I had forgotten that Hagler thumbed Roldan when the going got tough in their fight: "The First 2 and half rounds of Hagler Roldan, was the first time I ever saw Hagler seemingly a bit wary if not down right nervous. (That was NOT a Knockdown by the way. Any more than Graziano's "pull down" of SRR was a TRUE KD.) One thumb later and the tide had turned." But El Torito, was probably as "rough" as Hagler, so a similar event would probably occur to Roldan and the fight would be stopped inside of 6 in favor of Tony.
Of course Tony is my main man so its hard to go against him. Roldan would be a stern test being that he was supremely prepard for Hagler that night. Tito Lectoure his trainer and ou could see from the tape that Roldan showed the head and upper body movement charcteristic of the argentine greats like Locche. This is a hard one. He tested Hagler severly until the third. But even after the third he proved to be a worth foe and fought on even terms with the greatest middleweight of all time. however,,,Hagler did look sluggish, slow and his timing was off. In other words, he was having an off night. This was not the same fighter who dominated in 82, 83. Far from it. It's possible Hagler could not get motivated for this one opponent. I personally dont think his heart was in this fight. Not only that but I've seen Roldan stopped early--in the amateurs. I'm not talking Lennox lewis-Riddick Bowe crime stoppage but actual stopped; struck hard on the point of the chin and sent flying back. This happened with Alex Ramos, going down twice and the last time he stayed there. Alex Ramos, one of "tommorows Champions" came from the same stable of fighters under Lou Duva that manged Tony and Tony was the most feared fighter of all. A man with freakish power so who's to say that he couldn't do the same to Roldan? Someone would go down and fail to get up in this one. Who would it be? I'm afraid the world will never know.
Rooster: Good recall on Alex Ramos, & "tommorows Champions". And to think Duva once had Torito and he fell so far...all the way back to prison turing big rocks into little rocks with a sledge hammer.
Thanks Longhorn. I was wondering if anyone here recognizes the very last line I used. It's a famous line from a commercial back in the early 70's.
And Frank Le Animarl Fletcher was a southpaw Wilfred Benitez too, right? You've been missed, gems like these could never come from anyone but you :good
Jokes on you as usual. You probably havent even seen the Hagler-Roldan fight. As usual, Ray Leonard, the astute boxing fan marvelled over the head movement of Roldan. Ray Leonard became a big Juan Roldan fan and more than once commented over Roldans upper body and head movement. The elite Argentine fighters got that ability to roll under blows. Juan did it repeatedly, making Marv miss then coming back with his own. You really ought to see this fight before you comment on it.
Juan "Hammer" Roldan now runs the Pearle Vision center in Argentine where he is now nicknamed "Cyclops".
Do you genuinely believe Hagler deliberately thumbed Roldan because he was fighting on even terms with him?
Nope, you said Hagler thumbed him, and then implied it was deliberate by adding 'when the going got tough.' What really happened is Hagler threw a flurry of uppercuts and one of them caught Roldan very painfully with the corner of the glove.
