BEST I FACED: MARVELOUS MARVIN HAGLER

Yes, that's what happened.

Admittedly, Hagler shouldn't have given Ray all the advantages, but he and everyone expected far more rust on Ray.

 

Hagler didn’t spar?

And exactly how many of these alleged ‘pro fights behind closed doors did Ray have’? How many rounds were they scheduled for? Who were the opponents? When did they happen?

Truth is, the way Leonard beat Hagler was much more devastating to you and the other Hagler fans than if Ray had just knocked him out in the first round. The wounds will never heal. Marvin exiled himself to another country and Ray ate the souls of his fans.

 

Not a sparring. Three or so fights with middleweights, all twelve rounds with referee — full intensity, and under non-disclosure agreement.

Ray didn't take anybody's soul. He simply did what he many fans didn't like — weasel his way into a controversial decision over a worn and torn Hagler while the deck was stacked laughably in his favor. Then ran from a rematch faster than he run from Duran.

Seriously though, I blame Marvin for enabling and giving all those aces to Ray (stupid, stupid choice against fighter this elite and savvy) just as much as I blame Leonard for Mayweathering the fight and acting as if he just replicated Manila or Zaire.

 

That’s sparring. There’s no rules that says you can’t have a referee for sparring (we did many times) and go full intensity. LOL. He prepared and stayed in shape.

Now who were these middleweights? When did this sparring happen?

It’s funny how you (and others) bounce between “Hagler was done, shot, needed a walker to get to the ring” and “what about a rematch”? If he was so past it, a rematch could only have been worse for him.

Yet somehow this guy who after the fight is

Middleweights were in that range where either eights or 10s could be used as gloves in title fights. Nothing shady about that.

As for 12 or 15 rounds, the sport was transitioning to 12 universally and 15s were an outlier. In fact, Marvin hadn’t fought in a scheduled 15-rounder for nearly 3 years. His last was against Hamsho. I don’t hear any whining about his fights with Hearns or Mugabi being scheduled for 12.

The ring was 22 feet. I’ve seen bigger and smaller. In fact, 20 to 24 was the accepted range for title fights and this was right in the middle. Go look at the ring they specially constructed for Roberto Duran to defend against Lou Bizzarro — it’s like 26 feet and I’ve heard 30. Like a basketball court and no padding under the canvas. Lou ran like a track star and instead of complain about it, Roberto stalked him and cut off the ring and chopped him down.

NONE of this was non-standard. It’s not like they fought in 18-ounce gloves in a 6-rounder in a 40-foot ring. If these conditions favored Leonard, that must mean that Marvin was underhandedly stacking the deck every time he fought 15 (after 12-round title fights were introduced, and sanctioning bodies indeed did try to impose 12 on him earlier while he stuck to 15), eight-ounce gloves in a 20-foot ring (a few of them looked smaller IMO but never checked).

So for once in his life Marvin Hagler fought without the deck stacked in his favor, against a guy who had long retired (but had the audacity to spar, lol) and got the big end of the purse.

Poor, poor Marvin. Guess he should have fought Fully Obel again for peanuts.

 

Hagler is one of the best MWs of all time and one of my idols, so stfu. He boxed the proper way and actually fought. He didn't run or dance around like cowardly ***** Leonard.
Hagler payed his respects to Hearns, Mugabi, Minter, Duran - cause they had the balls to actually fight and not run away like bitches do.

 

Nobody likes cowardly bitches

 

That's how real men fight. Cowardly bitches run.

 

Shoe shinning don't count, a punch has to do damage.

 

The coward Leonard didn't beat him.
Hagler was robbed.

 

You seem agitated.

 

No, Mark would have given proper results, as they should be. Cowards who only tap their opponents don't deserve to get the nod.

 

Cause I'm pointing out facts ?

 

If Leonard would have fought like a proper man, toe to toe, and KOd Marvin, all of us Marvin fans would have taken our hats out for Leonard and give him proper respect.
But as it stands, he just ran like a cowardly ***** and did some shoe shinning at the end of rounds. That was no win.

 

I presume you are giving non-disclosure agreement to your sparring partners as well? Hard sparring and having an all out fight with the ref and scorecards involved are two different things. Being inactive, or out of the ring matters for boxers, and knowing that Leonard was in fact covertly active during the period leading to the fight, Hagler and his team would approach the negotiations very differently. Marvin likely wouldn't start orthodox either.

12oz gloves, picking larger ring, and having less rounds favors a pure boxer, especially one who can build up an early advantage via element of surprise. All of that matters and while Leonard didn't pick anything that wouldn't qualify into the spectrum or standard boxing conditions, there is also the other end of that spectrum which favours Hagler. Heck, some boxers negotiate gloves brands since some like Cleric Reyes are considered a puncher's gloves.

At the end of the day there is a reason Leonard, or perhaps his team, you never know, chose non-disclosure agreement — it was a huge negotiating tactic as Hagler, expecting rusty Ray, didn't even haggle, giving away every advantage that was very much in his power and right to negotiate so as to favor him instead of Leonard. Duran giving away ring to somebody he knew he could cut-off is an entirely different case from giving away ever conceivable advantage to a fellow all-time great fighter.

Then Ray never gave Hagler a rematch, likely knowing he won't get the same condition and won't get free rounds from an overconfident orthodox Marvin. Even then it was an incredibly controversial decision considered to be won by Hagler (draw at least) by a massive amount of fans and experts.