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Leonard shocks Hagler
ABC Sports Online
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After nearly three years of boxing inactivity, Sugar Ray Leonard returned to the ring and pulled off the Upset of the Decade when he outpointed Marvelous Marvin Hagler to win the middleweight title in 1987. In an excerpt from an interview conducted for the Wide World of Sports 40th Anniversary, Leonard reflects on his fight with Hagler.
ABC Sports
When did the thought of coming back and fighting Marvin Hagler start to percolate in your mind?
Sugar Ray Leonard
I was in Las Vegas. I recall like it was yesterday, I was in Las Vegas when Marvin Hagler was fighting John Louis Magavi, and I was sitting ringside with Michael J. Fox and we were sitting there talking. I kept saying, "I can beat him, I can beat Marvin," because Magavi was making Hagler miss. Magavi was a slugger and he was out-boxing Marvin Hagler. Marvin was swinging wildly trying to catch him. I said I can beat this guy.
|  | | Sugar Ray Leonard defied the odds and silenced his critics when he defeated Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1987. |
After the fight I went straight to my room and called (manager) Mike Trainer. I said, "Mike, I want to fight Marvin Hagler." Mike said, "Ray, how many beers have you had?" I said, "No, Mike, I want to fight him. I can beat this guy. I can box this guy." No one believed it. The only person that believed I could beat Marvin Hagler was my father. My brothers didn't believe. My closest friends didn't believe, but they would support me.
Marvin came to, to help me open my restaurant in Bethesda, Md., and we started talking. I started to ask him questions what's next and this and that. He kind of gave me the low-down on what's happening in his life, where he was mentally. I got a good barometer of where he was, so, about two weeks later after my restaurant opened, I announced that I wanted to fight him. Marvin took that as an insult because he figured that I got him down to Maryland, to kind of get into his head which I did in a sense, but not intentionally.
I trained one year for that fight. I trained every day and did everything. I actually went beyond the call of duty because I felt that because I'd been out of the ring for so long that I needed to get used to getting hit again. I staged fights in Maryland, in Palmer Park. I had fighters from Philadelphia and L.A., about four or five middleweights with ten-ounce gloves on. I used fourteen-ounce training gloves and wore no headgear. They had on headgear and I boxed every one of those guys.
Only one guy cut me. But I got a feel that I could do it, and that told me, that if done correctly, I could make this thing happen.
ABC Sports
As important the fight was for you, it was really a critical fight, a very important fight, for Marvin. He had been overlooked by the media, even though he was a great champion. By the time you fought he hadn't lost a fight in eleven years.
Leonard
Right.
ABC Sports
Yet, he wasn't getting big paydays.
Leonard
He was starting to get those paydays, and he was starting to become more recognized and more marketable in a sense. He did, I think, a peace commercial and a deodorant commercial.
Marvin felt that I was trying to rain on his parade. All of a sudden I'm receiving all the fanfare and the commercials and the endorsements. Marvin also knew that there was nothing really happening and that the public demanded that fight because the public wanted to see that fight. Although the general consensus said, "Ray's a little guy, against Marvin Hagler, a big guy. It's not a fair fight". A lot of people didn't think so. People said, "Ray, you haven't had a tune-up." And I said, "He is my tune-up".
ABC Sports
But the doubters came out in force. They said, "Ray, you haven't fought, you haven't had a tune-up, you have your problem with your eye." You're fighting a bigger, stronger man, all these doubters. The media was overwhelmingly saying, "What the hell are you doing?"
Leonard
Yes, but they were there. They could not afford to miss it. They didn't know what was going to happen. Ninety-nine percent felt that I would get wiped out in two or three rounds. But, they also felt that they could not afford not to be there, because if something happened, like it did, it would be a total misgiving.
ABC Sports
People were on the fence. Should they go to the fight or not? There was always that offbeat chance that Sugar Ray Leonard might do something special. How did that make you feel?
