Roy Jones Jr vs Marvin Hagler @ 160lbs

Indeed. Both shocking and shameful.

 

Were you there mate, in person?

 

Fortunately not. I’m not entirely sure how I would have reacted, had I been there. What an embarrassment?

 

It was awful.

That's the year I was born.

Unfortunately, there's still many people like that in the world nearly 40 years later.

 

I was at the Hagler-Minter fight, as I am pretty sure McVey would have been too. The atmosphere was poisonous and nasty, even before the fight. Minter's inappropriate comment before the fight stirred up a lot of press ink before the fight, and there was quite a, shall we say, xenophobic presence at the fight. It was not the majority of the crowd by any means, but enough to make it's presence felt.

Minter appearance in the arena was greeted by the crowd in a way described by the late, great Harry Mullen (then editor of Boxing News) as "almost orgasmic ecstasy" whilst Hagler's entrance was greeted with quite a lot of fans singing "go home you bum" and much, much worse besides. It was much more hostile than you'd usually expect (and hear) for an away fighter in the UK.

The thing for me as Hagler entered the ring was that he appeared utterly un-fazed and not intimidated in the slightest by this reception. He appeared completely cold, clinical and focussed and then proceeded to rip Minter apart with a performance of such cold, vicious, clinical fury; fifty fights worth of anger, frustration, spleen and seething aggression vented upon Minter, technically brilliant too.

To do that away from home in an atmosphere like that was breathtakingly brilliant. Hagler didn't give a f*ck what the crowd were going to do.

It's the most brilliant, vicious, terrifying, punch-perfect, ruthless, destructive, performance I've ever seen live. I won't forget it for as long as I live. I've not seen a middleweight since whom I would favour over the Marvin of that night.

 

Great summary.

Whilst I was not there in person, your description of Hagler's composure and performance is very much how I remember perceiving his display, over the airwaves. One knew they'd just witnessed something extraordinary.

 

" Hagler began most of his fights from the outside, wearing his opponents down for the kill "

I agree, but that is the worst strategy vs. Roy Jones jr, as he's lighting from the outside. Sorry, Hopkins and Toney are harder to hit. Jones had no problem winning wide UD's from both. For Hagler to win, he needs to slug.

 

I've seen 74" for Jones jr, but your right, very close to even. What is not close to even is Roy Jones hand speed.

If Roy Jones had a shorter reach, he would not have been able to out box John Ruiz as he did. Could Hagler beat Ruiz? Probably not.

 

Slowed down some, but what's alarming to me is Mugabi who was not a good boxer was in fact out boxing Hagler for a while who was just 31 years old for that fight.

I think you know more than I do on Hagler, but 31 years old how many tough fights did he have to really slow down?

Mugabi was one of those big punchers with a weak chin. The fact that Duane Thomas KO'd Mugabi in 3 rounds, after Hagler who first stopped him took 11, doesn't; look good for Hagler. Later on Terry Norris did it in one round at super welter. After that McClellan also Ko'd " the Beast " in one round. Point proven, I hope. Could Hagler have stopped Mugabi sooner? YES, but like I said he's a slow starter and too risk adverse.

PS: I think you're a fine addition to the board.

 

I remember watching that fight on TV. Incredible that Hagler and his handlers weren't seriously injured.

But in the next 4 decades I've seen more scenes like this with drunken Brit fans. I believe now Wembley
prohibits alcohol on site, same as soccer stadiums.

 

With all respect Mendoza, Hagler may have been 31 years old but had an awful lot of wear and tear; a pro for nearly 14 years, a hard fistic upbringing, he was never handed knockover fights, he was never a promoter's golden boy, was not protected and pretty much cleaned out the division twice, once before becoming champion (as the away fighter no less) & once when finally becoming champion in his 50th fight.

Regarding Mugabi's chin, I think the Hagler fight took a lot of the resilience out of The Beast; Mugabi took a sustained beating over the 11 hard rounds. The Thomas ko was a strange one (I remember the fight - Mugabi appeared to suffer either a fractured orbital bone/thumb in the eye - I can't quite remember) & the McLellan kayo was when Mugabi's punch resistance seemed totally shot - an accumulation of damage over previous fights.

 

Marvin was obviously completely on another level to John Ruiz on a P4P basis. But H2H, Marvin couldn't have added the extra weight that Roy did, and he obviously wasn't as fast. It would have been a completely different fight. To be honest, I can't even envisage it.

 

Most of the trouble nowadays is between rival football/soccer hooligans.

 

Good post.

Age and ring age are 2 very different things.

Although he was relatively young, he'd had 65 fights.

 

I remember the fight as a kid. My old man bless him, "sit down son and watch this, the Americans gonna have his head boxed off"...Total destruction lol. Hagler from then on was a favourite in our house. What a true fighter the Marvelous one was