When the fight between Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard was announced, no one was more excited than me. I was thrilled that the bout was taking place after many years of delays, and I would be rooting hard for Ray on fight night. I even had the privilege to travel to Hilton Head, South Carolina in mid-March of 1987 to see Ray train in person for 3 days. By the time April 6, 1987rolled around, I was almost over-trained as a fan.
The Spectrum in South Philadelphia was my choice to see the Super-Fight on closed-circuit TV, and I was as excited for this one as much as I had been for any fight in my entire life. I knew Marvin was extremely tough, and Sugar Ray would have to fight the fight of his life to win, but I honestly believed he could do it. When the opening bell ran, my stomach was in knots with nerves.
It was hard to believe how good Ray looked as he outboxed Hagler, and won the first 4 rounds in my book. Marvin came on in the middle rounds to capture most of them with his aggression, and as the championship rounds 10 through 12 approached, the fight was up for grabs.
Leonard had showed signs of wear and fatigue in rounds 7 through 9, but seemed to gain a second wind in round 10. He took 2 out of the last 3 rounds in my opinion by outboxing Marvin, leaving the outcome to the judges that beautiful spring night at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas in April of 1987.
When the decision was read and Sugar Ray was awarded a split-decision victory, I almost had a heart attack I was so excited. Ray had pulled off a colossal upset, and against all odds, defeated Marvin Hagler after having fought only one fight in 5 years. To me it is one of the greatest comeback wins in boxing history.
Marvin was understandably bitter after the narrow loss, blamed politics, refused to give Leonard any credit, and never changed his attitude for years. After much talk of a rematch and other proposed bouts, Hagler never laced the gloves up again, and retired for good after the loss to Leonard.
There is no doubt in my mind that Marvelous Marvin Hagler is the greatest middleweight in boxing history. He also may have possessed the greatest chin as well, and was an easy first time ballot boxer voted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.
On that one night however, in April of 1987, he was beaten by another great fighter in Sugar Ray Leonard, and could never admit defeat. What cracks me up is people that never even saw the fight live, make comments to this day about their opinions as to who actually won. You can’t sit and watch a fight on videotape years later and analyze it to death. A fight happens live, and judges make a decision once and for all on what they witness.
Sadly, Marvin died on March 13, 2021, and his death is still felt by those that love old-time boxing like me. I personally never respected a fighter more than him, from the fact that he worked construction up until the day he won the title in September of 1980, to his 15 mile morning runs in training. In his case, he truly was ‘Marvelous’.
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