I don't think I ever saw this matchup here. Just got done reading Saad's biography and have been watching some of his fights. Hagler had an iron chin, Johnson is also a southpaw as well and I think has the big edge in power. How does this one play out? Lets say Hagler gets up to 167, and Johnson is an even 170.
Hagler is both greater & was better, p4p, at their respective primes. Hagler wasn't a big MW, I'm not sure going up to 167lbs would be much of an advantage for him, he already looked a tank to me at 160. Difficult to know what the impact of being forced to make 170lbs would be on Johnson, but given he was 172.25lbs vs Parlov & 173.5lbs vs Galindez, it may not take too much out of him. My guess is it would be a close, distance fight, with Johnson's extra size getting him a narrow, & possibly debtable, decision.
Thatt's why I put him in the 160's because I couldn't see him at 175 especially how hard he trained. He wasn't a big middlewight either although he had a 75 inch reach which is inpressive for a guy who was 5'9.
I’m not going to speculate on what an artificial 170-pound catchweight would do with Pops, but let’s just say he comes in at 175 or below and Hagler presumably comes in above 160 (honestly I think he’d be less than optimal above about 163ish) for my take. I think Johnson is just too big and strong. Marvelous maybe gives him a bit of trouble early but at some point he settles down and they end up trading a bit and I think Johnson mostly mauls and batters him on the way to a UD … unless MMH loses on a cuts stoppage. I just don’t think Hagler can fight at light heavy, and I think he knew it.
Johnson by stoppage theres a reason Hagler never moved to Light Heavyweight. The division at that time was full of killers, and Hagler was too small to compete with them.
I would have gone CRAZY to see that fight, I love both of them like crazy! I'm not convinced Hagler would win though. I think he would have moved to light heavy if he had thought he could win a title there. Johnson was part of what, to me, was by far the greatest era in the light heavies. I love and so miss those days....
