Fight of the Week #12: Leonard v. Hagler

I don’t dispute this, and kind of agree with it. But which rounds did you see Hagler landing the cleaner, harder and/or better punches in?

 

Most of them. He lost rounds by being outworked.

 

No offense, but if this is based upon memory you probably need to rewatch and rescore this one with us.

 

I don’t think either guy really hurt the other in this fight at all TBF. I think there are rounds where both guys landed cleaner punches than the other, whether they were harder I will leave to others to debate. I think rounds 3 & 10-12 factor into did Hagler land better or did Ray land more. In 4 & 6 I think Ray landed better punches in 5 7 8 9 I think Hagler did. It is not a whitewash one way or the other for my money. Rounds 1-2 were more a matter of Hagler not being active enough to land anything of note outside of the 15 second window where ray goes southpaw in round 1. I think it is fairly even in looking at the cleanest hardest punches which is why I find it such a close fight. Ray outperformed both my expectations and my memory, but I think cleaner/harder punches is a toss up

 

IMO Hagler did not land cleaner harder punches in 1-2, 4 or 6. I think he clearly did in 5, 7-9 and to a lesser degree round 3 but that is debatable. Rounds 10-12 are difficult to score and as evidenced by the cards here 3, 10-12 are where that is not clearly one guy or the other.

 

I saw the opposite. I thought Ray was sharper with his punches. Hagler's punches were hard, more to the body. He was not at his best. He was better when he was active. Against Mugabi and Leonard his punches looked slow and he looked rusty.. No wonder Ray wanted to fight him. I find it odd about Ray that he admits that he wanted to fight Hagler when Marvin was beatable. It is very Floyd Mayweather like tactic. Didn't Ray want to see if he could beat the active Hagler who fought Hearns for example?

 

I really wished it had ended in a draw. We would not have all of the animosity in threads that we do slandering one guy or the other. While I think Leonard had the better plan or at least executed it better, I think both guys gave a solid performance...and maybe we would have gotten a 2nd fight if that occurred lol.

Appreciate your card and insights

 

It's reminds me of Whitaker cherry picking Chavez and Nelson.

 

I know what you mean. I respect the win and Hagler was tough, but he saw Marvin looking older and rusty with Mugabi and said, I can beat him. It was so opportunistic. You see a guy who is not who he was and you say, I want to fight him. He was honest, but how is that the best win he could have. It is like Floyd. To have the name on the resume is great, but he was not the best then.

 

TBF even if Ray saw a decline in Hagler and felt he was beatable now....SRL was equally in decline and perhaps moreso. Ray hadn’t fought in nearly 3 years. And just as you say that Hagler could benefit from a tune up, wouldn’t the same argument work for Ray. I am not sure why this turns into a blemish on Ray.

 

I remember Ray saying he wanted Hagler and only Hagler, and Ray was still not washed up in the way Hagler had those tough fights with Hearns and Mugabi and took big punches. I think it was easier for Ray, and he did have those so called simulated fights. I think Ray knew exactly what he was capable of, although he overrated himself after Hagler in those last 5 fights. Probably.

 

Love him or hate him, it was a remarkable achievement by Sugar Ray. How many fighters can anyone name who retired for 3 years (or had 1 fight in 5 years) and came back without a tune up to beat a long-reigning, undisputed champion?