Who was the best middleweight Hagler ever beat?

Taking those shots & slowly chopping down Mugabi like that. was no easy feat. neither fighter was the same after that. But carving up Mustafa Hamsho & giving him 55 stitches was clearly Haglers best performance against a natural Middleweight.

 

Nobody should criticize Hagler for the fact that his best wins were against men moving up in weight.He does,however,warrant criticism for openly calling these men out,acting like they somehow had an obligation to fight him,while he was always as quiet as a church mouse when Qawi and Spinks wanted a piece of him.

 

I always wanted to see Marvin move up in weight and see his chin tested against bigger guys. It would have proven if he really was as dominant as he looked at middleweight. Hearns,Duran,Benitez, and Leonard all proved they could fight moving up.

 

People don't realize how small Hagler is, even for middleweight. I met him in the early 90's at a bar up in New Hampshire and I was massive compared to him and I was 5' 10" 195 at the time and towered over him by AT LEAST 2 inches. He was ripped and looked like a menace on television (did in person too) but he was very small in person. The heights on boxrec seem to be exaggerated in many cases. I was supposed to spar with Steve Collins years ago at Pettronelli's gym until we found out it was him I was supposed to get in the ring with, but he was my height or just a tad taller and they have him listed at 6'.

 

This I want to hear more about! Did you get in the ring with him?

 

At the time I wanted to but I had only been fighting about a year and my trainer wasn't going to let me in the ring with a ranked contender. Looking back Im glad, because he would have beat my ass. I did work out with him on the bags, skipping rope, footwork, pivoting and everything else and he gave me plenty of help and encouragement. Later on I watched him spar with what I thought was the South African national amateur champion, but have since spoken with John Scully who had also been up to work out there around that time frame and he doesn't think it was. Anyway, dude had the belly pad on and Collins was folding him up like a chair with body shots and they sounded just wicked when they landed. That was the only time I met him, but he seemed like a great guy. Definitively not 6' though.