Mugabi - Really Ruined?

What fights are you basing this on? The Hagler and Thomas fights?

 

Not Hagler, he did show heart there. But Thomas, Norris and McClellan were very, very poor performances, where Mugabi did not seem interested.

 

Who did Mugabi ever beat ?

 

Mugabi catches a fair amount of flak on these boards, and to me it's not all undeserved; I would, however, give enormous credit to George Francis and Mickey Duff, who guided him through the shark-infested waters of the 154-pound division in the mid-80's. They made people think he was a mini-George Foreman (and he may well have been- sort of a George Foreman Lite) and this irresistable force.

He was probably never capable of beating someone like a McCallum or Hearns, but there was a lot of parity in the junior-middles in those days which meant he was a coin toss against everyone else, and he got a whole lot more ink than another crushing puncher, Julian Jackson. Kudos to Duff and Francis for their PR work. The finished product didn't stand up to the hype, but that's usually the case.

That said, then, I figure they got their man as far as they could given his somewhat limited skills.

 

Frank "The Animal" Fletcher

 

Mugabi was a beast - in the gym ''even heavyweights would fall'' at his fists.

And the one punch the Hagler remembers above all others (in his 67 fight career) is an uppercut that Mugabi landed in their fight - ''I felt THAT punch!!!''

Therefore, in terms of Middleweight punching power:

Mugabi > Hearns

 

...........It's telling though that he hardly blinked when Mugabi hit him with that shot. Never missed a beat, just sneered and threw back. Not saying that Mugabi couldn't punch, but the impact of that particular shot wasn't much at all.

 

According to Mickey Duff , who was Mugabi,s manager The Ugandan ,came back to the corner after the 6th against Hagler and complained about his right hand,"my hand is very bad "after the fight it was very swollen. It must be remembered Mugabi was a natural LM fighting a great middle weight .

 

Also, when Hearns hit him with that right in the first it snapped Hagler's right leg past 90 degrees and had him stunned for about 10-15 seconds. Maybe it was the first round and Hagler was properly warmed up but I don't recall Mugabi's punches having that effect. I think Mugabi could punch alright but he was a little overhyped with the 26 fights, 26 wins, 26 KOs thing.

As to who was the heavier puncher I do not know for sure, but Tommy's a lot faster than Mubabi and that speed difference makes all the difference in my book.

 

You deserve to be overhyped if you can acheive that kind of record, even if against less than steller opposition.

 

Many times when fighters lose the biggest fight of their career their motivation is permanently broken. It doesn't always happen, of course, but it happens often enough.

Maybe it has something to do with the fighter realizing -- for the first time in his life -- that he's not as good as he thought he was. I don't know.

As I recall, Mugabe didn't really take a terrible beating against Hagler. But the loss seems to have deflated him psychologically anyway.

 

The Hagler loss probably knocked a bit of confidence out of Mugabi, though nothing irreparable, but it was the Duane Thomas thumbing incident in his next fight that probably ruined Mugabi.

I think Mugabi more than lived up to the hype IN HIS FIGHT WITH HAGLER. His managers perhaps should have gone after Hearns instead though.

 

Mugabi was one of the biggest punchers ever at LM. He also had a great chin up until the Hagler fight. Hard Rock Green had him ready to go, but couldn't finish him. Hagler tko'd him, but Mugabi wasn't out, he just quit because of the beating he took. Hagler ruined him because Mugabi couldn't deal with the fact that he wasn't invincible. Hagler broke John's fighting spirit. Without that, the desire is gone to be great.