Leonard
It was fair to make that assumption. It was fair to make that judgment. If I was a gambler I would bet on Marvin Hagler. But if I was a smart man I'd bet on Sugar Ray. As arrogant as that may sound, it was really true. I look at this fight and the fact that I've been out of the ring for like three years. Marvin had been out of the ring for maybe eight, nine months, who knows, ten months, eleven months, I don't know what it was.
But, they kept saying, "Ray, what's going to happen when you lose?" I said, "You should not ask me that question, ask Marvin Hagler, reverse the question. Ask him what would happen when he loses so I put a little bug in his ear."
No matter what, I thank Marvin for giving me an opportunity to fight him. Although even now, even today, he feels that he's been given an injustice. Because of the boxing world, or fraternity, whatever, the politics...he was still a great fighter who will go down in history as an all-time middleweight, a great middleweight.
ABC Sports
What was your plan going in? How were you going to deal with this mismatch of size and strength?
Leonard
I knew that I had hand speed. I didn't really know how much, compared to his. But the first round, if you go back to the tape, the very first round, I'm on nervous energy because you don't know what's there. I did this, he did this, I think he's scared too because, we both were fighting for bragging rights. It wasn't about the money, it was about the toughest kid on the block. I realized that my hand speed was still there and superior. The jab was working. Marvin fought me left and right-handed for four or five rounds which gave me an opportunity to set my pace. I'm not saying if he had fought me by southpaw, I could not have adjusted, but it gave me a better opportunity to kind of get settled, for four or five rounds. By then I had a few rounds in the bank. He was trying to outbox me and show he was the better boxer.
ABC Sports
Much has been said that you guys were in the clinches and staring at each other and that Marvin was fighting a verbal war as well with you in that fight. Is that true?
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"I was a winner by going the distance with Marvin. I was a winner by standing up to Marvin. I was a winner by exchanging punches with Marvin. It didn't matter if I got the decision, it didn't matter to me. I did...I did...the impossible." ” |
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— Sugar Ray Leonard |
Leonard
Yes, the first three or four rounds he kept calling me a little sissy, a little b----, start running, start running, start running, and I said, no. He wanted me to stand toe to toe with him and exchange punches which in fact was my game plan originally. That was my first game plan to stand toe to toe with Marvin because we felt that other than a long prayer, that was my best shot, to try to cut him, because we knew he had scar tissue. So I boxed him instead. I mean I boxed him. And I told my corner 30 seconds before the bell rang to end the round, yell, "30 seconds" and I will throw combinations to win that round. And I did that.
ABC Sports
You won several rounds, not so much with any power in your punches but just showing that speed?
Leonard
Speed, yes. I was beating my own points, I said, "Yell 30 seconds before each round, and I will throw combinations." I tell you he fell right into that plan.
ABC Sports
Did you talk back to him at all while he's calling you a sissy?
Leonard
No. The only thing I said to Marvin, was the last round, I said, "You want to fight me now, you want to fight me now." That was it. It wasn't anything harsh or abrasive. The last round, because the first two or three rounds, when I walked back to the corner, I looked down at the sportscasters and sportswriters. I looked at them like saying, "I'm still here, guys, I'm still here," because they didn't think I had a chance or a prayer.
ABC Sports
As the fight ends, how sure are you that you're going get this decision?
Leonard
I didn't care. I was a winner by going the distance with Marvin. I was a winner by standing up to Marvin. I was a winner by exchanging punches with Marvin. It didn't matter if I got the decision, it didn't matter to me. I did...I did...the impossible. I did what they considered the impossible!
ABC Sports
You get the decision and there's this image that remains in so many people's minds. You're exhausted at the end of the decision and you practically collapse at the end of this fight.
Leonard
Yes.
ABC Sports
The decision comes, they lift you up, and you're doing an Arnold Schwarzenegger pose?
Leonard
[LAUGHS] Yes, I had a couple of muscles there. I was excited. This will make anyone who doubted themselves believe they can do whatever, if you put your mind to it, your heart to it, and spirit behind it.
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