The record books have him beating Hagler and drawing with Hearns (2), but everybody knows he lost both decisions. Both Duran and Hagler are above him in the fab 4 rivalry. What a circus this era was.
He wasn't just stealing decisions, but low blowing both of them, hitting after the breaks and the bell (Hearns). And the announcers were just looking the other way.
The only gift he got was against Hearns.. And that was a DRAW.. Not a victory. Every other decision he was ever awarded he earned, including the hagler bout.
It's a tossup between Hagler and Duran. I often wonder if the roles were reversed, and it was 29 years old career middle Duran vs 33 year old career lightweight Marvin moving up. My god.
Exactly. And Leonard also could've easily been awarded the decision in the first Duran fight, which no one mentions when talking about the decisions among those guys that could've gone either way. One judge scored it 3 for Duran, 2 for Leonard and 10 rounds EVEN for God's sake. That was a one-round fight either way. Duran could've easily walked away with NO wins against those three guys. Roberto is nowhere near the top of a list among those champs. Hagler outpointed him. Leonard humiliated him twice (and arguably won the first as well). And Hearns destroyed him.
Duran was no "career lightweight" though. He was the light-middleweight WBA title holder and the former lineal welterweight champion.
WTF...someone attempting to re-make history here. Hearns-Leonard II was the only bad decision. Duran I could actually have gone in the other direction. He beat Hagler....because Marvin didn't throw enough punches, simple as that.
You only need to take a look at Leonard's face expression at the end ; he knew he had been beaten. The same expression as in the second Hearns fight.
" The split decision in favor of Leonard was very controversial. Judge Jose Guerra's score of 118-110 in favor of Leonard was heavily criticized. "JoJo Guerra should be put in jail," Pat Petronelli, Hagler's co-trainer, said. Watching the fight at home two weeks later, Gibbs scored the fight for Hagler."
I'm not the only one who scores the Hagler fight for Hagler. Opinions have always been divided. I think the real "re-writing" of history is when people make out Leonard won that fight hands down. I just can't see that at all. The truth is, only two of the judges in the fight had reasonable scores. And they didn't both score for Leonard !
