When Hagler signed to fight to fight Roberto Duran, I found out where the closest place to my house was to watch the fight on closed-circuit. The Hyatt Hotel in Cherry Hill, New Jersey was about 6 miles from my house, and I decided to drive there a few weeks before the November 10th fight date and buy my ticket. In our local sports page, I noticed that Alexis Arguello was going to be there on a certain day, so I planned to get my ticket while he was there, so I could meet the recently retired champion.
When I arrived at the hotel, the Nicaraguan great appeared a few minutes after. He was well dressed in a suit and tie, and was very gracious when I asked him for an autograph. I have a picture of us together somewhere, and it’s one of the few times I’ve asked a fighter for an autograph. I plunked down my $30 and drove home in my 1974 Monte Carlo, looking forward to a night at the fights.
I took off from my airline job on Thursday, November 10th, and made the drive to see the fight on the big screens. I must admit though, out of all the closed-circuit fights I saw over a 17 year period, this was my worst experience. The seats were jammed into a hotel ballroom, and the guys sitting next to me were all about 6′ 4″ tall, and me being a little under 6 feet tall, I felt trapped. As the rounds progressed, I was coming out of my skin, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I had come to this hotel to meet Alexis Arguello, I would have gone the Spectrum in Philadelphia, and enjoyed myself more.
I was rooting hard for Hagler, who I respected a great deal, as opposed to Duran, who I couldn’t stand. Hagler boxed well, and built up a huge lead over the first half of the 15 round bout. Duran performed better than I expected to be honest, and was slick enough to win maybe 5 rounds at the most. Hagler nailed him repeatedly with the much harder blows, and as the fight came to a close, I figured the decision was unanimous for Marvin.
Shockingly to me, Hagler won by only 1 point on two of the judges cards, and by 2 points on the other. Incredibly, Marvin won the last 2 rounds of the fight to retain his title, against a guy who was lucky if he won 6 rounds at the most. Larry Holmes was right when he said “Judges are crooks and in the bag.” It was another example of boxing being crooked and a joke. Fortunately for him, Hagler got the decision, and took his belts back to Brockton.
After the last bell, Duran cursed at Hagler, acted like the prick he was, and it’s one of the reasons I still can’t stand him. He still won’t admit he quit against Leonard in their second fight of November 1980, but the truth speaks for itself. He did quit, he lost to Hagler, and his best days where when he was a lightweight at 135 lbs.
That bout for Hagler brought him the biggest payday of his career, $5 million, and with Leonard gone and Duran out of the way, made him the biggest star in the sport. After toiling hard for years at his game, no one deserved it more than him.
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