Leonard beat Hagler was one of the biggest upsets in the history of boxing.

An upset, but not sure if it qualifies as a huge upset; while having had not fights in three years, Leonard WAS a good, talented fighter. It wasn't as if some bum had shown up out of nowhere and decisioned champion Hagler ... and the debate will go on forever whether or not he won or fought fair. Unexpected win, but not out of the question.

I'd take Douglas/Tyson as a bigger upset; with odds of 42-1 at fight time, in hindsight I wish I'd found a way to bet everything on it.

 

I scored the fight 7-5 to SRL: Hagler started off way too slow in the early rounds, dominated the middle rounds, didn't do enough in the championship rounds to deserve the win in my opinion.

 

It's crazy isn't it? And how about those who said it wasn't a big upset or wasn't even a big win lol. Leonard did win clearly I thought. I have all the respect in the world for Marvin Hagler, he was an incredible champion. But when it comes to the Leonard fight, he got beat plain and simple.

 

I hate dumb topics headlines. . . . NO Leonard's defeat of Hagler was NOT one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. . . .My gawd. . . a boxing upset would be when Memphis Al Jones who had a record of 3-17 in his previous twenty fights knocked out #7 heavyweight contender Boone Kirkman ending the Seattle fighter's chance at a planned NABF heavyweight title match versus Muhammad Ali.

 

It was a big upset, but not a huge upset. Based on the relatively narrow pre fight odds I don't think it would be in a top 50 upset based on th e odds.

 

From the link above: WT# was the Hagler "mis-management" thinking, especially the ring size.
20x20 = 400 sf. vs 24x24=576 sf.....a 44% increase in the ring's size.

"In exchange for the larger purse, the Hagler team let Leonard advisor Mike Trainer dictate a larger ring

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, larger 12-ounce gloves (rather than 8 or 10-ounces), and a shorter 12-round distance (instead of the traditional 15 rounds) - all of which favored Leonard."

 

Rt. The Hagler v SRL fight was on 4/6/87, so their fight was only recognized as a Title fight
by the WBC due to the fight being at only 12 rds.

"This changed though, following the death of lightweight Duk Koo Kim in 1982[2] after his fourteen-round fight with Ray Mancini. Almost immediately, the World Boxing Council (WBC) issued a statement saying that WBC world title bouts would be set for 12 rounds.[9] The following year on March 27, 1983, the first ever heavyweight title fight scheduled for 12 rounds under that rule was held by the WBC between Larry Holmes and Lucien Rodriguez.[9] The World Boxing Association, from which the World Boxing Organization had not yet separated, later followed suit[10] by voting to reduce their championship distances to 12 rounds on October 19, 1987.[11] While the International Boxing Federation, which had recently broken away from the WBA, continued to hold onto the position there was no documented medical evidence to show a 15-round fight is more dangerous than a 12-round fight, they eventually voted to shorten their championship distance to 12 rounds as well on June 3, 1988"