Hagler's Best Performance

[jackgalveston]

No argument here, for the reasons you stated. Well, not like there's a right or wrong answer to the OP, I was just wondering what (and why) others thought.

[rightsideup]

hearns fight

[BennyST]

Hearns picture under the heading "Hagler is shaking like a leaf on a tree" didn't help Tommy's cause that night either. I can't think of any time that Marv Marv ever attacked like that, even when he had someone in trouble. Shocked at the fury and disdain. He tore Minter to shreds, too, but he unloaded on Tommy. To this day I don't understand the comparatively calculating effort against SRL- if there was ever anyone I thought he would try to force a brawl with, it was Ray. For the record, I thought Ray won that fight but like Richard Steele said, (paraphrase) "...every time I watch it, Hagler gets closer to beating him". Now its one of four fights I refuse to watch anymore (DLH-Whitaker, Benn-McClellan, Jacquot-Curry)

Interesting that Tony would make that observation. In the pre-fight that I heard, he was very matter-of-fact about the task at hand, quietly confident. I wonder how long it took for him to realize he was in waaay over his head. I'll give him props, though, he was going for it until it was waved off. Scypion, for example, seemed discouraged rather quickly. Sibson seemed to fight harder as he got methodically beaten worse.

I think by that stage, Hagler's ego had really gotten to him and Ray's 'media darling/goldenchild' persona made it worse, and he really believed that he could beat Ray at Rays game, just like he had with Hearns, and so for the first three or four rounds, he stayed orthodox and tried to box with him, to prove he was superior in every way.

Sadly, proving your superior means winning, and that really lost him the fight. He should have come out in his natural stance, and forced a brutal pace from the opening bell.

It's funny, but Ray's image as the guy that got handed everything on a silver platter, more money, bigger fights, respect etc, got him brutally disdained by two opponents, Hagler and Duran, who felt they were never given that respect and had to earn it the hard way, but Duran went about it the right way, with hateful brutality, while Hagler's disdain for it all really backfired because he assumed an even more disdainful approach by thinking he could sort of toy with Leonard and humiliate him by beating him at his own game. Or, its possible that Duran was so enraged that he simply couldn't have boxed any other way. Either way, it led to two very interesting and opposing fights.

[rightsideup]

I think by that stage, Hagler's ego had really gotten to him and Ray's 'media darling/goldenchild' persona made it worse, and he really believed that he could beat Ray at Rays game, just like he had with Hearns, and so for the first three or four rounds, he stayed orthodox and tried to box with him, to prove he was superior in every way.

Sadly, proving your superior means winning, and that really lost him the fight. He should have come out in his natural stance, and forced a brutal pace from the opening bell.

It's funny, but Ray's image as the guy that got handed everything on a silver platter, more money, bigger fights, respect etc, got him brutally disdained by two opponents, Hagler and Duran, who felt they were never given that respect and had to earn it the hard way, but Duran went about it the right way, with hateful brutality, while Hagler's disdain for it all really backfired because he assumed an even more disdainful approach by thinking he could sort of toy with Leonard and humiliate him by beating him at his own game. Or, its possible that Duran was so enraged that he simply couldn't have boxed any other way. Either way, it led to two very interesting and opposing fights.

Excellent post Marvin had a similar mindset that duran had in montreal vs hearns.

[Thread Stealer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vExTEVyprqA

[f15bone]

It's gotta be Hearns...

The way Tommy intimidated & obliterated Duran was unthinkable at the time...Couple that with Marvins 15rd struggle against Roberto & you had the setup to a potentially epic contest between two of boxings most feared fighters...

[Suckmedry]

The hearns fight was epic. The look in both fighters eyes before the bell rang tells you all you need to know about how hard they were both about to bring it. Hearns had murder in his eyes. Hagler went straight at one of the most fearsome punchers ever and took his head off. Thats what i call epic.

[Suckmedry]

I just rewatched it, how the fck did hagler stay on his feet after that right hearns landed in rd 1 off the ropes...That punch would have stopped anyone except Hagler.

[Mike Haynes]

John Mugabi...26-0, 26KOs...I think that was the very first fight on Showtime. I don't think anyone hit Hagler harder and as often than this dude, but he ruined Mugabi. After this fight is when Sugar Ray decided to fight him.