Why didn't Hagler challenge himself

[sicko]

Look at the fuking size difference even with them being older in this photo:



Just wasn't realistic at the time so the demand never came for that fight even though Spinks did call him out partly because Hagler was the man at the time so yeah by mentioning Hagler it got writers and fans attention I'm sure but it was never realistic

[boliodogs]

Hagler was one of the best middleweight champions in history. He defended his title an average of 4 times a year which is never done today. He only fought top rated guys and never avoided any middleweight. Hearns wasn't smaller than Hagler when Hagler fought him. Hearns had just KOed a top middleweight in 1 round when Hagler fought him. Hearns had outgrown 147 and 154 and was a full sized middleweight. In Hagler's day us boxing fans were thrilled to have a middleweight champion who defended his title so often against the very best middleweights in the world. We didn't demand he fight above his natural weight and didn't ask him to. The middleweight division was not dead at all. Hagler beat many excellent middleweights in defense of his title. Just because he was good enough to beat all challengers doesn't make it a dead division. It's like today and the GGG haters who say middleweight is a weak weight class just because he always wins and usually by KO. Hagler beat some middleweights who would have been good middleweight champs if Hagler wasn't around.to beat them. Hagler earned his reputation as one of history's best middleweight champs the hard way. He fought and beat all the best middleweights. I thought he beat Leonard and Leonard choose not to give him a rematch so he retired in disgust.

[Prince Madison]

marvin haglers one of the greatest fighters of all time and the best middleweight of all time. i dont understand why people equate moving up in weight to be the biggest marker of how great a fighter was.

[chrisJS]

Hagler is considered to be the greatest MW of all time which is arguable. But looking at his resume all his big wins were against smaller men moving up like Hearns and Duran. There's not one MW on his resume that screams "Great" if anything, Jones and Monzon have better resumes. Most of the greats went up and challenged themselves. Hagler didn't seem to want to do that. He could've went up and faced Michael Spinks but he chose to take the easy way out and stay in a dead division. Why does Hagler get a pass for this.

Who should he have moved up to face? Bare in mind there was no 168 pound division to even check out and acclimatize to.

Casuals are too obsessed with weight hopping when in reality that has proved in a lot of cases to be a way of selecting your matches more carefully.

Which middleweights did Monzon beat better than Hagler? Please note that Griffith and Napoles were smaller, older men.

Hagler beat a host of excellent middleweights who'd have held titles in recent times from 160-168 -
Benny Briscoe
Bobby Watts
Willie Monroe
Sugar Ray Seales (Olympic gold medal winner)
Kevin Finnegan
Tony Sibson
Mustafa Hamsho
Juan Roldan
John Mugabi


At least half of that list were better fighters than David Lemieuex, Danny Jacobs, Keith Holmes, Jermain Taylor, William Joppy, Kelly Pavlik and a slew of 168 pounders. All of them very good fighters just unfortunate to come in the one champion era and less divisions. Hagler cleaned that **** out.

Antuerfermo, Minter were good champions and Duran and Hearns obviously proved themselves as great fighters even in those weight classes. They were the challenges. Hagler destroyed the best middleweights and the best fighters in the world not including Hagler happened to be one of the absolute golden generations ever and he took them on as a true champion should.

[Ray Corso]

This topic gets rolled around every 4 months......go to the archives

Tired of teaching newbies history, just go do the research on these individuals and you'll see why some "moved up" and others didn't!

Hagler made 160 easily and at 27+ years old and 5'9" why the hell should he "move anywhere" he was the Middleweight Champion of the World which is the second most prestigious boxing title to maintain.


Ray

[joseph5620]

OP is an ass clown.

This. All of his threads are stupid and all over the place.

[sugar ray lenrd]

Hagler was one of the best middleweight champions in history. He defended his title an average of 4 times a year which is never done today. He only fought top rated guys and never avoided any middleweight. Hearns wasn't smaller than Hagler when Hagler fought him. Hearns had just KOed a top middleweight in 1 round when Hagler fought him. Hearns had outgrown 147 and 154 and was a full sized middleweight. In Hagler's day us boxing fans were thrilled to have a middleweight champion who defended his title so often against the very best middleweights in the world. We didn't demand he fight above his natural weight and didn't ask him to. The middleweight division was not dead at all. Hagler beat many excellent middleweights in defense of his title. Just because he was good enough to beat all challengers doesn't make it a dead division. It's like today and the GGG haters who say middleweight is a weak weight class just because he always wins and usually by KO. Hagler beat some middleweights who would have been good middleweight champs if Hagler wasn't around.to beat them. Hagler earned his reputation as one of history's best middleweight champs the hard way. He fought and beat all the best middleweights. I thought he beat Leonard and Leonard choose not to give him a rematch so he retired in disgust.

Great Post! And Marvin Hagler at the time was the only Undisputed Champion in all of boxing. Understand that he was the only Champion in his wgt. So for anyone to become champion you had to go thru him. Now a days many fighters move up in wgt because their are 4 different champions per wgt, which means 4 options as oppose to 1 champ. so yeah anyone will move up & look good & beat the weakest in the division. Example Roy jones becoming Heavywgt champ by choosing the bottom of the tier champs in John Ruiz instead of Lennox Lewis.

[GhostofDempsey]

For one thing, the super middleweight division really wasn't recognized or established until the mid to late 80s. It started in 1967, but wasn't a sanctioned weight class by major sanctioning bodies until much later. So where was Hagler supposed to go?

Hagler was arguably and in my opinion, a top 5 MW, and I rank him higher than Monzon whose best wins were against WWs and aging opponents past their prime.

[Eff Pandas]

I've come to the conclusion that the people who make "all time great" sci fantasy bs threads are among the least knowledgeable to judge "all time great" sci fi fantasy bs.

Everyone should leave "all time great" sci fi fantasy bs to the Boxing History cats, who while not usually armed enough to fully judge that huge pool of fighters against all others in different eras, countries, weight divisions & rule charges & etc & so on, are still the most equipped to discuss this topic on this site.

Marvin Hagler was among the best fighters of his era, which is all anyone can be in this sport. Everything else is a bunch of boxing dorks trying to measure great boxers by diminishing the amazing things they accomplished during their lives.

[Sheldon312]

Keep in mind I didn't start watching boxing until like 2010. So, I don't know that much about the 80's.