If Hagler never fought Leonard, how many fights does he take?

Hagler would have retired and stayed retired after Mugabi if not for Leonard begging for a fight.
Not sure why people think otherwise.

 

What's being revised?

 

kId ou got great imagination

 

As it was Marvin Hagler had only fought once in the two years going into the Leonard fight and had expressed interest in retirement long before that bout actually came off.. It was about the money and one more big pay day. Its possible that Marvin might have hung around for one or two more depending on what lucrative options were still out there. But I don't buy this idea that he would have lingered on for "years" after the fact. A rematch with either Leonard, Hearns or Duran are probably the only things that might have kept him around.

 

Here is a link to play around with the rankings if Hagler was going to select some
final challengers..or even go after MSpinks at Lt. Heavy as a legacy fight.

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine's_Annual_Ratings

 

Hagler had been gradually slipping since the Roldan fight, with his defensive reflexes and legs particularly showing decline.

He still showed his great jab, toughness, in-fighting skills, bodypunching, etc...against Mugabi, which was an excellent performance by a fighter on the downside. He just looked slow against Leonard, and not only because Leonard was fast (and just a plain great fighter to begin with). The talent pool was about to get really talented at middleweight. Hagler wasn't going to reign that much longer, particularly with his 1 bout per year schedule. Sure he could have if he chose his opposition carefully and avoided tough fights, but that wasn't Hagler.

Hagler wasn't going to beat Nunn in 1988. Nunn was too fast and good for an aging Hagler.

 

You would have thought Leonard was the favourite going into their '87 Super Fight judging by a lot of the comments in this thread. I can only assume that the same people won a lot of money by betting on Ray Leonard, who apparently chose the "right time" to come back from a three year lay off to fight the most dominant champion in the sport. Apparently there's a right time for that.

 

Actually M, Hagler was talking retirement before the Leonard fight took place. He was already fighting less than once a year and had spoken about how tired he was of the sport to Leonard at Leonard's restaurant before they signed to fight.

 

Hagler's last fight would have been Mugabi.
Leonard begged for a match and provided a potential payday that tempted Hagler to stay for one more fight.

I can't say it any clearer.

 

You have it backwards.
Hagler was exiting the stage when Leonard called him back.

 

It's not revisionism to mention that Hagler was considering retirement and was perceived to be slipping. There were articles like "not as marvelous as he used to be." Jimmy Jacobs thought he'd diminished to the point where he actually picked Mugabi to KO him. So yes I'd say 1987 was probably the best time to fight Hagler.