By James Slater: All-time great former middleweight king Marvellous Marvin Hagler gave a recent interview with The Independent On Sunday newspaper (published today), and during the interview the man who reigned as middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987 was unable to have much of anything good to say about today’s premiere, big-name fighters.
As with a number of other fellow retired greats who fought in a seemingly golden era, during a time when ducking and dodging never took place – at least not to the extent it can and does happen these days – Hagler can’t believe how much the game has changed. Sure, some people claim Hagler avoided the excellent Mike McCallum (McCallum gave an interview some months back, claiming Hagler actually apologised for failing to fight him in the 1980s), but there is no doubt Marvin fought a number of special, ultra-dangerous fighters..
And today, after having taken on greats like Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard and others, Hagler can’t help but feel today’s stars have a much easier time.
“What’s up with these guys?” Hagler asked the paper. “Have they no pride? Today’s fighters are not as hungry as they used to be. They don’t seem to sacrifice as much as we did. When we fought, it was straightforward, you fought the best, no ducking, no playing games. The only question afterwards was ‘who’s next?’
“Some of these guys have had, what, 12 fights? And they are fighting for a title and if they lose that, they can go for another title. I call them pretenders, not contenders. They are an embarrassment to real champions like Ali, Frazier and the guys I fought.”
Marvellous Marvin didn’t mention any specific names as he criticised today’s fighters, but fans have to agree that the huge fights – such as Mayweather-Pacquiao, Klitschko-Haye and others – are proving much tougher to make today (thank the lord for guys like Nonito Donaire and Fernando Montiel and Amir Khan and Tim Bradley; guys from today’s scene who DO want to fight the best). Hagler came up the tough way, there’s no doubt about that. But he made it to the top after a hard slog.
But which fight does Hagler list as his finest, his most memorable, today? The eight minute war from April of 1985, that’s which fight.
Tommy Hearns was in Germany last night, to see his son Ronald try and fail to win the WBA version of the middleweight title. Hearns may be feeling disappointed, even a little down today as a result of his son’s TKO defeat, but he will always have the respect of the boxing public. “The Hitman” will also have Marvin Hagler’s utmost respect, too.
“That fight may have been over a quarter of a century ago, but I can still feel those punches he landed on me and I drink a toast to him every time we meet,” Hagler said whilst recalling the savage battle he won against Hearns. “I am grateful people remember it as one of the all-time great fights. It was definitely the highlight of my career.”
Indeed. Will we ever see as mesmerising, as vicious a battle between two elite fighters again?
Hagler will be in the U.K on a speaking tour in April, and fans lucky enough to meet him are sure to ask him about his three-round win over Hearns. But fans may also ask Marvellous Marvin about another epic fight he had; this one a losing fight for the living legend.
Hagler actually made a joke about the man he still resents, in Sugar Ray Leonard.
“I keep my weight down just in case Leonard ever decides to give me that return.”
As we all know, that April 1987 points loss hurt Hagler badly, and to this day he still feels he won. But at least Marvin took risks by facing the very best. Can men like Floyd Mayweather and David Haye make the same claim?