Who came the closest to actually knocking down Hagler?

Mugabi his biggest and toughest? He could still comfortably make 154 and was campaigning in 2 divisions.

Hagler was on the down and it could clearly be seen against Mugabi. Even so Monroe was a far tougher opponent in fight 1. He put a whooping on him at that stage of his career.

 

I've already mentioned Monroe.

When you say Mugabi was "his biggest (opponent), by far" exactly what criteria are you thinking of?

 

No one really rocked or shook Hagler. The Mugabi bout just saw an aging champion getting caught flush by shots he'd have normally avoided or, at least, rolled with to take some of the steam out of them.

Without their being footage of the Hagler/Monroe I bout, to verify Monroe's effectiveness, I'd say Cabrera 'looked' the closest to putting Hagler down from a punch - But, that was more a loss of balance from a nicely timed counter, from Cabrera, in the very early going (might have even been round 1). But, it was a trifle, really.

Relating to the size of Hagler's opponents, as I've seen discussed on this thread, Cabrera was actually a fairly solid middleweight, despite being quite short. Very stockily built - a bit like Roldan and Sibson, who himself had to work hard to boil down to make 160 - and do so from quite a young age.

Fully Obel was probably the biggest Middleweight Hagler faced, but Geraldo wouldn't be far behind, perhaps. IIRC, Colbert wasn't a particularly small middleweight, either.

Munroe, Watts, Hart and Seales were all relatively tall, but very lean - albeit, like Hearns, I suspect they had the frame to put on the mass, if they had wished to go that route.

 

He hurt him badly, but Hagler was not hurt to the point of being out. He was a very determined guy. Hagler's right leg dipped and he backed off stunned. But he took a few seconds and regrouped. Tommy should not have tried to brawl at that point but to set up that right. He was going too crazy. Both of them were. Anything could have happened in that first round.. Surprised it got out of the first in someways.

 

I don't think with Mugabi Hagler would have gone at him like Hearns. Hearns was the fight he was going to put his all into it and prove something. He cannot do that each time, that would take too much motivation and energy. With John he had no real blueprint. We didn't know what Mugabi was about. Many guys thought he would landed early and then Marvin would take him out after he hurt him. So Marvin went in there sort of tentatively from what I remember. Why would he take a chance against a guy who is 26-0 26 knockouts and no real blueprint to beat him really. With Hearns, he saw Ray beat him, so he had some ideas.

Had he fought Hearns again I don't think he would have gone at him the same way as the first fight either. I think it would have been a much slower paced fight and a lot of punches landed, but not the first round we had. Hagler's style was not great for Tommy. Tommy's way to win would have had to be use the jab and bust up Marvin and hope to cut him up and stop him by TKO. He was not going to knockout Marvin easily and Marvin would have kept on coming. Maybe had he gotten him swelled up and then started to land, but this was 160 where Marvin was pretty solid obviously. I do give Hearns an ok chance in the rematch if he uses his jab and doesn't get into a brawl. Tommy was not going move around like Ray did since he didn't have the lateral movement Ray had. He could move in and out and go around the ring using his jab and busting up a guys face, but Ray had better side to side lateral than Tommy did, which helped him almost go around Hagler at times. Different styles obviously.

 

Mugabi was still able to make 154 however. Many of the guys Hagler fought would have had to chop off an arm.

 

I’m sure in the mayhem of their 3 rounds Minter momentarily stopped him in his tracks but I may have imagined it.

 

I think it was Mugabi. Mugabi clipped Hagler clean a few times in fact. That uppercut he landed in the 6th rd ko most Middleweights in history, and though he was clearly stunned, Hagler barely buldged.
That was the moment I knew Mugabi would not win the fight, and Mugabi seemed to realize it too, because at the end of the rd Hagler was pounding him. It was Like that uppercut pissed Hagler off and made him more determined to ko Mugabi.
It was one of the greatest shots by a proven great puncher I've seen that had absolutely no real effect on the opponent in the thousands of fights I've seen in my over 40yrs of watching boxing.
This fight ruined Mugabi. He was never the same after.

 

Didn't Marvin have unusually large amounts of muscle tissue around his temples meaning in effect that he had natural headgear? This accounts for the fact that it was almost impossible to hurt him.

Is this true?

 

Marcus Geraldo was also 5-11 but always looked taller than that to me — I’d have figured 6-foot or even 6-1.

 

I still think it was Tommy Hearns with that huge right hand in the first round of their fight. Hagler seemed to slow down for at least half a second before he went on trucking. Hearns' hand crumbled after that shot. Hagler had a monstrous chin. Mugabi seemed to bother Hagler with some body shots iirc.

In my opinion attacking the body of an iron chinned opponent is the way to go. You can't harden a liver.

 

this one. with hearns and mugabi honorable mentions

 

Reading this post is like finding out the great new young vicar in your parish....used to be a woman called tegan......Hagler being floored in street fights? And rolling under cars? A badass named wigfall? The mythical Monroe beating......great great post...this is what forums are all about ...learning new stuff...this must be post of the day