For Tommy? What if he hadn't broken his hand? Do you feel that the moment his hand broke the tide of the fight changed completely? Totally irrelevent? Would the fight of been stopped soon due to the damage Hagler's face was taking?
The hand situation was irrelevant. His legs were gone after the first round, which was surprising for a fighter of Tommy's level, no matter how fierce those three minutes were.
From watching the fight, it seemed like Hagler would've gotten stopped if he had kept taking the punishment for another two or three rounds.
Huh? Hagler was clearly in the ascendency with Hearns wilting fast...Hearns had no more punishment to hand out!
If it weren't for the leg massage and the broken hand...yeah, I'd say he'd have a shot. However if he were in there with anyone other than a driven Marvin Hagler, I think Hearns would have won
How can a broken hand during a searing punch-out be irrelevant? Hagler was hurt early on by Hearns' rights and definitely could not take them for much longer. As I remember it, Hagler began to get the upper hand when he suddenly began walking through Hearns' rights about midway thru Round 1, as if suddenly developing an immunity to shots that had stunned him seconds earlier. Hearns was on shaky legs in Round 1, but actually began boxing in the very next round. He was not gone; he was just at a firepower disadvantage and, resourceful fighter that he was, called on his boxing ability. He had Hagler bleeding badly and the specter of a stoppage began to loom. Hagler roared forward and, unfortunately for Tommy, his relative lack of durability betrayed him. Hagler's greater ability to take punishment would in any event probably carry the day, but a bloody TKO victory for Hearns was within sight as well. Amazing fight.
Yeah. That was what the whole thing was with having Hearns on the bill when Hagler fought Mugabi. It was talked about a lot. I think because Hagler had beaten him so decisively that it was put on the back burner for a while.
