Marvin Hagler (vs the Light Heavy's)

Foster gave up his height more making it easier to come in on him though

 

Would you have said that if not for the Foster KO? I think Tiger's chin was about as proven as humanly possible at Middleweight. Moreso than Hagler's, even.

 

Foster could probably lay out any middleweight with the left hook he landed on Tiger, but I doubt he would land as solidly on Hagler. Tiger was shorter and was forced to be more reckless than usual in an attempt to get at the 6'3 Foster. Tiger said he felt nothing but the lights go out when he got hit, no pain or dizziness.

 

My opinion would probably be the same. Tiger had a genuine wobble every now and then. After Wigfall, Hagler wasn't wobbled for the rest of his career; Hart visibly hurt Hagler, but not enough to put him in any kind of danger. Mugabi hit him with a hard uppercut that Hagler barely blinked from. Hearns hurt him most and that was a volley of shots. Hagler was still focused on the fight even in those moments and bought some recuperative time by cutting down the range he was at.

Those are the highlights of Hagler's vulnerability. Even against Hearns, the untrained eye might not even have realised Hagler was affected if not for commentary. I have to say, I haven't known a fighter any less hurt than him.

 

When?

 

I'm not talking about being banged across the ring, just subtle things. Like Giardello catching Tiger with a good counter and watching his knees buckle from the shot. That stuff didn't happen to Hagler, for whatever reason, be it natural durability, instinctive composure, defence or whatever.

 

I think it's easy to see Hagler's discomfort when being hit. Tiger was more "tank"-like, he would go forward even while taking hits since he did not have to choice to go on the backfoot. Tiger's style made him more suspectible to punches, especially counters, as conservative as he liked to be about his pressure.

 

I have to ask, where? I've watched Hagler's entire filmed fight career (extensively) and there are only two moments I can think of where he was even close to being shaken or hurt, against Hart and Hearns. People say the 'Mugabi uppercut' too but Hagler brushed that off easily. Hamsho caught Hagler with a diving head butt and still couldn't dent him.

One thing I will say is that Hagler was generally a sensible fighter and wouldn't pile in if he didn't have to, or in other words, it wasn't his style to be 'tank like' unless it was a predetermined strategy as in the Obelmejias and Hearns bouts.

 

Forget the "knockdown", but Roldan was bothering Hagler early, although it still showed off his awesome ability to take a punch.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3IfL4Qf9wE[/ame]

 

All I see in that (a fight I've seen many times) are shots bouncing off Hagler. Yes, Roldan lands a few, but they don't necessarily have much effect. Hagler was actually a very smart fighter; he messed up a couple of times with regards to strategy over the course of his career, however, he knew that other fighters got themselves knocked out by being too macho. He was a professional, and wasn't ashamed of backing off after taking a good one. You can see he's never hurt. Frazier hooking Ali, spinning his head round, that's a whole different story to what's happening here; Hagler's head is like a rock.

 

He looks to me a man who feels he is getting hit far too much and tries to keep his composure under the wild pressure. No doubt about Hagler's chin, I was simply commenting on his mentality, which was to try and stay away from harm's way as much as possible. Tiger on the other hand liked all the action he could get.

 

Somehow we seem to completely agree then :huh

 

Hagler's chin was about as concrete as it gets,imo.
I think Roldan bothered him because he threw punches from crazy angles and,his hand speed was deceptively fast .Hagler could not time his rushes.
I was at the Minter fight and words like," shook" and ,"wobbled ",are not applicable ,but Minter's punches registered don't worry about that.

Mugabi could really bang and, though his hand went early on,he landed some bombs on Hagler . The guy just shrugged them off.
Hagler could hang with several of the LHVY champs, but he was contemporary with some very good 175 pounders, I think he was wise to stay where he did.

 

Yep. Here's another one whose chin I rate up there with the best: Jose Napoles.