Just rewatched Hagler - Leonard for the 3rd time...

This sums it up. Hagler knew he lost and had to resort to dancing after the final bell, which really was not his thing.

7-5 for Leonard.

 

A close fight in my opinion. I think Leonard got away with excessive holding, but boxed very well. Marvin looked shot; his timing and snap weren't there.

The judge that scored it 118-110 wanted shooting!

 

Yeah, Leonard's punching was sharp and quite hard during the first half. The punches didn't hurt Hagler, but they kept him honest. During the second half there wasn't much on Leonard's punches since he was getting tired, and you can see the difference in how Marvin reacted to them.

This whole "shoe shine" business was nothing more than SRL arm punching more as he grew weary, but he didn't really win rounds that way. My score is either 7-5 or 6-5-1 Leonard, and he won five of those during the first six, when his punching was still crisp.

 

And saying that... round 9 was a beast of a round with both fighters standing toe to toe and throwing some beasty looking digs.

I always thought Leonard won this fight, Hagler's tactics were complete shite. More urgency and a bit more work rate and he would have had reason to call it a robbery, but the way he fought was his downfall.

Leonard won the fight by 2 or 3 rounds in my book.

 

It's a shame this fight happened at all tbh....boxing as business taken to the extreme...a world title shot on past glories without having to do anything for nearly half a decade.I would much rather have seen Hagler dethroned by a genuine contender that had at least broken some sweat in recent years by properly working his way to a title shot.

It would have been befitting of the way he conducted his career largely out of the media hype Leonard or even Hearns had.But no, he had to go for the easy payday, get psyched out and **** it up.

 

I agree it didn't have to happen at all.I've no problem with the scoring but to take the title off a long standing champion, the unwritten rule is the title has to be ripped and not stolen from the champs head.
Leonard was a superb boxer and top ten at 147 and 154 but the way he turned his back on the sport and cherry picked his opponents ie past it hagler unmotivated Duran and duping lalonde into fighting at 168 etc etc.
Anyway he was lucky in the return with Hearns and his legs had gone vs Norris and Camacho.

 

I've always felt this too. I reckon if Hagler had been sparked by an up & coming young warrior he would have accepted this as the nature of the game, much more happily than the sly way (as perceived by Hagler) that SRL took his title. As Marvin himself said when interviewed on BBC television after the Minter fight "Minter received a champion's due, he came up hard & went out hard".

 

Perfectly put and stated:good!

 

Hakglers reflexes and timing was off . He really should of retired after the Mugabi fight

I also had Leonard winning by the same margin

 

it is a very strange phenomena. I too was in the camp that I thought it was a draw or that Hagler had won the first time I watched it. after watching it again I didn't see what the big deal was.