Tributes to the hardest of heroes
Late one evening during World Cup final week at Italia 90, a few of us were taking wine in Harry’s Bar at the top of Rome’s Via Veneto when a bald and unmistakeable figure walked in. Marvin Hagler, one of the hardest heroes of a sporting world very different from football, arrived with his fluffy white toy poodle trotting at his heels. ‘Hello, Marvin. Can I get you a drink?’ He replied: ‘Hey man. two Peronis if that’s OK.’ two? the barman came up with the answer, placing a large metal bowl on the floor and filling it with one of the beers. a few more followed and, for the record, that remains the only time I bought drinks for a dog on expenses. It proved to be a priceless investment. Marvelous Marvin whiled a long night away telling a host of magical stories. the first recounted how he had retired from the ring three years earlier, upped sticks in america and moved to Milan. ‘I knew I would never accept I lost to Sugar Ray (Leonard),’ he said of his last fight. ‘I had to get as far away from that as possible.’ More than 30 years on, Sugar Ray Leonard’s astonishing victory over the comparatively huge Hagler is a decision still debated around the boxing world. Leonard was returning from three years in retirement for his first fight above welterweight. Hagler was world middleweight champion and such a brutal fighter that he was considered unbeatable. Leonard had a history of detached retinas and said: ‘People are telling me I’ll go blind or he’ll kill me. He has so much power. But what I have seen is something in Marvin that makes me believe I can beat him.’ On a historic Las Vegas night at Caesars Palace, Hagler pounded away. Leonard frustrated him the best he could and filled the last minute of each round with lightning flurries of punches which, although not that hurtful, caught the eyes of two of the judges. Marvelous had indeed been outsmarted by Sugar. there was uproar. the worst of the outrage was vented against JoJo Guerra’s card of 118-110 to Leonard. that was nonsense but it tipped the split decision in favour of Leonard as Dave Moretti scored it 115-113 for him, while Lou Filippo saw it by the same score for Hagler. Hagler — having recently emerged from the greatest three-round fight in boxing history as the bloody victor over thomas Hearns — could not believe it. Nevertheless the world championship he had won in 1980 — by cutting alan Minter’s face to ribbons in three rounds and then dodging the broken seats hurled at him by a racist element among a Wembley crowd — was gone. that loss was boxing’s because this truly great fighter still had much left to give. But he found a new career as an actor and a second wife Kay in the Italy he loved, before returning to america where he died this weekend. again, tragically at only 66, he has gone too early. the verdict on his passing may become as controversial as his loss to Leonard. Hearns has announced that Hagler expired in an intensive care unit from a deadly reaction to a Covid vaccine. Mrs Hagler’s statement refers to ‘my beloved husband dying unexpectedly’ at their home in New Hampshire. What is certain is that it is the Leonard decision he will be taking to his grave.