Today in boxing history: Hagler-Leonard ends in controversy
The 1987 middleweight title fight between Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard remains one of the most iconic fights fights of all time. Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole discusses the unforgettable night, and the controversial split decision that remains a point of contention in boxing circles.
Video Transcript
KEVIN IOLE: Hi. I'm Kevin Iole for Yahoo Sports, and it's almost hard for me to believe that it is 33 years ago-- April 6, 1987-- that Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler fought for the middleweight championship at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The time has passed, but the controversy surrounding the fight, which Leonard won by a split decision, has never ended.
If you've watched the fight, you definitely have an opinion. I've watched the fight many times, and I've scored it both ways. I think live, I scored it for Hagler. Having watched it again and again, there have been times I scored it for Leonard. There are times I've scored it for Hagler when you see different things as you're trying to look at it. But live, I believe I had it for Hagler.
But that fight remains one of the most iconic fights in boxing history. In 1982, Sugar Ray Leonard called a press conference which was televised live, believe it or not, on ABC, in which everybody expected he was going to announce he was going to fight Marvelous Marvin Hagler. That was the kind of respect that those two guys had that when there was just a press conference and they weren't even sure what was going to be announced, they put it live on national television in prime time.
But Sugar Ray Leonard got into that ring in Baltimore, Maryland, and he shocked everybody by saying that, no, he wasn't going to fight Marvin Hagler. He was going to retire because of an eye injury. We all know that after a brief retirement, Ray had his eye fixed, and he came back to fight, and he had a number of big fights. But everybody still clamored for that fight with Hagler. And on April 6, 1987, it happened.
Why was it so big? Well, it's important to know how big Hagler was at the time. Of course, everybody remembers the unbelievable fight with Thomas Hurns, the 1985 fight in April-- three rounds, some of the best three rounds you would ever see. Thomas Hurns was literally carried out of the ring-- Hurns, one of the best fighters not only of that time, but of all time. Hagler had beaten everybody.
In 1976, he lost a fight to Willie "The Worm" Monroe. It was his second loss. It was his second loss in three fights. People wondered about this guy. He proceeded to go on over the next 11 years to go 36-0-1. The only draw was a fight with Vito Antuofermo that everybody who saw it, except for the judges, believed that Hagler had won going away.
So over 11 years going into that fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler was undefeated. He was largely unchallenged. He had dominated like few others had dominated, and he was a fearsome guy. People did not want to fight him.
Leonard was an expert boxer, but he had found in 1980 when he went against Roberto Duran and tried to stand in the trenches with Roberto Duran, that wasn't his fight. How was he going to deal, people said, with this big, brutal, mean Marvin Hagler? And Hagler really just had a lot of animosity and enmity for Sugar Ray Leonard because Leonard was the Olympic gold medalist. He got the TV commercials. He got the big fights. He got to appear on TV shows. He was a celebrity, not just a boxer.
Everything came difficult to Marvelous Marvin Hagler. He never got a break. It was always very hard for him to get recognition. A lot of the top fighters, for many years, did not want to fight him. It was a very difficult time for Marvin, and he was frustrated. And a lot of it he blamed on Sugar Ray Leonard. And he desperately wanted that fight with Sugar Ray Leonard to prove that he was the best of his era.
Everybody now believes Hagler is probably one of the top 20 fighters of all time, maybe one of the top 10, and certainly among the top middleweights who ever lived, no worse than probably about number 3. I think most experts would say that Sugar Ray Robinson is the greatest middleweight who ever lived, also the greatest welterweight who ever lived. But Hagler is in a group of a handful of middleweights who were in that contention to be number two of all time.
Leonard went up to fight him, a guy who was much bigger, who was much more fearsome, who had a lot of knockouts, 52 knockouts in 62 career victories. And it was seen as perhaps a crazy fight for Leonard. Why are you doing this? Why are you fighting this fearsome guy?
Sugar Ray Leonard managed to negotiate some advantages in the fight, including 12 rounds instead of 15. That was very important. But at the end of the day, Leonard won the fight. Leonard got his hand raised and became the WBC Middleweight Champion in one of the most iconic fights of all time. I'll never forget it. I have seen hundreds of great fights, both before and after, but that remains one of my greatest fights I have ever seen. It was amazing. It was memorable. I will never forget it. Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Marvelous Marvin Hagler 33 years ago on April 6, 1987 in Las Vegas, Nevada. For Yahoo Sports, I am Kevin Iole.
