I scored Geraldo vs. Leonard and vs. Hagler in the What Fights Did You Watch Today thread, maybe last summer or so. Leonard had a tough time but won. Hagler fell behind and had to sweep the last three rounds on my card to narrowly win. Marcos could be a tough puzzle to solve, tall and awkward. He was a slow starter but once he settled in he was a very competitive guy. Didn’t look like he got hit particularly hard vs. Hearns … the left after two rights seemed to be the most telling punch. I don’t think he ‘took a dive’ in the sense that he was paid to throw the fight or anything (no one had anything to gain to fix the fight as Hearns was at worst going to outclass him), just he got hit a few times by those sizzling Hearns punches in a very small ring and decided there wasn’t sufficient reason to hang around and take a battering that he felt was sure to come.
There certainly was the boxing version of pay to play with fighters being selected to lose being caught in between fights and out of shape or rewarded to lose with other top fights.....As far as the Hearns fight I am reserved the left hook Hearns threw that ended it had some stink on it and Geraldo seemed hurt but not as hurt as to warrant a 9 count and falling back while rising. He was a tough opponent almost a kamikaze type fighter with power who seemed to live and die by the stoppage so action was always there.
