Hagler v Finnegan

these are the facts regarding the Hagler vFinnegan fights. I was in Finnegans corner for both these fights . Hagler won the 1st 4 rounds they drew the 5 th and finnegan won the 6th 7 th & 8 rounds . Finnegan would certainly have won the last two rounds as finnegan was coming on strong while hagler was fading badly. Kevin's cheeck bone was badly cut in the 7th from a clash of heads. Micky duff wanted the fight stopped at the end of the 8th and asked the ref to stop it, the ref refused because he said finnegan could go on to win. duff then asked the ringside doctor and he also refused agreeing with what the ref had said. So duff took it on himself to stop the fight. Freddie hill the chief corner man didn't want the fight stopped and Finnegan certainly didn't. duff didn't have the authority to stop the fight but did it anyway. Duff says he was concerned about the cut. I dought that duff has ever been concerned about a fighters cuts , only if it suits him. You can come to your own conclusion on this. Secondly, the reason why Kevin had the upper hand in the first fight is because Kevin trained 8 weeks for this fight and was probably the fittest he had ever been. He was also the best middleweight in the world at handling southpaws and had untold reserves of courage which was needed to stand and trade with Hagler and back him up. hagler was not as good going backwards as he was coming forward. The bad weather in Boston allowed Kevin to train another three weeks for the fight as the fight had to be prosponed for a few weeks, even then the snow was so bad the TV company could not get anywhere near the Boston Garden thats why there was no footage. Kevin went back for the return far to quickly and the cuts reopened in the 1st round. Would Kevin have won the return without the cuts reopening? I dought it. The first fight was so brutal Kevin was never quite the same fighter. He received a dis lodged retina in his left eye due to the impact of the clash of heads which caused the damage to his left cheek, so probably only had 50 per cent vision in that eye. But have no dought on that night at the garden finnegan was simply superb. I asked Kevin if he thought the clash of heads was deliberate on haglers part and He said who knows it was mayhem in there. It was like the 1st round of the Hagler v Hearns fight but for 8 rounds. Even today all these years later I still say that was the greatest fight I ever saw. I dought we will ever see fights like that again.

 

I remember asking Kevin if he thought Miner would beat Hagler , He said that Hagler would be to strong and would walk through Minter in a few rounds. he was right. Freddie Hill , Finnegans trainer said to me that Finnegan was a much better fighter than Minter , but Kevin is very rarely 100 per cent fit on fight night . Freedie would want 6 weeks training from Kevin for a fight , Kevin would probably give 4. . When I say Finnegan would have won the last two remaining rounds in their first fight there for winning the fight by one round at the end, that is no slant on Marvin , as I say nobody handled southpaws better than Kevin , simply because of sparring thousands of rounds with brother Chris, Minter said Kevin knows what a southpaw is going to do before the southpaw even thinks about it. he also had a jaw made of iron again probably due to the sparring with Chris who was a light heavy weight , Taking shots from a middleweight would hardly give him problems. He was also a master boxer. Terry lawless said if you ever want to learn the technique of perfect boxing watch Kevin Finnegan . As I mentioned I believe the first fight took a lot out of Kevin but he was still good enough to win the British title by defeating Tony sibson and the European title beating Gratien tonna. As a boxing news reporter said to face an up for it and a 100 per cent fit Finnegan is an extremely hard man to over come, as Marvin hagler was to find out on march 4th1978. As Marvin said Kevin Finnegan one hell of a fighter. He sure was.

 

Minter said he thought Finnegan won all 3 of their fights. Finnegan certainly won the second and the 3rd fight. But the verdicts was given to Minter by one round over 15 rounds in all 3 fights. The verdict in the second fight almost caused a riot at the Royal Albert Hall .

 

Kevin was such a character, I remember Kevin being at the post fight party which was put on by Morgan palle the Danish promoter after the Kalule v Finnegan fight. Kevin had had a drink or three and was smoking a huge cigar, Kalule looked on in amazement and asked me how it was possible for Finnegan to live a lifestyle like he did and have such stamina and talent. Kalule asked Kevin if he would consider coming back to Copenhagen so they could spar and train together, which Kevin did and they became good Freinds . Sport needs characters like Kevin who live on the edge, that's what makes them so exciting. Unfortunately these characters like Kev and his brother Chris Are from a bygone era and sadly we will not see the likes of them again.

 

On another occasion Kevin was behind Hagler who was sitting at ringside at a fight in London. Kevin patted Hagler on the head a few times, Marvins security held Kevin, but Marvin said no no its Kevin Finnegan a Freind of mine, and gave him a hug. Marvin had a lot of time for Kevin and thought very highly of him. Kevin would always tell people who didn't no much about Hagler before the minter fight that Hagler was a very smart fighter.

 

Yes , Great memories.