdes that Monzon faced was also near the end of the line. He was also coming off a bad car accident in which he'd injured his right hand.
Oh ,I thought he was the reigning WBC champion who hadn't lost a fight for 6 years? My mistake. ps Valdes was 30 and 31 for the Monzon fights,with 66&67 fights. Monzon a couple of weeks off of 34 &35, with 98 &99 fights.
Then promptly lost twice to Corro and retired. He retired after the second loss, a year after the Monzon series.
It's possible Monzon took something out of him,well its possible to me I know you won't entertain that idea. Bottom line, a mid 30's Monzon beat a reigning Valdes.
He took two beatings at the hands of Carlos Monzon in 1976 and 1977. He would looked horrible against Briscoe in 1977, then two more beating by Hugo Corro in 1978.
