Haglers most prime performance?

Hearns anyone?????????????????????????????????

 

Obel II is a good candidate, the definitive one punch knockout of his career. When Hagler bombed over that right hook from hell, Fully fell in sections, then left the MW division so he wouldn't have to fight Hagler again (and flat out admitted it). Says something when a contender actually concedes he's ducking the champion of the only undisputed title in boxing after two failed attempts.

 

Sure. That's definitely when his prime concludes, and doubters probably should review Hearns-Duran again to realize what a monster Hagler was that night. Marv's skull actually cracked Tommy's bandaged and gloved right. When citing other candidates with ATG chins, might be a good idea to ask how many broke their power punching opponent's hands when absorbing legal head shots.

Not only did MMH not wind up needing closed captioning to have his post career interviews understood through slurred words, he actually moved to Italy and learned to speak Italian to star in action films over there. For a mature adult to achieve that is one thing, for a former boxing ATG to have the neurological capacity for that is mind boggling. Until another former boxing ATG becomes multilingual after retirement, Hagler gets a free pass from me for ATG best chin through proving his absence of brain damage. (Balance also remained intact, as demonstrated through his bicycle riding in Italy. Ali had trouble hopping on one foot and touching his finger to his nose before Holmes.)

 

Very good post .Someone from The press asked hagler why he didn't.have body guards and minders?.Hagler said whos going to mess with me?.sums the bloke up well.His fights with Finnegan before he was champ were very impressive .Finnegan was a difficult fighter to beat.

 

Bump

 

Anywhere around '82-'83. Saying something as exact as "Sibson" as opposed to how he also looked against Scypion just a few months removed is splitting too fine a hair that no one can really separate if they're honest.

 

Hamsho I & II, Obelmejias I & II, Watts II, Vito II, Minter, Scypion, Lee or Sibson are all perfectly reasonable picks. Which gives you a damn good idea of just how consistent Hagler was. I'd pick Sibson though.

 

I kinda feel like Obelmejias 1 was the best Hagler performance. He was an absolute machine in that fight. Perfectly blending offensive with defense, and lighting poor Obel up with surgeon-like combos.

But if you said Sibson or Hamsho 1, you also wouldn't be wrong.

 

Hearns may have been Hagler's peak win/ performance, but Hagler was getting fairly old at that point, so I think by "prime" performance, that it would have to be a fight from about '76 to '82 or something like that, and in that case I would go with Hart, Antuofermo I, Minter, or Sibson. However, as for his best performances of all time, I would of course include his fights with Hearns and Duran as well, maybe Mugabi.

 

So many choices that could legitimately answer the question. For me I would say against Minter. Minter was and is an under rated, under appreciated fighter. Hagler was IMO at the top of his game. It would take an ATG performance from an ATG fighter to deny him that night.

 

Tony Sibson in 1983 was a seriously World class Middleweight who stayed in the World's top 6 for another 5 years.
Hagler's performance against him was as complete as you could ask for.

 

One of Hagler's best displays in switch hitting as well.

 

Most definitely Billy. Marvin described it as " Dipping in my toolbox ".

 

I watched the Sibson fight live on HBO and it's the fight that really turned me into a Hagler fan. I liked him well enough before, but in the Sibson fight he was spectacular.

 

Sibson would be my personal pick, although I think he was outstanding against Minter.

Strange thing about the Minter fight, though - for years I've heard lots of fans, usually fellow British ones, argue that it was a competitive fight in which Minter was having considerable joy and which would have been interesting had the cuts not forced an early stoppage. For the life of me, I don't know what they were watching. I don't think Minter won a single minute of that fight, never mind a round, and I think he was damn lucky that the fight got stopped when it did, because Hagler was going to absolutely punch holes in him if it had continued.

Yet I've heard plenty of fans claim that there wasn't much in it before the stoppage. This whole myth seems to rest on the one admittedly very good counter which Minter walked Hagler on to and which did stiffen Marvin's legs a little for a second - but that was sandwiched between plenty of more damaging shots in the other direction. Minter was unlucky and might have dragged Hagler into deep water without the cuts? Nope, not for me. He got cut because Hagler was beating the crap out of him from the first minute to the last.