Haglers 12 defenses

One of the two best midlleweights ever. I could never understand why he bothered rematching Fulgencio Obelmejias and Mustafa Hamsho though. He beat them both emphatically the first time round. Was it a mandatory contender thing ?

 

Both of those were mandatory rematches, yeah. He had little choice.

It's interestig to note now how the middleweights were then perceived to have a real dearth of talent. I think by and large that assumption isn't unreasonable, but that is an interesting stat.

 

That will most often be the case when one fighter is so dominating. With that said, I don't think his challengers look that spectacular. More tough, unrelenting fighters than reallly skilled ones. It says something that Duran in many ways seemed to be the one giving him the most trouble when he still was in his prime.

He met some brutal punchers, though, in Roldan, Hearns and Mugabi.

 

Yeah, most of Hagler's cutie types he met before winning the title.Then came the angry, tough chinned brawlers and punchers.

Mind you, few like Sibson are often quite underrated technically, or minsterpreted stylistically.Mugabi even, though wild was quite crafty in an effectively primitive way with sneaky counterpunching, or varying punch speed/angle to set traps.

 

I actually thought Hamsho was merely unlucky to have been active when he was. He'd have done much better against a Corro, Antuofermo, or Valdez and probably would have been an alphabet champ for a bit.

 

That's one other thing about Marv, he beat a fair few #1 contenders. He was always willing to take on his mandatories (however undeserving they were).

 

really good opponents

 

he had cleaned up the division, so the retreads were coming back. And guys like Fully Obel and Mustafa Hamsho could have been champions in other eras had Hagler not been champ. I know Fulgencio Obelmejias became WBA super middleweight champ, and Hearns was scheduled to fight him in November of 1988.

 

I didn't feel that way about the middleweight division during his reign. Contenders like Curtis Parker, Animal Fletcher, Hard Rock Green, Mickey Goodwin and Dwight Davison couldn't even get to Hagler. John Collins was thought to be a potential challenger, then Sibson rebounded from Hagler by destroying him in two before getting nailed himself by Dangerous Don Lee. Czyz ran into Hamsho, who very legitimately earned a second shot at Hagler by also beating Parker a second time and virtually shutting out Benitez (another who couldn't get to Hagler). In fact, a case might be made that Hamsho was more worthy of his second title shot than his first.

Obelmejias had Chong Pal Park's number, eventually became a champion at Park's expense, and defeated Park in Caracas between his shots at Hagler. Obel also stopped Eddie Gazo in two during the interim. His competition wasn't stellar as Hamsho's was, but nobody else defeated Fully besides Hagler prior to 1985, a span covering about 50 bouts.

 

add Lindell holmes, herol Graham, Kalambay to the list of Hagler era middleweights that couldn't get a shot for various reasons, but were potentially in the mix from the early 80s.Middleweight was consistently strong until the mid-90s imo.then things went to ****.

 

Good additional names. I believe a case could be made that Hagler ruled over a much stronger division than Bob Foster. Caveman Lee was the only one who clearly didn't belong, and he only got a shot because Kronk stablemate Goodwin (the only white dude in Manny Steward's Detroit clan) suffered an injury. (Mickey was a lot tougher than Lee, and would have lasted considerably longer against Hagler. Just a ridiculously unfortunate mishap for Goodwin.)

 

Lindell Holmes would have been an easy opponent for Hagler. Graham and Kalambay would have been tough, especially for an older Hagler in the late 1980s. Hagler is lucky in a way. He was wearing out and it is better he lost to Leonard then had he lost to Kalambay or Graham.

 

Kalumbay would have given MMH fits, but Marvin takes Bomber Graham on his worst day.

 

Graham and Kalambay would've beaten him handidly in '87. Marvin became that visibly slowed, just marauding warrior forward-type and Kalambay's supreme slip-and-counter and Graham's slick, peppering style would've been horrific for him. Holmes was an awesome offensive fighter, doubling his jabs and hooks and switching from body to head rapidly, but flat-footed, static and unrangey - potentially easy-pickings for mid-80s Marvin (though Holmes was great at parrying).