Boxer marvelous marvin hagler

Marvelous Marvin Hagler graced the boxing ring in a truly golden era of the sport. His professional career began when the likes of Muhammad Ali and ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier were in their pomp. Indeed, in the middleweight division that Hagler fought, there was a plethora of excellent fighters, but for the best part of a decade Marvelous Marvin stood head and shoulders above them.

Born in New Jersey (USA), in 1954, Marvin was the first of six children. The family, of African American origin were forced to move from there when Marvin was just twelve, fearing for their safety in the terrible race riots of the time. Brockton, Massachusetts became their new home and there the young Hagler met up for the first time with the Petronelli brothers. They gave him work in their construction business and encouraged him to train at their boxing gym in the evening. Hagler trained every night and obviously had great potential. As an amateur southpaw fighter he was an awkward, tenacious battler and recorded over fifty amateur wins. The peak of his amateur career came when he won the Athletic Union Middleweight Title, aged eighteen. Soon afterwards he turned professional.

In November 1974, Marvin Hagler fought former Olympic gold medallist Sugar Ray Seales to a draw. He had beaten Seales three fights earlier and people were beginning to take notice of the hard-hitting, rugged man from Massachusetts. He registered his twenty fourth win out of twenty five, knocking out the delightfully named Lamont Lovelady in the seventh, but failure was just around the corner.

Having run out of credible local fight options, Hagler was forced to travel to Philadelphia to compete against the top middleweight contenders. In his twenty-seventh pro fight he lost on a decision to Bobby Watts. Two fights later he lost again, to Willie ‘The Worm’ Monroe, again on points. Many spectators felt that Hagler had done enough to win both fights, but it seemed nigh on impossible for the judges to be unfavourable to the hometown boys.

Revenge was the order of the day for the mean, rugged middleweight and he set about destroying all opponents put before him. His next nine fights were all won by virtue of knockout, including Willie Monroe twice. It was becoming increasingly difficult to get the right fights for Hagler though – he had a fearsome reputation and nobody was that keen to fight him. In his forty-sixth pro fight he had a rematch with Sugar Ray Seales and knocked him out in the first round. That win confirmed just how far the shiny-headed Hagler had come in the four years since their drawn fight. Talk of a chance at the World Title was building.

The opportunity to win the World title came in November 1979, Hagler’s fiftieth fight, against Italian Vito Antuofermo. It seemed apparent to everybody that after fifteen rounds, Marvin had easily out-pointed his opponent and would be crowned Champion of the World. The judges had different ideas though and amazingly ruled that the fight was a draw.

Hagler, bitterly disappointed at being robbed of the title, knew that he had to keep fighting the cream of the middleweights for another chance. In his fifty-second fight he gained revenge over Bobby Watts, knocking him out in the second round. A victory over Marcos Geraldo followed. At around the same time, Briton Alan Minter defeated Antuofermo to become the new World Champion. His first defence was to be against Hagler.

The fight took place at Wembley arena in front of a chauvinistic partisan crowd. Marvin knew he was unlikely to get a decision from the home biased judges and went for the jugular straight away. He set about beating up Minter, who looked distinctly second rate in comparison. Inevitably, the Brit was knocked out in the third round. All hell broke loose with many of the crowd throwing bottles, coins and just about anything else they could get their hands on, into the ring. Marvin Hagler escaped by way of a police escort.

Hagler was, at last, the World Champion and this only served to make him meaner and more ruthless. He had to fight many first-class middleweight contenders to get to the summit of boxing and would not relinquish his crown easily. Over the next four years he defended his title ten times against the likes of Venezuelan Fulgencio Obelmejias (twice) and the warrior like Roberto Duran. His most memorable battle occurred in 1985, against Thomas ‘Hit Man’ Hearns.

Hearns himself was a formidable boxer, but nobody would have imagined the nature of the war that took place. From the first bell both boxers stood toe-to-toe, trading blows at a furious, heart-stopping pace. In the third round Hagler was cut and knew that the fight would be stopped within a round with Hearns declared as the winner. He rained punch upon punch on Hearns and such was the ferocity of his attack that Hearns was stopped later that round. The fight is regarded as one of the best of all time.

In 1986 Marvelous Marvin Hagler beat John ‘The Beast’ Mugabi, setting up another mouth-watering bout against Sugar Ray Leonard. The fight took place in 1987 and Leonard won controversially with a split decision. Hagler immediately requested a rematch but Leonard refused. The seven-year world champion retired in disgust.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler was indicted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993. He was a truly great World Champion, markedly better than many before him. His final record reads:

Fights: 67

Wins: 62

Losses: 3

Drawn: 2