38 years ago today: "Marvelous" Marvin Nathaniel Hagler vs. John Paul "The Beast" Mugabi

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Thing about JPM is: of the many boxers to have been christened "The Beast" - his claim is perhaps the most legit. That is what he was.

Thing about MNH, however, is that he also had within him a beastly side par excellence - along with more wrinkles to his game (ie could brawl or box, moving forward or backward, leading or countering, working in volume or econimically for percentages - and was effectively ambidextrous to boot) than a basketful of Shar-Pei puppies, making him truly "Marvelous".

You wouldn't be a march hare for having it a sweep for Mugabi through four - or, you could just as reasonably have it 39-37 for Hagler. The average fan & pundit scorecard had them split 38-all one third of the way into the scheduled twelve; probably that is the most equitable.

The rest of the way, though, it was virtually all the champion surging to build & widen a points lead behind his flintlock southpaw jab - save in the 7th, when Mills Lane fairly docked him for a meaty south of the border right hook; and the 9th which you could in all sobriety give the challenger. Given the sweltering assault he withstood in the 5th-8th, you almost want to give it to John Paul sentimentally even if you do see it a Hagler round or 10-10 in your heart of hearts. The last minute of it at the very least was a near ATG rally from the Ugandan.

But then, what do all the real greats do, confronted with peers stepping up their game? They strap on the jetpack and make the opponent wear their exhaust trail like a Carmen Miranda headpiece.

At the point in a grueling fight when you'd expect most of even the mortal ranks' most elite fighters to begin to wane in their output & intensity, Hag dialed in and went up a gear. Mugabi was defeated on paper via TKO in round 11, but not quite halfway into round 10 you can see the shocked awe setting in on his face as he felt himself plucked and transferred from a bucket labeled "equal combatant" to another labeled "prey". He knew he didn't have a third wind in him, and even if he did it mightn't have mattered. The undisputed 160lb king of the world has set out to prove a point at his expense and that resolve only calcified in the championship rounds.

If you were to give Mugabi the benefit of the doubt in all the rounds he could have won (1-4 and 9), you would with the point deduction actually have him ahead at the stoppage, 95-94. He was, however, again, already dead in the water before sitting on his stool for the last time between rounds ten & eleven.

A pair of the GOAT middleweight chins on display here (very few names rubbing shoulders with them at the very top - Monzón, Fullmer, Toney, maybe a couple others). So too is some of the best bell-to-bell bilateral body punching you'll find in a match - as their subsequent weeks of bloody urine would attest.

Apropos of nothing, btw - anybody know exactly when & why Budweiser ever stopped renting ad space on ring canvases? Such an iconic look - and I don't even really like Bud! (not the worst American domestic beer maybe, but...miles from the best. And that again, is at the mere lowly American domestic level )

 

See for me it isn't quite as bad, because I was a toddler when this happened and therefore obviously don't have vivid memories of it...but I do remember adults in my life talking about Hagler fights more than once in early childhood, and there's only so many it could have been in reference to with me being born in October '82. So the fact that the scuttlebutt from my diaper days is now four decades bygone does make me feel a little old.

I think the first time I heard Hagler's name was watching an episode of Cheers where Sam gets tickets to a fight of his (if in or near Boston in the mid-80's it can only have been Sibson or Scypion). That theme song is like a Proustian gateway to childhood for me. That and Suicide is Painless from M*A*S*H*.

 

I doubt he'll ever not be my pick for #1 h2h middleweight in my lifetime. Same as Louis at HW.

(not that Louis is literally unbeatable, obviously - but IMO he beats the most other ATG's more often than not)

 

Damn, no pressure or anything.