I am still reeling from the loss of Marvelous Marvin Hagler this past weekend. It is only fitting that I am watching the final victory of his career against John Mugabi as I type this blog post. As a child of the 1990’s Marvin Hagler was before my time but as a boxing aficionado he has always been a must watch and understand fighter for me. Hagler was a no bullshit middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987 who came up the hard way and left the sport with a legendary career behind him. Middleweight is an extremely deep weight class, rich with history as are most of the original eight weight divisions and Hagler is among the very best. I am not the type to make lists but Hagler is right there amongst the top of the heap with Sugar Ray Robinson, Harry Greb, Carlos Monzon and Bernard Hopkins and forged a hell of a career with victories over great fighters like Tommy Hearns and Roberto Duran. Hagler for me was a fighter who could do it all, whether it was box intelligently behind his jab versus Duran or go into the trenches with Mugabi. Hagler was at his very best when he dispatched Mustapha Hamsho and Fulgencio Obelmejias in 1980 and 1981 with superior boxing and hard precision punching. Despite not being an Olympian of the great 1976 class, Hagler turned pro and fought for seven years and compiled over fifty fights before finally winning a title in 1980 when he defeated Alan Minter. Hagler competed amongst what many boxing historians refer to as the “Fab Four’ in the 1980’s, a group that consisted of Hagler, Duran, Hearns and Ray Leonard. Hagler went 2-1 against the group and was arguable 3-0 given the controversy of the Leonard fight. Hagler was undefeated for 11 years from 1976 to 1987 and defended his middleweight crown 12 times leading up to that controversial defeat to Leonard. Hagler’s death over the weekend took the sports world by surprise and he was honored on the broadcast of the DAZN main event between Roman Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada.
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