March 14, 20214 yr I didn’t see a thread on this and thought his passing deserved to not be in the Boxing thread. This was the baddest man on the planet in the late 70s early 80’s when it came to boxing. Just a pure beast as a fighter who could box righty or southpaw. His bout with Hearns is one of the greatest ever and to this day I still believe he beat Leonard. May the marvelous one Rest In Peace.
March 14, 20214 yr my all-time favorite fighter...when the bald man with OG goatee showed up you just felt there was an ass whipping’ coming.
March 14, 20214 yr That era with Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and Leonard was great. There were several great fights a year back then. RIP to one of the greatest.
March 14, 20214 yr My dad and I went to a closed-circuit broadcast of the "Super Fight" in '87. It was close but I also felt like Hagler kinda got jobbed in the decision.
March 14, 20214 yr I was young but remember him being just a championship name from my youth. Every clip I've ever seen of him takes me back to that third golden age of boxing growing up. RIP Hagler. What a talent.
March 14, 20214 yr Author 1 hour ago, Paper_jam said: My dad and I went to a closed-circuit broadcast of the "Super Fight" in '87. It was close but I also felt like Hagler kinda got jobbed in the decision. Totally jobbed. Back then, the rule was always you got to beat the champ if you wanted to take the belt away from him. Leonard danced around and ran away from Hagler the entire fight and never landed one hard hit yet the judges gave him the decision. It was disgraceful.
March 14, 20214 yr I was a big Leonard fan as well and I remember being a little disappointed that he didn't really fight Hagler, but then again that probably wasn't in Leonard's best interest anyway. The Hagler-Hearns fights on the other hand were fucking awesome! I really miss boxing when I get reminded of how awesome it used to be in the 70's and 80's. Hell, I watched Ali fight on a Saturday afternoon for free when I was a kid.
March 14, 20214 yr 15 hours ago, Dennis Taylor said: Damn....he was a bad ass. His fights were a mandatory watch there's no way in hell to fully appreciate that fight without understanding the hype leading up to it. really not just this one , that whole era, the hype was unbelievable.
March 14, 20214 yr Could never understand how he didn't qualify for the heavyweight class. Dudes balls had to weigh 50lbs at least.
March 14, 20214 yr 16 hours ago, Hate said: That era with Hagler, Hearns, Duran, and Leonard was great. There were several great fights a year back then. RIP to one of the greatest. you could have just said their nicknames and we'd know who you were talking about, that's how bad ass they were. Marvelous, The Hitman, Hands of Stone (Manos de Piedra), and Sugar Ray. those fights were epic. RIP
March 15, 20214 yr My dad was a huge boxing fan in that era and “haggler-hearns” meant more to me growing up than “Texas-Ou” until I was a freshman on the 40 acres. RIP to a great one.
March 15, 20214 yr I was a kid living overseas in the early 80s. It's funny how memory works - I thought I clearly remembered reading about Hagler vs Leonard back then in the library I went to, but that fight happened later on. Whatever, I do know that at the time I loved finding stuff to read about American sports (I was in Japan). So instead it must have been the leadup to Duran in 83 because we left Japan in 84, but whatever the fight I was fascinated as an ~8 year old by this guy I had never seen (lots of sumo, not as much boxing). I just remember thinking he was a bad bad man. Later in life I read and saw more of him and really had a sense of his run - but I always appreciated him more because of the timing of being a young kid relatively starved for american sports info and him being big at the time. It's funny the memories that stand out. Might have been this issue that I'm remembering:
March 15, 20214 yr 14 hours ago, runthebone said: Great fighter, great fight with Hearns. RIP yep, that was a fight, no boxing involved. just a damn good fight
March 15, 20214 yr Love how quickly the ref breaks up the hugging that goes on in todays boxing. Remember as a kid being amazed by the boxing in 80s. Rip HaglerSent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
March 15, 20214 yr On 3/13/2021 at 10:13 PM, Beantown Express 2.0 said: Totally jobbed. Back then, the rule was always you got to beat the champ if you wanted to take the belt away from him. Leonard danced around and ran away from Hagler the entire fight and never landed one hard hit yet the judges gave him the decision. It was disgraceful. not really. it was close but to say totally jobbed is wrong. yes Leonard boxed and Hagler stalked but Leonard actually landed more punches and power punches. that said the fights between those 4 were awesome. it was must see TV. The final CompuBox stats showed Leonard landing 306 of 629 total punches (49%-52 per round) to 291 of 792 (37%-66 per round) for Hagler . Leonard landed 258 of 490 power punches (53%) to 213 of 581 (37%) for Hagler. http://compuboxtv.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/image0-2-1024x366.jpeg The decision was controversial, but, the bottom line is, these guys fought! They landed a combined average of 50 punches per round – 14 more than the middleweight average. They also landed a combined 39 power shots per round, 33 percent more than the combined middleweight average of 26 per round.
March 15, 20214 yr On 3/14/2021 at 12:19 PM, hookem48 said: there's no way in hell to fully appreciate that fight without understanding the hype leading up to it. really not just this one , that whole era, the hype was unbelievable. ONLY IN AMERICA!!
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