Which fight(s) would say was the Marvelous one the most marvelous in ,the absolute peak of him is? I say Sibson to Hearns ,so that 4/5 fight period. What say you?
After parroting Sibson for years i'm going to change it up. This year i'm going to go earlier. I'm going to go with the Antuofermo draw giving Hagler the pad from which to launch toward his peak period. He was certainly one to thrive on having a chip on his shoulder and most of his performances were beastly from that point on. Geraldo gave him some trouble utilizing his height and reach so let's look a little further. From post Geraldo the guy barely if at all lost a round all the way until Duran. There's every chance Hamsho was the second best 160 in the world and Hagler shut him out. I'm going to call Sibson the end of his peak period instead of the height of it.
Peak Hagler for me is when he got cranky at Caveman Lee for being mouthy at the press conference so he obliterated him in mere seconds. Geez that was a performance.
Hagler had a relatively long prime - from end of '77 (Colbert) to early '83 (Sibbo) - I would estimate. Where he peaked along that section of his career is up for grabs. There are some lesser known/recognized performances of Hagler's, which pre-date his championship run by a few years (e.g., the Briscoe win '78). So, I've come to think of Hagler having somewhat plateaued across that period, but it is interesting to me that you could consider him as having gone up another gear, following the Antuofermo Draw and Geraldo - and justifiably so. Sibson is often cited as one of the best performances Hagler put on - and it is. But was Hagler mid-peak or moving towards the twilight? I think that bout does warrant being considered the end of Hagler's peak. I have often suggested and still believe it to this day that Hagler's cutting down of Minter was one of the most clinical performances I have ever seen in a boxing ring. I still view it that way. Last year, the Ring posted a brief review of the fight, tipping their hat to the fight's 42nd anniversary. The opening line: "It was a massacre." Antuofermo (I) and Geraldo perhaps served as the finishing step of the forging process, making Hagler that refined and hardened spear of the Middleweight division which, from Minter '80 to Sibson '83, was probably at its sharpest.
Hamsho I for me. A clinic, a real exhibition of dominant boxing from the outset, Marv peppered him all night with his full repertoire of punches and showed outstanding defence- whether slipping on blocking Hamsho's rushes. The fight went a long way due to the fact that Mustapha had one of the best chins of the 80s. I think this was the fight where many were thinking that Hagler was going to rule for a long time.
, Whenever I think about that fight I picture Minter being interviewed on Ringside and the expression on his face when he said: "oooh, it was hard". You could still feel his pain.
The 1st Antuofermo fight made him a better overall fighter in my view, you can even see in the Duran fight Hagler had learnt from Antuofermo fight. He purposely paced him between rounds 11-13 so he would have enough left for a big finish. Whitaker/Ramirez 1, Hagler/Antuofermo 1, I often compare these two controversial decisions. Because I feel like both fights made Hagler, Whitaker, better fighters. I think Whitaker losing the Ramirez fight, and Hagler getting the draw was actually best thing that could've happened to them in a strange way because they learnt from it. People often cite the Hearns fight as one of Hagler's best performances, but really he'd been much sharper in other fights IMO. He just went at Hearns like rabid dog, maybe his motivation and frustration was never more so than in the Hearns fight. But I believe fights vs the likes of Sibson, Minter, etc were his best performances overall.
Yeah agreed. I only revised today on a whim and probably should have years ago. I should have included Scypion too as that was a very dominant effort against a decent middleweight. Dinner points to the Hamsho bout as the singular performance and that sits in pretty much the middle of my period. He was definitely on fire by the Minter belting.
Yes - Hamsho (I) could well be considered Hagler's absolute apex. Hamsho was in his prime and had the physical presence (including quite the reach) and toughness to present a real challenge. His corner did a great job to keep him in it, as well. But, either way, Hagler just went through his repertoire, using his footwork to make life difficult for the swarmer - handling the clash of heads and the cut he picked up with professionalism - sticking to his pattern. The wind up towards the finish was epic.
Marvin certainly put on an exhibition of all his assets in that bout. Sugar Ray Leonard,at ringside,commented "I did n't know Marvin could box as well"
