I think it was rd 3(?) that Roldan scored Haglers only ever official knockdown..many say it was a slip. Or was it legit? Roldan scored with a punch prior to the 'cuff' on the back of the head which sent Hagler briefly to the canvas..Did the preceding punch make Hagler off balance, meaning it was legit? google images hagler roldan- you will see a vid clip link from putfile.com can't load the link on here
it was round one in the opening seconds of the fight. Poorest excuse for a knockdown you can think of. For one, no blow had landed and Hagler was actually slipping under a blow. Poor judgement call by the ref.
The sound of the punch is what made the referee call it, but he was wrong. I can't say I'd do any better in that situation, however, but Hagler was downed by a pull to the back of the head as he tried to maneuver out of the way. Underneath the weight of the pull, his leg slipped. Hagler did not intentionally thumb Roldan either; he merely hit him in the right spot with the right punch.
Hagler said after the match that he would seek to have Carlos Padilla's blown call of "a clean knockdown" overruled. I've never spoken to anybody who considers it anything other than a slip or shove, and everybody who's ever mentioned it is under the impression that it was indeed stricken from Hagler's official record.
Just watched this match a week or two ago. I've never really seen anything that was ruled a knockdown being any less of one than this one was. Roldan yanked him down by the back of his head/neck. That's about it.
One of Dempsey's knockdowns of Firpo was relly thowing Firpo to the ground, round 2, shortly before Dempsey ko's Firpo. That was other bad call imo.
Hagler was slipping on the advert but as he fell Roldan clipped him... It could be called either way, the Marvelous one was fuming though!
The more interesting thing about this fight is the alleged thumb in Roldan's eye. When they showed the replay of when it happened I tend to think, as Manassa suggested, Roldan got caught in the wrong place with a punch coming in. It was an uppercut from memory and caught him right on the point of the eye. A lot was made of it at the time by Barry Tomkins who was commentating the fight for HBO but I don't see Roldan beating Hagler with 3 good eyes let alone two! Oh yeah and it was an obvious slip. The referee erred.
