new Leonard-Hagler book

"Sorcery at Caesars: Sugar Ray's Marvelous Fight"

Steve Marantz wrote it - he was the Boston Globe's boxing writer

everything you didn't know about their rivalry

if you're a Hagler fan like me reading this will piss you off even more

but sneaky as leonard was you have to give him credit

he's a clever bastard, and he pulled it off

even though he didn't really

 

I still think this was fixed for a rematch and Sugar Ray backed out.

 

the Globe gave it two thumbs up:

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2008/08/12/leonard_hagler_story_packs_a_wallop/




also bill littlefield of 'only a game':

http://www.onlyagame.org/book-reviews/2008/07/sorcery-at-caesars/#more-320

 

Never been a doubt in my mind that Marvelous wuz robbed. But that's the price he paid for not knocking the sonuvabitch out. Regardless, no one will ever convince me that Hagler wasn't pound-for-pound the greatest boxer ever. Period.

 

hagler was marvelously conditioned, and had perhaps the best chin in history. his punches were heavy and destructive.

two knocks against him:

his attack was methodical - not creative.

he was tentative in three key fights: antuofermo 1, duran, and leonard.

 

I'm with you. I was there, and was certain Hagler won.

BTW, I thought Ron Borges was the Globe's boxing writer, at least until he exited that paper?

 

Still think he got rooked. Sugar Ray fought a great fight, but not sure I'll ever subscribe to the theory he won.

And I'm putting my then-love for Hagler aside.

 

Mr Henry,

I think Mugabi exposed him, or at least showed that he was in decline. Not just not creative ... he didn't adapt or improvise well, didn't have to in his prime years. I don't think he figured Duran out but rather Duran's tank hit E in round 12.

I also think Leonard won the fight and I hate him. (Interviewed him back when and he was stealing glance of himself in a mirror.)

YD&OHS, etc

 

Mr 77,

It's tough to make a case for him being the best at 160 ... Robinson and Monzon would be in the conversation. It's a pity that he never got in the ring with Monzon but I imagine it would be a war (along the lines of the Monzon-Briscoe, BB being the nearest thing to Hagler right down to the haircut).

YD&OHS, etc

 

Horseshit officiating, even by the standards of a "sport" renowned for it.

 

Hagler was my all-time fave fighter, nobody else is even remotely close. I have a personally autographed picture of Hagler hanging in my basement. My parents had friends in Brockton, Mass. who knew Hagler through the Petronelli brothers. They used to send me clips from the Brockton Enterprise on Hagler. Great stuff.

Still, I scored the Leonard fight 7-4-1 for Sugar Ray when I saw it live on closed circuit. I have watched it probably 20 times on tape since and while it gets closer on occasion I never had Hagler winning it.

Marv's biggest problem in that fight was pissing away the first four rounds doing nothing other than obediently following Leonard around the ring. You never saw the aggression he showed against Hearns, Mugabi and others. Leonard wasn't intimidated by Hagler and was quite happy to put rounds in the bank.

In those days I taped all the boxing I could get my hands on and not long ago watched a few of the Hagler-Leonard preview specials that were on. To me, 20-odd years later, it looks like Hagler was just tired of chasing Leonard and now he had him in the ring he didn't care. All his tough-guy talk seemed to be just an attempt to get himself psyched for the fight. There has to be more than just disgust with the decsion that has kep him retired all these years.

I'll be looking for this book.