GUEST COLUMN
Leonard manipulated Hagler – but a rematch would have been different
Richard Steele on Leonard-hagler
TO this day, exactly 30 years after the fight, my biggest impression from the Sugar Ray Leonardmarvin Hagler fight is how much Leonard had really messed up Hagler’s head, his mind. Leonard really did fight a genius fight. He had told Hagler, amid many taunts, that Hagler couldn’t box, that he was just a crude slugger. Hagler really was stung by that, and he tried and failed to prove otherwise – that’s why I believe he gave away so many early rounds; fighting orthodox instead of his customary southpaw.
Hagler simply lost his gameplan; the one that had been so successful so many times before. The thing is, Hagler really wasn’t a boxer: he was a puncher-boxer. If he had fought Leonard the way he had fought everyone else, he would almost certainly have won in my opinion. But Hagler was not in the right frame of mind to fight and get a knockout – something I really thought he would get in the leadup. I was concerned for Leonard’s health going in - very much so.
But it wasn’t until later on in the fight, the second half, when Leonard got tired, that Hagler realised he had messed up and knew he really had to pour it on, which he did. Hagler must have known by then that he had been fooled. But the judges were also fooled by Leonard. Leonard, by how well he was doing, when most people thought he would get beaten, made it impossible for the judges to think he was losing. There were not that many great action rounds, really, but Leonard was doing more; he was moving, pressing the fight at times and boxing.
Leonard did hold a lot later on in the fight, but I never thought about taking points off him. Part of his style, his clever arsenal, was to hold, so he could manoeuvre Marvin into a better position for his own punches. That is totally different to a guy just holding for the sake of holding.
Both fighters were very determined in the later rounds, and both were tired. I knew it was very close, and when the cards were read out I was only surprised by the way too wide 118-110 card by judge Jose Juan Guerrera. To me, it was a three-point fight at the absolute most, but you could easily have argued for a draw – actually, thinking about it, maybe a draw would have been the fairest result, taking all things into consideration. I had Leonard eking it out, because he fought his fight, the smart fight. Marvin just could not be himself.
Had there been a rematch, I think it would have been a totally different fight. A great fighter, when he makes a mistake, he corrects it so he doesn’t lose again. What Leonard did took years, in that he very cleverly got inside Hagler’s mind over and over again in the run-up to the fight. Hagler in a rematch would not have fallen for it again – he would have fought his usual fight. But all these years later, both Ray and Marvin do not like one another. I met them at the Hall of Fame, 28 years after the fight; it was the first time I’d got them both together since the fight. But neither guy would go near the other. I asked for a picture and Marvin said there was no way would he get a picture with him! I said, ‘Come on, it’s been nearly 30 years.’ So later, I managed to get them near each other and I grabbed them both, raised both their arms, and I very quickly got the picture. And it’s a beautiful picture [below].
‘ALL THESE YEARS LATER, THEY STILL DON’T LIKE EACH OTHER’