Did Hagler rob his fans by retiring in 1987?

He robbed us of not fighting 'bigger guys' like other greats do. He just wanted to fight smaller fighters with names, I give him credit for cleaning his division, but fights with light heavyweights would have garnered more respect from the public.

 

Yeah but a past his prime hearns was willing to fight virgil and win. Hagler could have at least taken a risk and fought matthew saad muhammad or eddie mustafa muhammad in the early 80's, but no he didnt want to take risks. A fight between him and qawi would have shut his doubters up, no he didnt want to take the risk. Duran and Leonard willingly fought bigger guys, Hagler wasn't up to it.

 

Yes Correct

He could have moved up and fought Donny Lalonde at LHWT or a catchwieght :good

 

There was no reason for MH to move up

1a he was a natural MW, and an average to small sized one

1b He was not a big puncher, he had pop obviously but not power to move up, and I'm sure he knew his limits

2 No money, the glamor divisions were MW and certainly WW with the likes of Hearnd Leonard Duran etc moving up.

It would have been high risk with little to no reward. So why do it.

He would have lost to those LH's imho, all too big and strong for MH.



Re: the leonard fight, MH lost that fight by out phycsing himself. He wasn't the old Hagler, but he chose the bad tactics he employed inthe the first 4 rounds (which ended up being the crucial ones). he chose to play chess for 4 rounds when he should have known sometime in rd 2 , to change. he also underestimated Ray's resilance.

Never underestimate your enemy

 

Great post. I think why Hagler is so bitter about the SRL fight is because deep down he knows he should have, and could have, opened up more and taken the fight.

 

The timeline in is not in my head Bill (but it's irrelevent),

I don't know that the money would have been there, compared to the Big money WW's coming up. So, back to risk v reward, and also knowing your strengths v weaknesses.

"I suspect that Hagler knew Spinks could kick his ass............:yep" I agree that would be the likely outcome, (also see below)

Also I qualified my points, natural MW, etc.

I said he would lose to the likes of the top LH of that time. I believe MH would have lost to Mustafa, Spinks, Quai and Saad. I don't doubt that. Goes back to knowing his limits.

Seems we agree again, except to the part of value of moving up to fight Spinks. Also Spinks $ value I don't think was there at LH. The move up did that for him to the Bigest Glamor $ Division.

In any event we are back to Square one MH was a MW and knew it. Smart enough too.

Now as to questioning some of his tactics / strategy during fights. That's another thread.

 

Bottom line tho, superb retirement for Hagler. If he couldn't get SRL again why fight on, he had already planned to be retired. Eventually some young gun/guns would have outboxed him, it happens to the best of them that hang on a little too long. Hagler and Spinks, two of the greatest retirements of the 80's fighters.

 

Seems we all agree on this thread,

I need another beer

 

If Ray fought a younger Hagler and N a 15 rounder ray will be stopped. A prime Marvin Hagler was bad to the bone.. I have MMG top 3 middleweights all time

 

He could have given some more good fights. But he rode off into the spagetti-western sunset. (the Italian movies) I think he deserves his props for achieving a second career.

http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Gans-Biography-American-Champion/dp/0786439947/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b