Marvelous Marvin Hagler - the legendary black boxer of the last century, the world middleweight champion. He spent many battles, most of which ended in victory. Marvin Hagler, whose photo you see in the article, is a strong, persistent person. It was not easy for him, but he overcame all difficulties and achieved a lot in his life. It is about this legendary person that the article will be discussed.
Marvin Hagler: biography
Marvin was born on May 23, 1954 in the United States of America, in the small town of New Arch, located near New Jersey. Hagler’s childhood was very difficult. The family lived in extreme poverty, the mother raised children alone, and often there was not even money for food. Father abandoned them when Hagler Marvin was still a child. Mothers with children had to rent a tiny apartment located in the old and prestigious part of the city.
When the boy was only thirteen years old, trouble happened in their family: the only housing during the riots was completely destroyed. Separately, it is worth noting that, among other things, the childhood passed during difficult interracial relations, when often the family had to experience all kinds of humiliations and insults due to skin color. After such an incident, Marvin's mother decided to move to another city, in Brockton, Massachusetts, where her sister lived. It was here that the birth of a new legend of big boxing took place.
On the way to big sport
In 1969, Hagler Marvin decided to drop out of school, this was the end of his studies, and after a little while his firstborn was born - the son of Champ. So, as a teenager, Marvin took responsibility for his minor girlfriend and their joint child. In order to somehow make ends meet, the future king of the ring moonlighted at various construction sites and even engaged in street theft. The latter, according to him, did not bring much income.
Life began to change dramatically when one of the days of the sixteen-year-old Marvin was noticed in the hall during training with a punching bag. The technicality and clear staging of his movements impressed coach Goody Petronelli, who later, together with his brother Pat, brought Hagler to a professional level. So, in 1970, the teenager began regular training, which with each new lesson revealed greater potential. After only three years, Marvin already had four successful fights, two of which ended in knockouts, in addition, he was called the most technical among boxers.
The beginning of a professional career
Hagner began his professional career at nineteen, by which time he already had fifty-six fights, including only one defeat. What weight category did Marvin Hagler belong to? The weight of the athlete was 72 kilograms. Yes, and was short Marvin Hagler. The height in cm was 177, while the left arm span was 191 cm. He was assigned to the middle weight category.
On May 18, 1973, the first serious fight with Tommy Ryan took place in the boxer's career, which ended in victory at the end of the second round. It should be noted immediately that for this fight Marvin managed to earn about fifty dollars, as the athlete later said, his goal was not titles or high-profile achievements. All he expected from the fights was money for the normal existence of his family. All of the first twenty-six battles Hagner brilliantly won, only one ended in a draw, the rest overwhelmingly ended after a few rounds.
In the winter of 1976, Marvin had a fight with Bobby Watts in Philadelphia, as a result of which the victory was given to the opponent by the decision of the judges, and just a couple of months later he lost to Willy Monroe on points here. However, after some time, the future champion won brilliant victories over these boxers.
The following years were very successful for Hagler, he often went into the ring and won, among the achievements of that period - a fight with the famous Sugar Ray Siles, who was the Olympic champion in 1972.
First difficulties
Despite all his achievements, Hagner did not manage to reach the world level. The reason for this was the constant ignoring and unwillingness to notice his high-profile victories by famous promoters, moreover, many of the best boxers of that time, due to various circumstances, did not want to go into the ring with Marvin. The Patronelli brothers, who were his coaches, tried in every possible way to achieve a champion fight, but all their attempts did not bring any result. Hagner decided to sign a contract with the promotion company Bob Arum, who was not only a competent lawyer, but even once worked in the presidential administration.
Marvin practically lost hope that someday he could fight for the world title. So, in a 1974 interview, he spoke out that the reason for all his failures is skin color and the fact that he is left-handed.
The first fight for the world title
Finally, all the long and desperate attempts to attract attention have yielded results. At the end of 1979, a duel was held for the title of world middleweight champion with an American of Italian origin Vito Antuofermo. It should be noted that the latter not only established himself as an extremely tough and strong athlete, but also as a boxer, capable of conducting a not very clean fight.
As a result of intense fifteen rounds, no one was awarded the victory. However, many experts in this field were of a different opinion, and believed that such a result was unfairly announced, since Marvin had a much better fight throughout the match.
Fight with Alan Minter
Ten months later, in 1980, Marvin met in the ring with the reigning world champion Alan Minter. The fight did not last long and ended already at the beginning of the third round with a brilliant victory for Hagler. So he became the world champion in the middle weight category. It is worth noting that his triumph caused indignation among many, the audience was furious and threw the boxer bottles, in the end he, along with other members of his team, was forced to flee, without even taking his champion belt.
