A few reasons boxing fans of a certain age really appreciated Marvelous Marvin Hagler
Former world middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler (yes, that was his real name) died Saturday at the age of 66 and if you’re under 35 or maybe even 40 years old, you’re probably wondering, “What’s the big deal? Old boxers die all the time.”
Not boxers like this guy. We didn’t watch Hagler get old, either in the ring or out of it. Good Black don’t crack and, when it comes to Hagler, Tommy Hearns came closer than Father Time to cracking Hagler. Their all-out 1985 battle starts with one of the five best rounds in boxing history and ends with Hagler winning by third round TKO.
Anyway, here’s a few reasons many boxing fans of the 1970s and 1980s came to appreciate Marvin Hagler as much as any fighter of the era.
He didn’t lose for 11 years. In an era thick with good middleweights, Hagler ducked nobody, fought regularly and didn’t lose between a 10-found unanimous decision loss to Willie “The Worm” Monroe on March 9, 1976, and the 12-round split decision loss to Sugar Ray Leonard, April 6, 1987. Hagler went 36-0-1 between those fights. After taking the undisputed middleweight title from Alan Minter in Sept. 27, 1980, Hagler punched out the division so thoroughly, he fought rematches against fighters he had beaten soundly already.
He was a true boxer/puncher. The left-hander who could switch effortless to fighting righty mid-round combined cagey moves with above average power. His chin could survive a head-on with a missile. Hagler didn’t have a weakness. You knew you were watching one of the best middleweights ever and he’s generally ranked in the top five all-time along with Sugar Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon and Harry Greb.
He combined anger and humor. Newark native Hagler fought out of Brockton, Massachusetts, the hometown of 1952-56 world heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano, “The Brockton Blockbuster.” Playing off that, Hagler went by “The Brockton Blackbuster,” and, after winning the title in 1980, later legally changed his name to “Marvelous Marvin Hagler.”
His scowl whenever he was around a potential opponent was real. So was his wit when discussing anything else, i.e., he said he was bald because he had so many sisters and they never let him near the comb. In a Pizza Hut commercial that ran after the Hearns fight, a well-dressed Hagler eats pizza and says “I wonder what what’s-his-name, the other guy, is eating tonight.” Pause. “Probably soup.”
The two best things about the commercial, rarely seen after 1985: Hagler ad-libbed the line and it was shot in January 1985. Pizza Hut held the commercial (and its breath) until after the April 1985 Hagler-Hearns battle and it played brilliantly.
He helped bridge boxing between Muhammad Ali’s fade and Mike Tyson’s rise. As great as 1978-85 heavyweight champion Larry Holmes was, he was what he wanted to be — The Heavyweight Champ Next Door. Save Holmes vs. Gerry Cooney, boxing’s sizzle came from the lighter classes.
And, in 1979, you had 1976 Olympic champion Leonard in the spotlight and Hearns just outside of it pounding their way toward welterweight title shots. Also, Roberto Duran, “Manos de Piedra,” moved up to welterweight after cleaning out the lightweight class. Meanwhile, Hagler beat up any middleweights who would get in the ring with him while he waited for his chance at the crown.
Alexis Arguello was moving up to lightweight with an eye on junior welterweight, where nobody could handle Aaron Pryor.
Their fights against each other — and, the anticipation of their fights against each other — energized boxing from 1979 through 1985.
He didn’t get many breaks. Hagler began his career in 1973 after a good amateur career, but without fanfare. In 1976, the year the Summer Olympics helped launch the pro careers of Leonard, Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks, John Tate and others, Hagler fought to be relevant. The losses in early 1976 to Philadelphia middleweights Watts and Monroe left him on the edge of nowhere. Winning Philly fights against Eugene “Cyclone” Hart and the rematch against Monroe later that year saved his career.
The Monroe loss was the only time everyone agrees Hagler flat out got beat. Most observers thought he won the decision loss to Watts and the draw with Vito Antuofermo in his first chance at the middleweight title. The Leonard decision remains one of the most hotly debated in boxing history.
Hagler wasn’t even allowed to celebrate winning the title against Alan Minter in London. When Hagler won on a third round TKO, he fell to his knees and threw his arms in the air, as tennis star Bjorn Borg did annually back then after winning Wimbledon’s men’s singles title. But a nasty crowd rained bottles down on the ring and later chanted the racist slogans of the National Front, Britain’s version of the Ku Klux Klan. Before the fight, Minter reportedly said “No Black man is going to take my title.”
He never tried a comeback. When Leonard dawdled over giving Hagler a rematch, Hagler retired — and stayed retired. He did some acting in Italian westerns, for a time splitting his residency between Italy and the United States.
This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 8:19 PM.
