I just bought this dvd for 50 cents and all it had no cover, all it said was FIGHT NIGHT and to my pleasant surprise it featured Sugar Ray Leonard in his super fight with Hagler and his second fight with Tommy Hearns. Unlike some fans I thought Leonard outpointed Hagler fair and square the first time and second time I saw it and this time nothing changed, I feel Leonard was too far ahead by the time the last round began and that Hagler needed to knock Ray out to have a hope and he didn't and Ray won... how one judge could have had Hagler 115 to 113 is beyond my understanding... hell Hagler gave away the first four rounds and Ray won them easily so Hagler was behind the entire fight. Having said this I still feel that Hagler having had this experience and him being an intelligent man should have been able to learn from this and trained differently with a new game plan and I think he could have won a rematch at least make the rematch a hell of a lot closer. So why no rematch ???? did Marvin try hard to get a rematch ??? I am not sure but he retired and never fought again... was this one of boxings greatest dummy spits ???..... Or is it Leonard's fault there was no rematch ???... These are questions I ask because I have not researched it and am sure many of you here are more up on this subject than I am. So here it is. ... 1. Why no rematch ? ...... 2. Who would have won the rematch ?...... 3. should the rematch have been made immediately and fought within next 4 months or should this have happened a year or two later ?? I think personally Hagler should have guts'd it out, not retired and gone all out to get revenge.... he didn't and has had to live with that ever since...... I await your opinions
Hagler was still training iirc a decade after the match on the off chance Leonard would relent and grant a rematch ... he wanted it BAD. :deal
Are you kidding, OP? Leonard wasn't going to give Hagler a rematch. Same as Ali was not going to give Foreman a rematch.
Damn, that's a great shame, a rematch would have been a great fight, Marvin just didn't start early enough in their fight, he gave away 4 rounds before he started working on the body... I bet he would have come out and all out from the first bell in a rematch and Leonard for sure would have expected that and planned accordingly so it would have been a very different fight and a great one. Leonard wasn't fair to Hagler if it was all his fault there was no rematch... perhaps that's karma for Hagler not giving Mike McCallum a fight... McCallum was desperate to fight Hagler according to Mike anyway.
There's a case to be made for both men winning a rematch. Hagler - Starting more aggressively and in a southpaw stance. Not letting Leonard move so easily or underestimating him. Leonard - Having the confidence instilled in him from KNOWING he could beat Hagler once and could do it again. For the record,I thought Ray won their fight clearly. Pretty even from the middle of the bout onwards but Leonard had safely banked the first four or five rounds.
I wonder if it's Leonard's showboating that makes people think he "won the first 4 rounds easily". I don't give out points for holding the top rope, bolo punches to the thighs, sticking out the face, or retreating and then diving in to grab and hold (the last tactic might even count against) so I think those first 4 rounds were really close.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying the first 4 rounds were close, not "won easily" by anyone. I can't remember what my scorecard was exactly. Sometimes, both fighters do very little in a round. Those rounds are close round. I'll have a look at the fight again. But I'm right. Leonard didn't do an awful lot and was running and then diving in and grabbing VERY early on in the fight. Those are not only non-scoring moves, they are stalling moves and, yeah, even non-productive stalking trumps stalling. I do believe people are seduced by the showboating.
I would probably have to consult the footage again myself, but I believe I'm a logical scorer of fights. This is to say that I would not award rounds for "stalling" or "showboating". That would be nonsensical. Leonard may not have done an awful lot in terms of scoring punches, but I believe he probably outlanded Hagler in all of the early rounds. Hagler was noticeably frustrated and resorted to chasing shadows, whereas at least Ray was landing; albeit sporadically.
Leonard was also landing many blows using the inside of the gloves. Those are non-scoring blows, ie. they count for nil. He was doing this from early on in the fight. A punch has to connect with knuckle portion of glove to be considered a scoring blow. That's same in all sets of boxing rules, amateur and professional. I suspect some people are mistakenly giving Leonard points for those blows.
I'm not convinced of that. And even in the event that what you say is true and Leonard was using the inside of the gloves, he would still be winning the rounds by my reckoning for the mere fact that Hagler wasn't getting off at all. Ray was outmaneuvering Hagler and out-punching him too. Hagler was stalking without any end product. I think it's perfectly reasonable and acceptable that people would score those rounds in favour of Ray. In fact, it's the only way to interpret the early goings in my estimation. Hagler was completely ineffective.
As stated above Hagler pushed hard for a rematch. I think Hagler would have won the rematch. He would have fought his fought his fight the second time, been agressive, fought southpaw ect. Hagler blew but he did push for a rematch but Leonard did his disappearing act. Leonard was a master at fighting or not fighting at the right time (eg Duran).
Others have already said it, but let's make it perfectly clear: Leonard wanted no part of a rematch. He wanted to fight the Donnie LaLondes of the world and avoid the enraged Hagler at all costs. The comparison to Ali and Foreman is accurate.