To me Hagler was past prime but certainly not shot. He would've beaten any other MW in the world the night he fought Leonard. He looked a little sloppy in the Mugabi fight but "the beast" was a real difficult opponent. Had Hagler knocked out Leonard in 5 nobody would've mentioned how rusty he looked against Mugabi. I always thought that Haglers problem in this fight was that he hated Leonard so much that he wasn't thinking about boxing at times...he almost wanted to KO him too badly!!! That's why I believe that Leonard would've beaten him a few years earlier as well (a rare opinion I know)...Hagler lost self-control around Leonard, and let his emotions ruin his performance!!! Shame Ray never allowed us to see it!!!!
Just to think this was a Hagler that was at the end of his career and not at his best though still dominant. Leonard had a long rest from the fight game and figured he'd wait to see Marvin falling off and make the fight. Well, he was successful at that but not in the fight. His showboating, excessive holding, and low blows helped him in the fight. If Leonards arms moved, the crowd went crazy. They truly missed their hero. Leonard was gassed and running for dear life. How is that impressive. Because of Hagler's dominance of the division the thought was basiclly" if Leonard goes the distance, give him the fight." One judge was right, one was star struck and the other had his scorecard filled out before the first bell. Marvelous Marvin won by 3 points. Watch the fight with no volume to get the real results. The crowd means nothing when it comes to judging a fight.
Hagler was a bit past it, and you are right...the Mugabi fight took a bit from Hagler as he imo is the only boxer to clearly hurt Hagler, and he hurt him to the body, and swelled Hagler's face up a bit. Leonard saw Hagler slow a bit after that fight, and truly thought he could beat Hagler. Watching this fight, no matter how you scored it, who did you see hitting more and more to the head? I know you're supposed to count body shots, but Hagler's body shots were not debilitating, and Leonard blocked many of them. People see the head fly, and scored it that way, and Leonard was hitting Hagler cleanly to the head/jaw. At times Hagler even laughed at Sugar's punches that landed clean, but late in the fight Hagler was not laughing. Hagler came out southpaw to give Sugar a different look, and to nulify Leonards speed, and the difference in this fight was SPEED. I did not see Hagler winning 7 rounds, but I did see Sugar win 7 rounds.
They were both past their primes. Hagler had been becoming easier to hit in the past couple of years and not as light on his feet, especially against Mugabi. He wasn't shot though. He still kicked Mugabi's ass for the most part, winning the fight at range with his jab, and tearing Mugabi up on the inside, particularly with the body shots. Both of them pissed blood after the fight. I read that Leonard had really intense sparring sessions to simulate fight conditions, but still, it was amazing for him to fight so well after that inactivity. Leonard said he saw Mugabi outboxing Hagler which showed him that Hagler had slipped. I really didn't see that though as Hagler was jabbing Mugabi silly from the outside. I guess maybe Leonard saw if differently, or saw what he wanted to see, and knew he could take advantage of what Hagler wasn't doing well.
IMO, Leonard did a little bit too much holding, running stealing to win the belt from the long term champ, especially in the 12th which he gave away. If you thought that the fight was on the verge in the 12th, Hagler did at least enough to earn a draw. If Leonard would have won the 12th convincingly, yes an argument for him could have been provided. But he did not but elected to survive. Keep in mind that the agressor throughout the fight was the champ himself and that should get points. Hagler never slowed down, kept coming all the time and at the end of the 12th Leonard was exhausted and not Hagler. Great performance by Leonard though but Hagler deserved to retain his title.