After watching Hagler struggle at times with John Mugabi in March of 1986, Sugar Ray Leonard started dropping hints to the media a few months later than he would be interested in a fight with Hagler. Marvin appeared on Johnny Carson not long after, and said he would probably take the fight.
At the time I was living in Las Vegas, and was busy with other things. But by fall, I returned home at the same time the fight was announced in New York for April 6, 1987 at Caesar’s Palace. Sugar Ray had appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated and said he had been training consistently since April, and now weighed in close to the middleweight limit of 160 lbs. I was excited as anyone that the biggest fight in years, one first proposed in 1982 was actually going to happen. I almost went into training myself, devouring every newspaper and magazine article I laid my hands on. I knew it would be a tough task, but I really believed Ray could pull the miracle off.
