A deeper dive on Marvelous Marvin Hagler's greatness.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler was not like other fighters, and not just because he was a southpaw. He wasn't a child prodigy that was Boxing in his single digit years, and he wasn't Boxing out of need to put food on the table like some fighters do sooner or later due to their enviroment. Hagler's enviroment was worse. Aside from having an absentee father, he was there to witness the 1967 Newark race riots up close, and spent days flinching at the gunfire outside, and would crawl along the floor, hoping the building wouldn't get destroyed, and that he would live to see another day. After another riot in 1969, his family moved to Brockton, Massachusetts, but he still wouldn't pick up Boxing, instead he opted to work at a toy factory. He started Boxing due to a simple grudge, due to getting beaten up in a street fight against a kid who was a Boxer, and got humiliated in front of his friends, before the punk stole his leather jacket. He showed up at the Petronelli brothers' gym the next day and would watch the fighters train for days, until he said that he wanted to learn how to fight. No matter how much Petronelli would speak of the pros and cons of the sport, Hagler wouldn't budge, compared to what he had already seen, some measly punches hitting his face wouldn't bother him one bit.

After a very respectable amateur career, in which he would win the AAU tournament, he would turn pro. Before going on to do anything remarkable, he would first have to get rid of the punk that beat him up 4 years ago, that guy being Dornell Wigfall, who was 8-0, and 8-1 after Hagler was done with him. A year later, he would defeat the 1972 Gold Medalist, the 21-0 Sugar Ray Seales, who would experience his first defeat as a professional. Almost 3 months later, he would face Seales again, but would get a draw, in a fight with some flabbergasting scorecards, with 2 judges scoring 8 even rounds, and only one judge edging it to Hagler. After this, Hagler would have a rematch with the now 14-2 Wigfall, who wouldn't even be able to hear the count when he was dropped in the 6th round. ''This one was personal'' said Hagler. Despite his undefeated record, no one knew who Hagler was yet, and he wasn't able to get good fights. He was even set up to fight the 30-0 Johnny Baldwin, a 1968 Bronze Medalist, his manager half hopping that he would lose the fight so that he could get more quality match ups in the future. Baldwin clearly lost the decision.

The Petronelli brothers and Sam Silverman, his manager, set their sights to Philadelphia, which was home to many Middleweight contenders, who might have even picked up a strap in another era. He even met the great Heavyweight Champion Joe Frazier, who famously told him '' You've got three things going against you. You're black, you're left haned, and you're good.''. Hagler was now set to fight the #10 rated Middleweight, Bobby Watts. Although Hagler had appeared to get the better of it, the referee called it even, and even worse, the 2 judges had it for Watts. The Philadelphia Boxing director, J Russell Petz, was embarrassed and went on to apologize to Silverman. ''Ah, I've been around forever. I'm used to it'' he said. ''Welcome to Phidadelphia, Marvin Hagler'', said the headline in the Philadelphia Inquirer the next day.

Hagler was then scheduled to fight the #6 rated Middleweight, Willie Monroe, who had previously beaten Watts. A blizzard would effectively kill the gate, but some diehard fans would still attend. ''In my mind, that remains the only fight Marvin Hagler ever lost. Monroe had the best fight of his career. Willie just had one of those nights every fighter dreams about.'' said Peltz. He had already lost against 2 guys from Philadelphia, if he would lose to another one, he would forever just be reduced to an opponent. Hagler would then proceed to meet the brief top 10 contender, Eugene ''Cyclone'' Hart, who was his last chance at making things different. Hart had previously defeated Seales, and even managed to get a draw with Bennie Briscoe. Halger walked right through him, and Hart told his own trainer to just throw in the towel. He did just that after the 8th. This secured him a rematch with Monroe.

Monroe had Eddie Futch and George Benton working in his corner. Hagler didn't leave it to the judges this time, knocking out Monroe out in the 12th with a right uppercut and a straight left hand. The great Eddie Futch, the man behind Ali's losses against Frazier and Norton, said ''It seemed like every time we had Willie do something, Marvin did something else.''

