Marvelous Marvin Hagler: Difference between revisions

 

Hagler's next challenger was [[Sugar Ray Leonard]], who won a controversial split decision in [[Las Vegas, Nevada|Las Vegas]] on 6th April [[1987]]. The decision remains a subject of debate today among sports fans, some of whom felt Hagler landed the harder shots and controlled the pace of the fight from the fourth round on. The opinion of those fans believing Hagler deserved more from the judges was summed up by veteran British boxing journalist, Hugh McIlvanney, who reported in the British Sunday Times that Leonard's plan was to "steal rounds with a few flashy and carefully timed flurries....he was happy to exaggerate hand speed at the expense of power, and neither he nor two of the scorers seemed bothered by the fact that many of the punches landed on the champion's gloves and arms." <ref>The Hardest Game, Hugh McIlvanney, Contemporary Books, 2002</ref> The actual fight statistics show Leonard landing 306 punches to Hagler's 291 which attests to the closeness of the contest.<ref >[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEEDC1430F93AA35757C0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print New York Times], Apr 1987</ref>

 

Hagler changed his name legally to ''Marvelous Marvin Hagler'' and made some commercials, most notably a commercial for [[Pizza Hut]] and, later, [[Global Gillette|Gillette]]. He thought his decision loss to Leonard was undeserved, and quit [[boxing]] tired of the backroom politics of the sport.