How much should the Ray Leonard fight effect Hagler's standing?

It should hurt his standing BUT Leonard was sensational so that makes it a bit better.

 

A close victory over Leonard at the very end of his career ain't so bad. Given that Hopkins is lauded for his victories over WWs, I have no problem with the Marvellous One squeaking a victory over one THE great Welters. Judge Guerra should be shot with his own ****.

 

Hagler lost plain and simple, he gave away the early rounds and never got to grips with Leonards movement

ANyway Hagler was 32 when he faced Leonard, Hopkins was 35 when he faced Trinidad, 38 when he faced Delahoya, 39 when he faced Taylor, 40 when he became LHW champ, 41/42 when he beat P4P Wright, and 43 when he arguably beat P4P top 3 and 168 King Calazage

 

Hagler won. Only Ray Leonard could be awarded that as wide as Guerra gave it (8 rounds I think? Madness). Hagler was at the end of the road, Hopkins had a late prime and still has not had as many fights as HAgler. Arguably beat Calzaghe? FFS. Which fight did you watch? Hopkins tried not to get beat, as opposed to 'tried to win'.

 

I had the fight a draw, because after watching live on TV, I really had no idea who was going to get the decision.

Haglar was clearly well past his best. He was an "old fighter" for his age because of all the wars that he had been in. But the fact that Leonard had been off for so long counters Haglar's age arguement. I am pretty confident that had this fight occured in 1983-84, Haglar would have KO'd Leonard.

So I'd like to say that his legacy is not effected by the Leonard fight, but I must admit it's tarnished just a bit. Is it as tarnished as much as Leonard's after the Norris fight? I don't think so.

 

Zero. Previous battles with the opposition took the life out of him and after years of fearful hiding, leonard finally leaped at the chance to do battle with a shell who was retiring anyways.

This was actually leonard's best overall career performance. He was better than the Leonard in the Hearns fight or the first Duran fight or the Kalule fight and light years better than what he showed in the Benitez fight.

Still, let's keep it all in perspective and remember he was facing a shell. This fact would attribute to Leonard's spectacular performance. Hagler no longer possessed any reflexes to compete so it's not Marvin's fault because he was physically disabled and like great race horses, should have been put out to pasture.

Still, the disputed loss was no shame when compared to the Leonard disgrace of 1991 vs. Norris.

 

First 2 -3 rounds, Hagler tried to outbox Leonard as righthander, and fought as if he was the "Challenger" instead of the Champ (i.e., all you got to do is just stand there and let SRL come to you.....Hagler didn't need to chase SRL all around the ring).

Hagler bought into all of Ray's pre-fight smack.

The math isn't good in a 12 round fight....you just need to win 6 rounds, then put it on cruise control and ekk out another round somewhere and you got the victory.

Hagler brought the loss on himself.....and good ol' Ray never gave him a rematch.

I think most boxing fans don't discount Hagler's record much for losing.

 

When a great fighter such as Hagler is "EXPECTED" to destroy an opponent and ends up going the distance or does not meet the "EXPECTED" destruction of his foe, fights usualy end up going to the guy who really was not "EXPECTED" to do much. based on Expectaion not being met. Hagler was coming off Blowing out Hearns & beating Mugabi, I belive peep's wanted to see the same happen with Leonard or at the very least watch him hit the canvas. Since Sugar Ray had K.O.'d Hearns & Hearns had K.O.'d Duran ect.. ect..
"The Superfight" did not give us the fireworks of "The War" so Hagler had to pay for it, not taking anything away from SRL's win but he did hold an awful lot and made the fight very dull. And only fighting the last 10 seconds of every round...ect whatever I'm over it now...lol

No it shouldn't effect his status IMO, just big up Leonard's Status as Fighter of the 80's. Haglers name looks more impressive on SRL's record that it would have on MMH's record.

 

It shouldn't, I think he won that fight so I don't count it as a defeat.
Saying that though, a lot of people do.

 

Well he was obviously overconfident and fought a stupid fight as he'd done more often throughout his career. It shows that Hagler is damn near unbeatable against aggressive fighters, but a mortal human being against movers and boxers.

And even if he did win it, i thought his performance against Duran wasn't all that either. But he was in the later stages of his career during both of those, so it's not that big a black mark. Still, if he knocked out Duran and Leonard (or beat him decisively), then i would have more trouble ranking Monzon over him.

 

I think it only hurts Hagler's standing in conversations centered around top 5 ATG's at middle. Leonard was coming back after a lay off. Would Greb, or Monzon lost to the same Sugar Ray?

 

No way, Hagler seemed to lose it mentally coming into the ring against great fighters. for some odd reason he was actually scared of a fat old duran and froze up during there fight, and he showed up the leonard fight fighting righthanded

 

Poor argument. If not for the Hearns fight I would have to agree with you. But the hearns fight was as Ko magazine described it "The only fight that really matters".

If he was scared of fat old Duran then why wasn't he scared of tall, muscular, threatening, in his prime, 25 year old Hearns with edges in power, speed, height, and reach? Your claim rings false because he did not "freeze" in the fight and was actually the most memorably violent of his career.

The fatness and oldness of Duran obviously means he couldn't get motivated for a fat 32 year old. There was nothing that motivated him to want to crush Duran as he knew he was no threat to him. He was just unmotivated as he was in the following fight with Roldan (a serious challenge)

 

your guess is as good as mine. but he simply froze up in the duran fight for some odd reason. he seemed unwilling to take risks, almost out of respect or perhaps fear. he was behind on two of the judges scorecards after round 13.