in late 1982, Hagler moves up from MW, and goes after Qawi's WBC Lightheavy crown. Hagler is coming off the Obelmejias defense; Qawi has battered Saad Muhammad in his 2nd defense of the WBC title. Who wins?
Qawi easy UD for mine. I don't think he'd keep the beast that was Qawi off him for more than short periods. Even Spinks was safety oriented long term vs Dwight. He's a real pocket rocket.
I don't think Hagler would do well in that LHW era. That's a big 15 lb jump against some terrific light heavyweights. Qawi would probably beat Hagler handily, as stated above.
Hagler s gonna try, it's in his dna, but I see it been just a little out of his reach. Qawi gets a unanimous but works for it.
I think Marvin outboxes him over 15 rounds in a very surprising fight. Marvin would look like Sugar Ray Leonard in this one. Remember Dwight was something like 5-7 tall and had a 71 inch reach. Marvin was about 5-9 1/2... 2 inches taller with a 4 inch reach advantage and southpaw and faster than Dwight. I think Marvin uses his jab and wins a decision.. He could box if he wanted to. People remember Marvin for his brawl with Hearns which was Marvin put his all into that fight.. I think that was Hagler's last great fight where he wanted to win. After that he lost a little interest in boxing. He reached the peak with Hearns.
Qawi walks him down and lands the harder, more telling blows round after round en route to a wide UD.
Marvin was a great fighter. And this is about speed. Marvin was fast, not compared to Ray or Hearns, but compared to Qawi, and that would be his fight. He would look very technical vs. Qawi.
Have you seen any of Qawi's fights at 175? Which ones make you think that he's not good enough, quick enough, or technical enough to deal with Hagler, a small middleweight?
There was a reason guys like Monzon and Hagler never moved up. They knew there was a whupping waiting for them once they entered the 175 lb door. And that's what would happen if Marvin fought Dwight. Of course, he would make the effort, but would lose a wide Ud over 15 rounds, Qawi too much for him.
Qawi's technically brilliant within his own style and Hagler would have nothing to keep him off at 175. Qawi spent a career overcoming height and reach advantages. Hagler would almost definitely add a bit of weight too and that would slow him a touch, not that he was a speedster regardless. Qawi was brilliant dealing with jabs.
To be redundant, I'll also say that Hagler is undersized and will be overwhelmed. Hagler these days would be a JMW... He would easily make that weight in today's times. Qawi was a freight train, and unless you had some serious power to keep him respectful and the wheels to get you out of there, you gonna get wrecked. Hagler knew better. He knew better than to jump up in weight. Very few can do it successfully even when they dominate their division and its the only logical move...
