RIP Marvelous Marvin Hagler

YLGator

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To this day, the Hagler/Leonard decision is still one of the all-time worst. Hagler was the undisputed champ. Leonard was the challenger. To be the champ, you have to beat the champ. Leonard ran away the entire fight and never once even threatened the champ. It was a travesty.
 

Gator By Marriage

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As he was a local guy, I grew up a big Sugar Ray fan. As I got older, I learned a lot more about him. Not much of a fan anymore......
 

GatorInGeorgia

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He was a hell of a fighter (as was Hearns). That was an incredibly entertaining few rounds of boxing that I never tire of watching.
 

NVAGATOR86

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Thanks for sharing that clip. Hagler was always my favorite and it was the best of times for the middleweights. Hagler never gave his opponents time to breathe and Hearns had a lot of courage to stand toe to toe with him. Agree that he won the fight with Leonard. The media hype around Sugar Ray and his come back was enough to influence the judges, who as we knew could be easily influenced.
 

Marine1

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Some more fighters from back in that day....Wilfredo Benitez, Pipino Cuevas, Alexis Arguello, Aaron Pryor, Danny Lopez, Chavez, Pernell Whitaker,Gatti, Ward....
 

AlexDaGator

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How would Roy Jones Jr. in his prime compare to Leonard, Hearns, and Hagler?

And for the record, the biggest robbery in boxing history was the S. Korean boxer “beating” Roy Jones Jr. in the Seoul Olympics. Hagler should have won against Leonard, or at least gotten a draw, but Roy Jones Jr. owned that S. Korean and got robbed.

Alex.
 

rogdochar

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How would Roy Jones Jr. in his prime compare to Leonard, Hearns, and Hagler?

And for the record, the biggest robbery in boxing history was the S. Korean boxer “beating” Roy Jones Jr. in the Seoul Olympics. Hagler should have won against Leonard, or at least gotten a draw, but Roy Jones Jr. owned that S. Korean and got robbed.

Alex.

Then the Olympic judges named Jones the most outstanding boxer in those Olympics.?? :confused:
 

rogdochar

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Nobody had a punch powerful enough to even stun Hagler. He just refused to let anybody hurt him. That was his conquering technique just plowing in. PS = he blocked a lot of those blows, but he'd take a blow to get in his own. It helped that he was mean.
 

g8tr76

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I thought Marvelous Marvin was definitely one of the toughest guys out there. I liked Sugar Ray by what he did in the Olympics, but there were several heros on the 76 team like the Spinks brothers and Howard Davis. We use to call Leon Spinks the grill because of his missing dental work, but he, too, was a bull in the ring: just ask Cassius Marcellus.

But Leonard was an excellent boxer, but so was Hagler as well as being a brute; and although history says differently, Hagler won the matchup. As YL noted, Marvin was the Champ and, at the time, challengers had to bring the fight to the Champ if they want to win; Sugar Ray did not do that but the victory was given to him. A complete traversty!

Marine brought up Little Red Lopez. Another star boxer who had pretty well been spent by the time the 76 team started their run at championships. He could take a beating and get up to win, but he was done by 1980.

It was a great time for boxing but it was losing its appeal when Hagler revived the sport by winning and holding his title for so long. Knocking out Hearnes (who was suppose to grow into a light heavyweight), was his peak as well as the near end of boxing's heyday, it has not been the same since.
 
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rogdochar

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Boxing declined when there was Olympics to infuse boxing with new stars. The USA Olympic boxing teams dominated the world back then.
 

Marine1

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There were just so many great fighters back then in so many weight classes. They fought everybody and they fought often. Matches were 15 rounds and rounds 13-15 were the “winning” rounds where legends were made. Rematches were frequent and led to some great trilogy’s.

I loved boxing back then. My brother and I spent the late 80’s and early 90’s hitting Vegas for championship fights. There is simply nothing like fight night at the arena. The electricity is unlike anything else in sports.
 

gator1946

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I think boxing is most brutal sport there is. I can't understand how civilized people can watch it. The objective is to knock the crap out of somebody and it's better if they get a concussion and are on the deck unconscious. Disgusting.

AND I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF A GOOD BOXING MATCH. I LIKE IT EVEN BETTER IF IT ENDS WITH A KO.
 

AlexDaGator

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I think boxing is most brutal sport there is. I can't understand how civilized people can watch it. The objective is to knock the crap out of somebody and it's better if they get a concussion and are on the deck unconscious. Disgusting.

AND I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF A GOOD BOXING MATCH. I LIKE IT EVEN BETTER IF IT ENDS WITH A KO.

I tell people MMA is a safer sport than boxing.

Alex.
 

Spurffelbow833

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How would Roy Jones Jr. in his prime compare to Leonard, Hearns, and Hagler?

And for the record, the biggest robbery in boxing history was the S. Korean boxer “beating” Roy Jones Jr. in the Seoul Olympics. Hagler should have won against Leonard, or at least gotten a draw, but Roy Jones Jr. owned that S. Korean and got robbed.

Alex.
There was even video footage of a man in the crowd slipping something into the hand of one of the judges after the fight. The cheating in Olympic boxing was rampant, and the Roy Jones incident was finally enough to embarrass the IOC into doing something about it.
 

rogdochar

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In that decision unfavorable to Jones, wasn't he fighting the home-boy favorite?
 

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