Great threatd. I've never been able to stomach sitting through a replay of the fight, because I still get so angry at the result. Definitely a close fight, but IMO Hagler was the clear winner. Ray won on style and guile. He was a smart fighter and as Will pointed out, he definitely got into Marvin's head and IMO caused Marving to be a lot more tentative and made him look bad compared to Ray. I wish Hagler hadn't walked away, but he was obviously so disgusted with the outcome that he probably firgured "what's the point?" He certainly didn't need the money.
I'm 100% certain that the fight was April 6th and not the 7th. If anyone in the Boston area recalls, that night there were torrential rains with gusty winds. I got the fight on PPV, one of the rare nights I didn't go to the race track. The fight probably cost me at least 20K and not because of the result. The track (Wonderland) had the greatest rail bias in the history of racing. The bias lasted for 3 cards, including the matinee and evening on April 7th (the following day). I went to work the next day and missed the matinee and didn't go until the evening. Didn't have much ammo and made about a grand.
Leonard did very little in each round and would only try and fight the last 20 seconds of each round. He'd put together a flurry (that didn't hurt Hagler) in the closing seconds and stole numerous rounds almost by sleight of hand and with bunch of flash. Hagler dominated the late rounds. I thought Hagler got robbed. Leonard dif have a great strategy and Hagler and the Petronelli's did a poor job of countering it.
I've watched that fight at least 20 times. At first, I thought Hagler won. I was a big Hagler fan at the time. How could anyone not be after his three round destruction of Thomas Hearns in '85. That was the middleweight fight of the decade for sure.
The more times I watched the fight, however, my opinion changed and I feel Leonard won by the score of 115-114. Or, 6 rounds to 5 and 1 round even.
IMO, Leonard won rounds 1-4 and Hagler won rounds 5-8. The fight was even after 8 rounds. Leonard won round 9 with the big flurry of punches and also round 12 with Marvin chasing him around the ring and missing badly. Hagler clearly won round 10 landing some big shots. Round 11 was absolutely the closest round of the fight, which is why I scored it even. I can totally see how people could score that round for Hagler making the fight a draw.
The judge who scored it 118-110 for Leonard or 10 rounds to two, was obviously corrupt. No way Leonard won 10 rounds.
Leonard won with his hand speed, footwork and being an elusive target. He looked like a matador in the later rounds. Hagler made a mistake by trying to outbox Sugar Ray early on. He missed too many punches and looked arm weary late in the fight. Marvin should have attacked the body from the beginning and stayed at it the whole fight. It would have taken away Leonard's legs.
Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, Duran. Great era.
I thought Hearns was robbed in his rematch with Leonard. He knocks him down twice and they score it a draw?!?
Has anyone seen Hearn's round 2 KO over Duran? I never saw that one, but would like to.
RIP Chuck Hull.
The more times I watched the fight, however, my opinion changed and I feel Leonard won by the score of 115-114. Or, 6 rounds to 5 and 1 round even.
IMO, Leonard won rounds 1-4 and Hagler won rounds 5-8. The fight was even after 8 rounds. Leonard won round 9 with the big flurry of punches and also round 12 with Marvin chasing him around the ring and missing badly. Hagler clearly won round 10 landing some big shots. Round 11 was absolutely the closest round of the fight, which is why I scored it even. I can totally see how people could score that round for Hagler making the fight a draw.
The judge who scored it 118-110 for Leonard or 10 rounds to two, was obviously corrupt. No way Leonard won 10 rounds.
Leonard won with his hand speed, footwork and being an elusive target. He looked like a matador in the later rounds. Hagler made a mistake by trying to outbox Sugar Ray early on. He missed too many punches and looked arm weary late in the fight. Marvin should have attacked the body from the beginning and stayed at it the whole fight. It would have taken away Leonard's legs.
Hagler, Leonard, Hearns, Duran. Great era.
I thought Hearns was robbed in his rematch with Leonard. He knocks him down twice and they score it a draw?!?
Has anyone seen Hearn's round 2 KO over Duran? I never saw that one, but would like to.
RIP Chuck Hull.
All I can say is wow!!!!
Hearns was absolutely throwing bombs. Just going straight after him. He dropped Duran twice with big right hands. You could see in one of the replays that the 2nd knockdown was from a vicious left uppercut. I don't know if Duran would have gotten up, but his corner threw in the towel. Amazing. Easily Hearns biggest win.
Now I see why Hearns tried that same strategy against Hagler. While Duran stood on the outside the whole time, giving up a huge reach advantage to Hearns, Hagler was able to get inside and land all those big shots.
An outdoor fight at Caesars Palace. The good ole days.
Thanks Boxer22. I'd been wanting to see that for a long time.
Hearns was absolutely throwing bombs. Just going straight after him. He dropped Duran twice with big right hands. You could see in one of the replays that the 2nd knockdown was from a vicious left uppercut. I don't know if Duran would have gotten up, but his corner threw in the towel. Amazing. Easily Hearns biggest win.
Now I see why Hearns tried that same strategy against Hagler. While Duran stood on the outside the whole time, giving up a huge reach advantage to Hearns, Hagler was able to get inside and land all those big shots.
An outdoor fight at Caesars Palace. The good ole days.
Thanks Boxer22. I'd been wanting to see that for a long time.
