Why didn't Hagler challenge himself

[Tony Trick-Pony]

Any long term champ, probably fighting in a weak division..

Hopkins
Monzon
Wlad
Etc

Long term champs are usually only long term because they don't have legit rivals.. not their fault, but is the reason for longevity..

I don't care how good a guy like ray Leonard or Ali was, they couldn't be long term champs because they had nothing but fellow greats to go against.
Same thing with manny, Marquez, morales, Barrera
Or Oscar, Tito, Shane, Forrest,Vargas, winky

You know, I've never thought of it that way, but I think you're right. The greats who reigned a long time didn't have the best to compete against or else they would have been in there with fellow greats who would push them and most likely beat them. Makes perfect sense man. Great post.

[WhatDisButtonDo]

People these days value weight jumping too much. A lot of the times all you have to do to win a belt at a weight class is fight an easy opponent that's not even the champion for a belt.

[soul_survivor]

Hearns and Duran are my two most favorite fighters but are they the best challengers he ever had? They are amoung the most famous but the best at middleweight? Not so sure about that.

Hearns is definitely the second best challenger Hagler ever had (Leonard being first). Duran could arguably be 3rd or 4th depending on how you view Mugabe. Beyond that, how is there really?

DOn't get me wrong, Hagler made a lot of good mws look below par but none of them were great either.

[soul_survivor]

Who do ya'll have that is ranked higher???

"Y'all"?

First of all, I am a person, not a collection of people. Secondly, checky my list (although that is due for a change).

[TonyGe]

Hearns is definitely the second best challenger Hagler ever had (Leonard being first). Duran could arguably be 3rd or 4th depending on how you view Mugabe. Beyond that, how is there really?

DOn't get me wrong, Hagler made a lot of good mws look below par but none of them were great either.

How many rounds did Hearns last against Hagler? Hearns was a ATG and I have huge respect for him. His flaw that he could be hurt by a hard punching fighter made him vulnerable against Hagler.. Against other Middleweights that Tommy could use his boxing skills and avoid big punishment he would win. Hagler was all wrong for Tommy. Roberto was too small and ran out of gas because of his age. So no those versions of Tommy and Duran were not the best fighters Hagler faced.

[Willy Wanker]

a lot of people dont know this, but i do because im from the brockton area. hagler had AIDS, he still may and that's why he had to move to italy. robbie simms didn't have AIDS and people around here like to talk about him just as much as hagler.

that's why hagler never challenged himself and gets a pass.

What the **** is wrong with you boy?

Lmfao

[Willy Wanker]

Hagler is the greatest MW of all-time. ****** threads like this get made every other month. No 168 division, same day weigh-ins. I bet Hagler never weighed more than 170 when he was fighting.

Lol at Hearns being small, he was four inches taller than Hagler, fought as high as Cruiserweight and won world titles along the way. Duran also won a title at 160 after Hagler retired. And Hagler beat Sugar Ray as well, and got screwed by the judges.

In boxing, there are different paths to greatness, and moving up in weight is only one of them.

I bet OP ranks Broner higher than Hagler.

[hugh grant]

Haggler is great as people keep telling me he is and hagglers victims also speak highly of him.
But I'm not sure how we'll srl would do stepping up and beat ggg. I'm kind of thinking ggg would be expected to beat srl and if he didn't he'd be slaughtered badly. I'm not sure a lightweight like Duran would have as much success against ggg as he'd have against hagler

[-Antonio-]

The weight thing is fine. I just think he fought in a weak Middleweight era. He retired right when some young killers came around. He just missed Nunn, McCallum, Toney, and others.

[LetOutTheCage]

Smaller men who are ranked among the greatest fighters ever. I cant stand this idea that you have to move up a division in order to challenge yourself, some people really need to educate themselves more on boxing history.