Top 50 middleweights ever - No 3, Marvelous Marvin Hagler

Marvelous Marvin Hagler dominated boxing in the early Eighties, as no middleweight had since Sugar Ray Robinson. He is remembered as the hard man from a glorious era of fights that made Caesars Palace the centre of the boxing universe. His classic win over Thomas Hearns, his brutal come-from-behind stoppage of John Mugabi and his controversial loss to Sugar Ray Leonard will remain talked about for years to come.

When compiling this list, I found Nos 3 and 4 (Hagler and Carlos Monzon) almost impossible to split (a job I found equally tricky with Nos 1 and 2). Hagler got the edge because I felt he was the better boxer and had the bigger impact on the sport. The middleweights have always come to the fore when the heavyweights are not so strong. Monzon never got a look in against the Ali era, Hagler shared prominence with Larry Holmes, Leonard and Hearns.

Monzon, who retired as champion in 1977, and Hagler could have met in the ring. Such was the tough nature of the opposition Hagler faced on the way up, a shot at Monzon after he broke the unbeaten record of Olympic champion Sugar Ray Seales in 1974, or after he beat Johnny Baldwin in 1975. Still, it never happened and Hagler possibly would not have been ready for it then, anyway.

Hagler was no protected fighter. His first two losses, to Willie Monroe and "Boogaloo" Watts, both avenged, came in the form of disputed decisions to home town fighters in Philadelphia. When he did get a shot at the title against Vito Antuofermo, it was a war which ended in a disputed draw. He would right that when he was champion too.

What seems incredible is that Hagler, whose bald head always made him took older than he was, was just 26 when he finally won the middleweight title from Alan Minter on a sorry night for British boxing at Wembley in 1980 (it was his 54th bout).  He made 12 successful defences before Leonard took it from him in a disputed decision.

His wins over Thomas Hearns and John Mugabi, both over boxers coming up in weight, were probably his best, although another fighter stepping up, Roberto Duran, gave him a surprising amount of trouble. Yet he faced some decent opponents:  Juan D Roldan,  Mustafa Hamsho, Wilford Scypion, Fully Obel and Tony Sibson were all worth of their chance, yet none of them got close to beating him.

He disputed his loss to Leonard, and punch stats that showed that the lighter hitting Leonard only landed 15 more punches helped his case. But when a rematch was not in the offing, he retired and stuck by his word of never coming back. In retirement, he moved to Italy where he appeared in a few movies and remained a fine ambassador for the sport and a regular visitor to Britain.

Comments

[bryn roberts]

the most destructive middleweight i have seen was gerald mclellan,
i have never seen effortless punching power like his before.
his record prior to moving up to fight nigel benn was awesome, plus he beat roy jones when both were amateurs.
it is such a shame what happened to him, a true warrior who the sport sadly seems to have forgoten. manny steward still claims that mclellan was the most talented boxer he has ever trained.

[Crashing Dashing Kid]

Hagler, Monzon, Hopkins ..... all fabulous fighters but each of them lacked real depth of talent at middleweight and had to make do with destroying those smaller fighters who were moving up after cleaning out the lower divisions.

[Del gar]

To Hagler's credit, he boxed everyone out there. He was ducked plenty of times but he was always the one who chased the big fights. His win over Hearns was the best fight and finish I've ever seen.