The Marvelous ones greatest wins Iyo? 1. Hit man Hearns. The War. 2 Alan Minter. When Hagler ripped the title from the English man. Shame on the idiot s that kicked off. 3. Tony Sibson. Probably Hagler at his peak. 4.Roberto Duran. Came from behind to beat Hands of Stone. Duran surprised a few by being there at the end. 5.Antuofermo. The rematch of course, where Hagler got revenge and battered his man. 6.John Mugabi. Marvin last victory. Took on the hard hitting younger man and took some punishing shots.. And still kod him! 7.Benny Briscoe. Before he became champ, an hard fight but it was Marvin s night.
What makes Hagler so impressive to me, isn't the people he beat. It's the manner he beat them in. Everyone at the time was fighting eachother, looking impressive, all seemingly on the same level, and when one of them earned their title defence, they got sent in with Hagler to be slaughtered. He was so many levels above a very good crop of fighters and I find it mind-blowing. That said, I don't find the fighters Hagler beat as impressive as I do other fighters other top middleweights did. But he had such a solid foundation of wins below his thrashings of the top contenders. Guys like Scypion, Watts, Geraldo, Seales, Hart, Obelmejias, etc; and then the tier above that including guys like Roldan, Briscoe, Finnegan, Mugabi and Duran. It may not have any one fighter as good as Dick Tiger or Joey Giardello on there, or even as good as Rodrigo Valdez - but it does have an incredibly amount of depth. Anyway, his top five. My top five Hagler wins, are: #05. Tony Sibson #04. Mustafa Hamsho I #03. Alan Minter #02. Vito Antuofermo II #01. Tommy Hearns I have Hearns as one, because not only was it a superfight, I think Hearns, head-to-head, is the best man he ever beat. I think Vito beat Minter and would fair better vs the best ever than Minter would, not to mention the best at the time. I thought Hamsho lost to a past it Minter, so I find the one Hagler beat to be a better win. Sibson was a good fighter who'd give an any of them hard fight with his heart and punch. But I think he'd lose to Hamsho.
Yeah, with Hagler it’s a body of work, the fashion in which he dominated, in addition to his supreme skill set which when it all comes out in the wash screams “ALL-TIME GREAT.” Hearns is his finest moment, Sibson is his finest performance. Minter is somewhere in the middle of those two. He beat up a crop of middles in Hamsho, Roldan, Onelmeijas, Mugabi, who without him around could have reigned. Then there’s the Philly battlefield he cut his teeth in.
I had him the winner, did then and still do. Wonder if with modern technology we can somehow have the announcer say *THE WINNER AND.. STILL MIDDLEWEIGHT CHAMPION OF THE WORLD.. MARVELOUS MARVIN HAGLER!!? Be good.
Love, love, love the video where Hagler won a fight in Philadelphia and got on the mic afterwords and called out Briscoe, where everybody heard it. I rank Minter #1. Once again, Marvin smashed a physically bigger man.
Minter or Hearns. Those were truly great victories. Sibson was his greatest boxing performance, perhaps.
Willie The Worm would be somewhere in the top 5 for me. He was the only fighter to ever legitimately beat Marvin Hagler. Marvin got his payback 2x.
Hagler defeated many fighters that likely win a championship "If their was no Hagler" scenario. Fighters like Hamsho,Roldan , Sibson, Mugabi, Oelmejimas, and of course Hearns and Duran would more than likely would've won at least a version of the Middleweight championship. I've watched everyone of those men in fights that didn't include Hagler and everyone of them were good fighters . Not to mention Anterfermo and Minter whom won the championship. It's a testament how great a fighter Hagler was defeating those men, most he devastated them, a few (Mugabi Sibson and Roldan) Never seemed quite the same again. My top #5 wins will look a little different than most, but if the criteria is best performances and not the most high profile these are mine. #1 Tony Sibson he performed like a trained surgeon against a top rated and tough contender a simple master class. #2 Mustafa Hamsho 1-2 another masterful performance. #3 Alan Mintor , In England, Minter said he wouldn't lose his title to a black man, someone forgot to tell Hagler that. #4 Hearns his only chance of winning is the way he took. No way he wins a chess match against Hearns from long distance, "He took the chance to be great " took the fight to Hearns, Hearns being the warrior he was decided to fight fire with fire, the rest is history. #5 J.Mugabi most on this site underestimate Mugabi's abilities. I saw him coming up, he was the real deal, prior to Hagler he was a destructive force, just destroyed some of the toughest jr middles and middles of the day. he pushed Hagler harder than anyone. ( If he couldn't fight, and wasn't genuinely tough, that fight doesn't take as long as it did.) Hagler stripped him of the most important aspect of a fighter, his confidence, he never was the same again, his body even seemed to change losing some of his muscularity and definition.
I think the manner in which he demolished Hamsho in the rematch makes it an underrared win. Hamsho had defeated an undefeated Bobby Czyz, and mauled Wilfred Benitez in the period between their two fights, while Hagler seemed to struggle with Roldan and Duran in his previous two contests. A lot of observers felt that Hamsho might improve on the result of the previous fight, even if winning seemed unlikely. Instead, Hagler wiped him out in three, dropping him twice along the way. No one really expected him to do that...But that's exactly what he did.
As mentioned; The WormII needs to be top five. Redemption and what must have been so personally satisfying and arguably was the final spring that put Hagler at the level, that would eventually show him undoubtedly a top ten Middleweight, and I suspect a majority top five pick.
I like the Mugabi win as well. Not the best version of Hagler but it was the best version of Mugabi. He's another guy that may have reached a higher level had he not had to share a ring with Hagler. Marvin broke his will finally. Mugabi left a piece of himself in there.