Hagler Marvin: the best fights
In the boxer's career, after the legendary victory over Minter, a sharp rise began. So, in 1981, a duel took place between Hagler and Fulgencio Obelmeyasa. The last boxer for many years was secretly considered invincible, but when meeting with the current champion, he was knocked out.
The next meeting in the ring took place in the summer of that year with his old opponent Vito Antoofermo and this time ended with Marvin's unconditional victory in the fifth round (also by knockout).
A few months later, in October, there was a battle with the Syrian Mastafo Hamasho. The judges even had to stop this fight due to a serious dissection of the tissues of the opponent.
One of the easy and quick victories in the career of the reigning world champion was in March 1981 with William Lee. So, he could not hold out longer than one round, and already in the first he was knocked out.
In October of that year, Hagler re-met with Fulgencio Obelmeijas. The fight was very spectacular, it ended with an opponent knockout after five rounds.
For the champion's career, 1983 began very successfully, namely a whole series of victories, among which were the knockouts of Tony Sibson and Wilford Skipion.
Difficult victories
Marvin Hagler is a boxer who deserves great attention and fame. Many of his fights were not easy and spectacular. In November, in the ring, Marvin met with Roberto Duran. The fight was very difficult, given that the opponent in the past was the world champion in two weight categories at once and, in addition, chose a very interesting tactic. For twelve rounds it was not clear who would be the winner, only in the last three Marvin was clearly the leader in points. The decision of the judges became unanimous and indisputable about the award of victory to Hagler.
In the spring of 1984, the reigning world champion met in the ring with Juan Roldan and was knocked down in the first round. It should be immediately emphasized that this happened for the first time in Marvin’s career, but he was able to get up and in the tenth round ended the battle with a brilliant victory, sending the opponent to the knockout.
“Fight of the Year” with Thomas Hearns
In April 1985, one of the most memorable fights with Thomas Hearns, who in the past was the world champion, took place in Marvin's career. Such a brutal fight could not be remembered in the entire history of boxing. At the very beginning, the athletes behaved extremely aggressively towards each other, as a result of which the boxer Hagler received a serious cut under a series of powerful blows. Perhaps this angered the champion even more, and in the third round he managed to knock out Thomas. According to the magazine “Ring”, such a fight was awarded the title “Best fight of the year”.
Hagler's last successful fight
A very difficult, but at the same time successful fight took place in March 1986 with the famous boxer John Mugaby, who was famous for the fact that he did not fail in all his twenty-five fights. In addition, this athlete had extremely tough tactics, he always fought decisively.
The fight was tense, but in the eleventh round, Marvin managed to knock out the opponent. In Mugabi’s career, this was the first defeat; moreover, after such a fight, he was no longer able to reach his previous level.
The hardest fight of your career
By early 1987, Marvin had thirty-seven battles, which, with the exception of the first two, ended in brilliant victories. The reigning world champion prepared carefully for his meeting in the ring with the legendary Ray Leonardo, he was an unconditional favorite in the bookmakers, all the bets were mainly on him. The long-awaited meeting of the two boxers took place on April 6, 1987. Throughout the match, Hagler tried to understand the opponent’s tactics, as a result of which, at the end of the fifteenth round, he was significantly behind in points.
The fight ended in a loss to Marvin. It is worth saying right away that disputes about the victory of Leonardo periodically arise to this day. So, many boxing enthusiasts are convinced Ray was mistakenly awarded the world title. Marvin survived the defeat extremely hard and in many of his interviews he compared the enemy with a rabbit running away at the first danger.
After this fight, Hagler made the final decision to leave the big sport, especially since Leonardo categorically refused a rematch.
Life after a boxing career
After leaving sports, Marvin at one time began to abuse alcohol, as a result of which his wife, having taken all the children, left him. In 1990, they officially divorced.
Two years later, Hagler left the United States of America and went to live in the Italian city of Milan. Here he made a living by participating in commercials, in addition, starred in five films. Often, the former world champion was involved as a boxing commentator on television and radio. In 2000, pleasant changes took place in Marvin's personal life, the Italian Kaye became his wife.
Now the former world middleweight champion leads a measured and quiet life. Together with his wife, they spend most of their time in Italy, but do not forget to regularly visit America, the city of Bartlett, which means so much to Hagler.
According to the boxer himself, he was pretty tired for all the years of grueling training, endless fights and constant restrictions. Life according to the rules of others has extremely exhausted Marvin, and now he enjoys calm and silence.
Merits and Achievements
Marvin Hagler, whose height is indicated above, is rightfully considered the best middleweight boxer in the history of boxing. Between 1980 and 1987, he was the reigning world champion. For almost six years, he met in the ring twelve times with various opponents and always confirmed the right to wear the championship belt. In addition, most of the fights ended with knockouts, and only once the enemy was lucky to reach the last round and hear the final gong.
Boxing by Marvin Hagler always pleased the viewer, it was spectacular, though not always, unfortunately, ended in his victory.