homegame

Marvin Hagler RIP

 There was one overriding and irresistible reason to watch Marvin Hagler in the ring. You knew you were going to see a damn fight.

Hagler died yesterday at age 66, cheated of many years of his already successful retirement from the brutal trade he honored though, well, through his very brutality. He was a skilled boxer, ambidextrous in fact, but his skills were employed for his straightforward goal of inflicting the maximum amount of physical damage on his opponent no matter what he suffered himself in the process. He was a straight ahead fighter from the start to finish of his career, even in his career path. Hagler ducked no opponents, from Roberto Duran to Sugar Ray Leonard, in a sport where selective choice of foes is as much a part of the game as the left jab. It's made Floyd Mayweather a lot of money.

That approach made Hagler a terrifying opponent and a fighter who was enthralling to see in action. Go on Youtube and see his fight with John Mugabi, or if you haven't gone time for that, the amazing eight minutes in 1985 when Hagler and Tommy Hearns abandoned any notion of the Sweet Science for a brawl without pause until Hagler, bleeding profusely, knocked Hearns out in the third round.

That fight was 36 years ago. I defy anyone, whether they've ever seen a boxing match or not, to view it without excitement, even if only of the horrified kind, in their soul. Two fighters without pretense removing all pretense from their barbaric yet fascinating sport. Boxing is cruel. Boxing is vicious. Boxing does not speak all that well of the human species, except for the boxers themselves. Hagler was a boxer who made any thinking fan confront those facts. An honest fighter in the ring should at least have fans with honesty about themselves.

Honest fighters usually come to bad ends. I was fortunate enough to meet both Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali years after they retired, and both were physical wrecks, Frazier a bitter one, Ali a serene one. Hagler played it differently. He was honest about boxing and himself as well.

In 1987, Hagler fought Sugar Ray Leonard. He was skeptical about doing so, already thinking of walking away, but there was just too much money in the superfight of all the '80s superfights. In Leonard, Hagler met an opponent whose goal was much different than his own. Sugar Ray, whose punches hurt a great deal I assure you, was not looking to win a damn fight. He was seeking to win a boxing match according to the rules of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which he did. The judges' decision for Leonard remains a source of argument to this day, especially here in eastern Massachusetts, but in this pay-per-view spectator's mind, it was the correct one. The manly art of self-defense concept is as legitimate a part of boxing as the knockout punch, and Leonard was a master of it.

And after that loss, which insured that a rematch would make even more money for all concerned, Hagler walked away. He went to Italy to make cheap action movies and wear impeccable Italian suits. When that petered out, he moved to New Hampshire and lived as quietly as he could. He had no desire to trade on his fame in the nostalgia racket.

Truth be told, he had no need to do it. His fights still spoke for him, captured on video for as long as anyone wants to watch 'em. Many did for as long as he lived. My guess is many more will for many many years longer than that.

It perhaps took too many words to come to the logical conclusion about Marvin Hagler. That video of the Hearns fight is all the obituary Hagler will ever need.

posted by Michael Gee @ 10:25 AM