Don King was spending several months negotiation a ''United States Boxing Championships'' that would take place year long in 1977. Many great talents were excluded, but Hagler's exclusion was the worst. It was evident that most fighters there had ties to King and other managers of similar ilk. Instead, former Hagler victim Johnny Baldwin was included, who hadn't had a single fight after Hagler, as well as Ike Fuellen, who was inactive for an entire year. King wanted to take control of Marvin's career, and even approached his mother saying he would gain a spot in the tournament if he went with him and not the Petronellis. Hagler refused, saying ''We're all in this together''. Hagler would go on to win against Olympian Reggie Ford, Roy Jones Sr, and would even knock out Willie Monroe in the second round this time. Hagler grabbed the announcer's mic and called out Bennie Briscoe after that astonishing performance.

But before the fight was about to transpire, Hagler would defeat the #2 rated Middleweight, Mike Colbert, and he also twice defeated the British Commonwealth champion and former top 5 rated Middleweight, Kevin Finnegan, on cuts. Marvin was now the the #1 Middleweight contender. He was about to face the #3 rated Middleweight, Bennie Briscoe. Hagler suffered a terrible cut during the first round when he and Briscoe clashed heads, so he won by boxing Briscoe in a tight circle and keept his distance. The fight was dissapointing, and Briscoe refused to shake hands due to Hagler's passive manner of winning the fight, but the decision clearly belonged to Marvin. But Hagler would still have a hard time attracting a big time promoter or a title shot. After one last win against his former rival, Sugar Ray Seeles, whom he dropped three times in the first round, he would fight Norberto Rufino Cabrera in a fight that was taped by the ABC, Cosell said after the fight to Michael Katz ''You call this a great fighter ? I was just on the phone to New York and told them not to put that piece of **** on the air !''. The performance was a virtuoso on Hagler's behald for most observers. Hagler would now get a title shot against Antuofermo for his title after Arum was threatened by Ted Kennedy and Tip O'Neill, but he would still play second fiddle to Sugar Ray Leonard, whose match against Benitez was scheduled as the main event.

Hagler was excellent, landing combinations and hitting Vito with everything he had, Antuofermo had his moments, but by no means did he win. The fight was a draw, and Vito would keep his titles. Hagler was visited by Joe Louis in his dressing room, who told him ''You won that fight, don't give up''. Sugar Ray Leonard watched it in his dressing room and said ''Damn, no way Marvin didn't win that fight''. Hagler would go on a mean winning streak after this, defeating the #6 rated Loucif Hamani, his previous robbery victim Bobby Watts who would be stopped in 2, and formerly #4 rated Marcos Geraldo. He would then once again gain a title shot at Alan Minter, who had twice defeated Antuofermo for his titles. Hagler would stop him in 3 bloody and furious rounds, Minter would need 15 stiches after the fight. Everybody started aggressively throwing bottles in what should have been a celebration, beer was splattering everywhere. Hagler didn't get his belts that night, all he got was a broken car window. After this, Hagler would go on to have one of the best title reigns in Middleweight history.

The #4 rated Fulgencio Obelmejias would get stopped in the 8th, the #3 rated former champ Vito Antuofermo would only go 4, since it was personal for Hagler. The #2 rated Mustafa Hamsho wouldn't go past 11, the now #6 rated Obelmejias would last 6 in the rematch, the #2 rated Tony Sibson would also go 6, the #6 rated Wilford Scypion would get knocked out in 4. Then, the brilliant ATG Roberto Duran would provide a great test for him, inviting him into a very underrated technical bout, which Hagler would manage to edge out in the end, making Duran the only man to go the distance against Hagler in his title reign until Leonard. The #5 rated Juan Roldan got stopped in the 10th, the #1 rated Thomas Hearns would go to a 3 round war with him, one in which Hagler could have easily been stopped due to his cut, but the doctor let him continue, leading Hagler to knock Hearns unconsiouss in one of Boxing's all time great slug fests. It was evident that Hagler was in decline in the Mugabi bout, which Hagler persevered to knock out Mugabi in the 11.

Sugar Ray Leonard thought so too, he decided to come back after an almost 5 year hiatus, in which he had one fight in between. It was personal for Hagler again, Leonard had humiliated him in public by announcing in front of thousands of people that he would retire, and not face Hagler. Everyone of course thought that Leonard had no chance, but despite that, he managed to create a miracle and won the fight in the official verdict. Many disagree on who really won the fight, some picking Hagler, others picking Leonard. But Hagler had made an oath with himself to never let the judges get in his way again, and he failed to deliver that oath, thus retiring from the sport.