RingSide Report

World News, Social Issues, Politics, Entertainment and Sports

A Brief History on Marvelous Marvin Hagler

By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White

If they cut my bald head open, they will find one big boxing glove. That’s all I am. I live it.” — Marvelous Marvin Hagler

That opening quote sums up the exact reason why Marvelous Marvin Hagler is my favorite fighter of all time because he loved this sport and was in it for the right reasons – he wanted to be the best and he wanted to create an everlasting legacy in the sport that he loved and adored.

Before Hagler even laced up a pair of boxing gloves, he would walk down to the local boxing gyms, including that of the Petronelli Brothers, and simply sit and watch the other fighters and coaches do their work and go about their business, whether that be pad work, shadow boxing, skipping, sparring or conditioning. A young Marvin Hagler would just sit for hours, watching, observing and studying the art.

After his first week of training with the Petronelli brothers, they both realised a deep desire inside of the young Hagler, a desire to learn and improve, as well as a willingness to work hard, despite setbacks, cut lips and black eyes. It is this deep desire to be the best he could possibly be which inspires me so much and which makes Marvin Hagler such a great role model to anyone involved in the sport of boxing.

As an Amateur, Hagler won the 85th National Amateur Athletic Union Championships in 1973, earning the award for the tournaments ‘Outstanding Boxer’, before turning professional in May of that same year. His professional career was a relatively long one, with 62 fights over the course of 14 years, only getting the opportunity to fight for a World title in his 50th contest!

His 50th fight and first World title shot was against Vito Antuofermo but the contest was declared a draw, despite the majority of spectators believing that he should’ve been given the win…

Not allowing the stale result of a draw dampen his spirit, Hagler worked harder than ever and eventually got himself another World title shot, this time against the British fighter Alan Minter, who had just defeated Antuofermo and now held the title of which Hagler felt was rightfully his.

Hagler seized this opportunity with both hands and demolished Alan Minter within 3 rounds, with the referee stopping the fight due to heavy bleeding and bad cuts sustained by Minter. However, the American’s moment of glory was to be cut short, as Hagler never received his belts in the ring.

Ashamedly, the British supporters began to attack Marvin Hagler by throwing bottles, cans and chairs into the ring and at the new Middleweight World Champion, forcing the fighter, the corner teams and the officials to flee the ring.

Once Hagler eventually had those titles around his waist and over his shoulders, however, he refused to let them go and made 12 successful title defences.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler outpointed the legendary “Hands of Stone” Roberto Duran, stopped Tommy “The Hitman” Hearns in one of the most exciting fights the world has ever seen and also knocked out the hard-hitting John “The Beast” Mugabi in another enthralling fight, where Hagler yet again, proved his dominance in the middleweight division.

After Hagler defeated Mugabi, Sugar Ray Leonard challenged Hagler, believing that he had the ability to beat the Champion despite having not fought in the middleweight division before, and so after much negotiation, Hagler and Leonard signed the contract and the fight between the two was made.

On the 6th April 1987 the two fighters – of completely opposite styles – got to work inside the ring, providing an exciting and hard to score contest, with Hagler constantly pressing forwards and throwing power punches, whilst Sugar Ray Leonard bounced around on the outside, throwing punches in bunches.

This extreme difference in styles meant that evidently, the verdict would prove to be controversial…

After the 12 round contest, the ring MC announced that the result was a split decision, in favour of Sugar Ray Leonard. Marvin Hagler was absolutely mortified, with the result, the loss of his titles and ultimately the loss of the thing he loved the most – the status of being the World Champion.

The Hagler Vs Leonard fight remains a contest that you could give to either man, you could watch it one day and score it for Hagler and watch it another day and score it for Leonard, it was just one of those 50/50 fights where unfortunately for Hagler, he didn’t get the victory on the night.

After the heartbreak of this defeat, Hagler opted to retire, having already proved himself as one of the greatest middleweights of all time. He moved to Italy and has since taken up a career in acting and has been involved in some low key films.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler was named the Ring Magazine’s 35th “Greatest Puncher of All Time” and the Associated Press’s “Third-Greatest Middleweight of the 20th Century”, whilst also being inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame a year later in 1993.

When looking back over the career of Hagler, you have to appreciate the mindset of the man and how he worked his way up; through the rankings to dominate the middleweight division for 7 years. His work ethic is the stuff of legend and as a fighter he used to put himself in ‘jail’ for his training camps, being away from his family and friends, spending most of his time alone and training with an almost unseen intensity.

A regular kid born in New Jersey and who later moved to Brockton, a young man who worked diligently on his craft and who would go on to become the World Middleweight Champion and reign for 7 years, beating some of the best fighters throughout his era…

Now that is an impressive legacy!

If you enjoyed reading about Marvelous Marvin Hagler and would like to learn more about him, (I’ve only covered the real basics here!) then I recommend reading the biography by Damian and Brain Hughes ‘The Marvin Hagler Story – Marvelous’.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]

Leave a Reply