Fight of the Week #12: Leonard v. Hagler

Perhaps that would have helped? I think the 12 rd limit and ring size would still enable Ray to make this a closely contested affair one way or the other at this stage of both of their careers

 

Had only Marvin had the tuneup and come out lefty.. I think he wins. By late TKO.

 

I am a big Hagler appreciator (not a fan by any stretch of the word), but am not sure he could ko Leonard with a ring size that enabled him to literally escape any serious ecchanges due to his foot speed and defensive ability, at this stage of marv’s Career. I will agree coming out orthodox did not help him in any way

 

It would have changed the momentum. He had Ray trapped on the ropes at times even at the end, but Ray fought out. Marvin's punches were looping more in this fight as with Mugabi.. I think when Marvin was rusty, his punches looped more. They were straight and more fluid when he fought Hearns and the guys before that. Those one year layoffs hurt Marvin.

 

I scored it for Marvin Hagler 115-114. I gave Hagler rounds 5,7,8,9,10,12, I gave Leonard 2,3,4,6,11 and scored the first EVEN. In rounds I scored it 6-5-1 for MH. I thought MH had a good 5th round, but most of the rounds could be scored for either fighter. Close fight and another one that I am glad that I didn't have to judge.

From listening to Gil Clancy, at the time of this fight, he still thought MH was a left hander because Clancy kept wondering why MH wasn't more effective with the left and how SRL was getting away with moving to his own right and into MH's left hand. Dundee and SRL have said that they knew MH was right handed and didn't have much on his left so SRL moved to MH's left regardless of whether MH was in the orthodox or the southpaw stance. Good fight and another fight where the supposedly smaller fighter was about the same size as the supposedly bigger fighter. Difficult to score.

 

What did you think of rd 9? I would have trouble stopping there...both guys fought super hard in what I thought was the most exciting round of the fight

 

Hey fellas, I will watch the fight tonight Oz time and give my opinion then.

I hated Sugar Ray as a young bloke and was a huge Hagler fan but when I first saw the replay of the fight I actually thought SRL won, much to my dismay.

I did enjoy reading Kev state that Leonard actually landed the hardest punches of the fight as I feel the same way. I believe Leonard stung Hagler enough in the early rounds to make Marvin careful and that most of Marvin’s punches landed in the fight were “ arm “ punches due to the fact that Hagler had to really shorten up his punches to connect on Leonard.

Very much enjoyed reading your views Philly.

Cheers Guys.

 

Good insight on Clancy and Dundee/SRL on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of Hagler’s left.

 

Hagler: 3,5,7 8,9,11
Leonard: 1,2, 4, 6, 10,12
3 and 12 were close.
A draw.

Hagler didn't take the early rounds off; Leonard just had a lot of energy. Hagler's punches were much better than Leonard's. Hagler punched himself out in a couple rounds and suffered in the following rounds because of it.

 

Gday Philly, Kev. I wonder if Marvin was the first right handed champion to fight as a southpaw.

His lead right hand was all time good with both the jab and the hook off the jab while his left cross always looked fairly harmless in comparison. Before Hagler most southpaws I remember were more like Saldivar. Fighters who pecked with the jab and looked to land the left smash.

Moorer and Winky Wright were also right hand dominant southpaws with great jabs.

Pernell Whitaker seemed ambidextrous, he had probably the best southpaw jab I have seen but he also had a very good left hand. Ask Hurtado

Cheers All.

 

That is a tough round to score. Thing is if it was two fighters fighting Hagler might have won he did the backing up except for some moments Ray flurried, but Ray was doing the unexpected and the heart of Ray and the inactivity would make many people give it to Ray.

 

So far 4 of us have rescored rd 9 and all 4 have it for Hagler....dude just take 48 minutes and rewatch it with us! You have some good insights. If you had a fresher view of the fight I would be excited to see how you see it today

 

New to this forum Love it already, this topic is always under hot debate, but it was definitely not a "robbery". You may have thought Hagler one but it was a could go either way type fight, even the Petronelli's agreed on that. I did an interview with the Iceman john scully on this fight check it out

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