Pics From My Trip to Hearns' Induction Ceremony

you are thinking that is a normal 3rd round knockout. Hagler had to get wobbled and put his fight in 5th gear to get that knockout. Put most top two guys and have them go tops for 3 rounds and see how long it last. Al Michaels said, "not going to go long at this pace", and when I was listening to the radio between rounds an announcer named Rory Markus, who did Vegas reports on big fights said "Wow. At this pace this fight will not go very long" So saying it was 3 rounds doesn't mean that much. Not like the Curry/McCallum fight
Well it is not my agenda. Back in 1985, they were going to rematch which was contingent on Hearns beating Shuler and Hagler beating Mugabi, since Shuler was number 2 contender after Mugabi. The fight was postponed due to Hagler injury in late 1985, so they fought in March. And both beat Shuler and Mugabi. Hagler seemed less motivated to fight Hearns and you could tell he really did not want it again, even though he would earn another 5 million dollars (good money in 1986 for a top fighter). Then Ray comes out on that Maryland TV station and says I will fight Hagler. Hearns then stays active and fights Medal on June 23, 1986 on the triple hitter card which featured Duran/Sims and McGuigan/Cruz, and a day later Hagler has a press conference where he says he might retire instead of fight Hearns or Leonard, but it was obvious he did not want to fight Hearns. Even after the Leonard fight and Hearns beat Roldan, there was talk of Hagler fighting Hearns in April of 1988 and Hagler's people didn't move forward or want it. It was obviouis he didn't want to fight, whether he felt he already beat him or whether he knew he escaped a loss. I think it is the latter, but more that he had to go to a certain level he didn't think he could again. My thinking was always that he put his all -mental and physical into that win. His last two fights he was inactive for a year and looked sluggish.

 

Hearns had no reason to duck a Hearns rematch, c'mon Mag. I don't think he really wanted anything to do with boxing at all. Just wanted to fight Ray and be done.

 

Great stuff by the way Ice, what an experience!

 

Great pics

 

honestly. at that point in 1986 when Ray came back, you could tell after Hearns that Hagler lost his motivation to fight a little. He never took a year off after a fight like he did after Hearns. He came back looking softer for Mugabi than before and rusty. Ray picked Hagler because he put it all together that different facets of Hagler were going down, but mainly his motivation. He knew Hagler reached a peak with Hearns by getting in top mental and physical condition, and then he saw how he looked against Mugabi a year later. By that point I think Hagler was ready to retire as he said in that press conference. I remember the conference, but I never saw clips of it again. Hagler said maybe he would not fight Leonard. But he did eventually fight Ray.

By the way, a rematch with Hearns would have been a totally different fight than the 1985 fight. Hearns would have slowed it down a little and used his jab and he would have got some distance on his right hand and I think he would have hurt Hagler, not sure if he would stop him since Marvin would be hard to stop, but I think he would have stopped Hagler on TKO on cuts-

 

By the way I do agree with you basically, but I think the Hearns fight took Marvin's motivation for boxing. And signing to fight Ray did not really get it back. I honestly think he put his all into that April 1985 fight so much mentally that he almost burned himself out of training and the sport. And the fact he took punches from Hearns and got cut. I think it just wore him out, but it was worth his effort since that fight is what he is remembered for regardless of all those 10 title defenses, but it diminished him for later fights.

 

You're joking,right?Mag claims Hagler was scared of Hearns in a rematch and I'M the one that lacks objectivity?Cool

 

It was 12 btw.

 

As if Marvin NEVER would have landed on Tommy had Tommy boxed more.Hmmm...I remember when Tommy tried to do that in round 2 and 3.

 

Yeah, but I can see why you took it that way. I shoudl've multi-quoted with his post first.

There isn't any sense in arguing with MAG. He still doesn't give Duran credit against Leonard FFS.

 

And never will.Cheers:good

 

my memory is failing me. Thank you. I think I am confused since when he fought Hearns he had 10 defenses, and that is what I remember. You know the funny thing Virgil Hill had 10 defenses of his title when Hearns fought him and he was undefeated. And Cuevas had 11 title defenses when he fought Hearns. So beating guys with double digit title defenses was not a great challenge for Tommy.

 

I give credit, I just do not think that was Duran who made Leonard fight like that. Leonard wanted to beat Duran at his own game as he said later after the comments Ray had, and as I have said before in the first fight Ray was not the same Leonard who later fought Hearns in 1981. He was still learning his craft, and one of the lessons he learned in that first Duran fight was to fight his fight.
In the rematch you can tell from the first round on that he was moving and was going to fight his fight. Compare the first fight to the second. Put the fights side by side and see the difference. As I have said numerous times, Ray was the variable in the fights with Duran, not the other way around. Ray was more versatile than Duran. People can argue that, but Ray proved that against not only Duran, but other great fighters like Hearns and Benitez.