After retiring from boxing following his victory over Kevin Howard on May 11, 1987, Sugar Ray Leonard worked as a commentator for HBO, and stayed out of the limelight otherwise. Marvin Hagler was now the face of boxing after his thrilling knockout of Thomas Hearns in April of 1985, started to get television commercials, and appear on talk shows like Johnny Carson. Hagler was basking in his newfound fame, and with no signs of Leonard anywhere, had the stage all to himself.
On March 10, 1986, Marvin took on John ‘The Beast’ Mugabi at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. One Sugar Ray Leonard was in the audience to see Mugabi give Hagler all he could handle, before succumbing to fatigue and getting stopped in the 11th round. I watched that bout at the Spectrum in South Philadelphia on closed-circuit, and thought Marvin looked good in stopping a tough customer in Mugabi.
A few months later, Leonard appeared on a local TV news program in Washington, DC, and started hinting that he wanted to come back to fight Hagler. As the weeks passed, his intentions were obviously serious, and in the late summer, Hagler agreed to fight him in the spring of 1987. After living in Las Vegas for most of 1986, I returned back home to South Jersey in November to the news, and was thrilled to hear it. Nothing excited me more than a big fight, and this was as big as it got.
In March I was able to fly to Savannah, Georgia, and rent a car to drive to see Ray Leonard train in person at the Intercontinental Hotel in Hilton Head, South Carolina. It was the third time I had been to one of his camps, and this was the most memorable since I was there for three days, and because of the magnitude of the bout. Few gave Leonard a chance, but I was one who believed in my heart that he could win.
By the time April 6, 1987 rolled around, I had read every news article, watched every preview show, and after seeing Ray in person, felt overtrained myself. As I made my way to the Spectrum in South Philadelphia, my nerves were jumping so much so that I could hardly sit still in my $25 seat. When the opening bell began, and Sugar Ray started boxing, it was as if the clocks had been turned back 5 years.
The fight was back and forth, and I saw Ray outboxing Hagler enough to be slightly ahead as the final two rounds approached. Hagler never hurt Ray except for once in the fifth round with an uppercut. Leonard recovered quickly, countered enough the rest of the way to win a slight decision in my book. When he was awarded a split decision victory after 12 rounds, I leapt to my feet with excitement, knowing he had shocked most everyone, and was the new Middleweight Champion of the World! I drove home in my 1985 Pontiac Firebird on a high that night, and it remained it that way for weeks to come.
Many people that never saw the fight live say Hagler won. It aggravates me because if you watched it live, there’s no way you can’t say Ray didn’t do what he promised he would. Hagler never gave Leonard credit, and retired from boxing, never to put on the gloves again. The fact remains that on April 6, 1987, Sugar Ray Leonard went against the odds, and upset in my opinion the best middleweight in history. No small accomplishment by any means. Case closed.
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