Would Marvin Hagler Have Fought At Super Middleweight ?

Marvin was clearly scared of moving up and facing a fresh, fully energized Fully Obel at 168.

 

Did you really have dinner with Conteh??

And the fight everyone wanted to see was Hagler/Spinks. I don't think Hagler would have haggled with Spinks.

 

Were they knocking on his door or climbing through his window?

 

Well Leonard possibly broke in through the window as their bout result was to some a robbery, and a certain Mr Hearns could well have broke the door down and invaded Haglers castle, as their initial face to face contact at ring of the bell was a extremely violent interaction, the invader came guns a blazing and Mr Hagler did well to meet fire with fire, and most certainly stood his ground.

 

He was Fully Obel at 168. At 160, he was only Partially Full Obel.

 

I think part of it is the sheer discipline of making weight. Now you get a bit slack in training, get a bit older, eat too many pizzas, start a coke habit and bingo you got a weight class you can jump into ready made. Before SMW it was a big jump up to LHW for a smaller MW so you had no choice but to lay off the cookies and make the weight. People admire Hagler and Monzon because they were disciplined and maintained that level of focus for years.

 

If he attempted it, he'd win some and lose some. But I don't see anyone even then stopping him.
Marvin was a warrior through and through.

 

Good points. I agree and it’s the discipline that makes his tenure so special. Imagine beating, say, Fully Obel (aka Halfy-Halfy Obel back then) and getting another call to find out he’s your #1 mandatory again and you’ll get stripped if you don’t fight him, but you just pack your bags, fly to Italy and KO him again. Very impressive.

Many a heavyweight would get a similar call in the 1980s and 90s, to which they’d shout down the phone “how the **** is Tony Tucker #1 again?”

Also, back then, the LHW division was regarded as boxing’s ugly step-child, it lacked the prestige of being middleweight champ, which while heavyweight was often seen by the layman as the ‘baddest/hardest man’ in sport, the middleweight champ had a reputation as the ‘best fighter in the sport’. The quote “I don’t really like the heavyweights, I prefer the middleweights” (which often lumps in the welter and the like, too) is one of the most common phrases I’ve heard when talking about boxing in work or the pub.*

I remember two of the first boxing magazines I bought were Boxing Illustrated’ and Ring/KO in early 1990 with their reviews of the 1980s and when Hagler was #1 (BI) and Leonard was #1 in others. So you have one guy who jumps weight, doesn’t fight much but wins big fights or the guy who stays put and dominates much of the decade. Both were good choices, depending on what you fancy.




* The old axiom “as go the heavyweights, so goes boxing” I’ve never found to be true. Certainly not in my experience.

 

I think he was content w ruling MW. Would b interesting had he moved up but I just don't understand the critique of him staying at MW. He has solid wins not like he was padding his record and I think ppl obsess over being a multi weight champion instead of acknowledging that.

 

Good thing Monzon didn't fight Foster lol

 

You'd think so but every now and then we are shocked Clint. Spinks - Holmes, Leonard - Duran, etc.

Not saying it would have and he would have been up against it but it would have certainly been interesting.

 

This is true

 

I get the idea that Hagglers dream was to be the greatest ever middleweight .

As others have said, he was not a big middleweight, albeit I am sure that eh could have had success at 168.

If the division had a bit more glamour at teh time, he might have been tempted to take a fight at 168, before cashing out.