BoxRec

i watched it in the old boston garden on closed circuit and the place was crowded, then
bought the vhs after and watched over and over. i thought leonard won that night (not
a popular opinion in boston) and thought it was much closer watching it later but never
had hagler winning. a manager at a gym i went to told me the fight was fixed and hagler
was going to carry leonard in the beginning but leonard double crossed hagler after stealing
enough rounds and survived the fight. i was a teenager and was shocked a real professional
manager would be talking about fixing fights.
either way, if you listen to the petronellis in between the last few rounds, you can tell they
did NOT think hagler was ahead. they were pleading with him, "mahv! we need this BAD
mahv! don't stop until he's down! let the tiger out!"
hagler's corner was telling him to be much more aggressive the whole fight and
hagler wasn't listening to their instructions. at times it didn't look like hagler had
an answer to leaonard. leonard would stand flat footed with his hands down and stick
his chin out and let hagler swing away and hagler was missing really badly 3-4
punches in a row, then leonard would flurry and dance away. hagler was only able
to get leonard in a corner a few times, and then he did well, but leonard was able
to fight his way out. it wasn't the welter version of leonard i expected to see, but
even a rusty slower leonard was still a much better boxer. leonard's liver shot was
vicious, too. very underestimated body puncher. i'm trying to remember if it was kalule,
but one of his fights he had the guy hobbling from body shots.

Coming out in the orthidox stance for the first few rounds was a huge mistake. It got Leonard off to a fast start. Although Hagler came home strong. I gave it to Leonard 115 - 113.

Badhusker wrote:Does anyone remember if it was at a catch weight? They both weighed at about 158, and Hagler never came in light for his fights. I know SRL was the original catch weight king. I remember he wanted the fight 12 rounds, a huge ring, etc.

It wasn't a catchweight fight.

Also, I never understood the 12/15 round thing as the fight could not have been scheduled for more than 12 rounds under WBC rules in 1987, unless they were going to bend the rules for SRL, as they did when he fought Lalonde for his 175 lb title & the freshly created 168lb title & despite the fight not being at 175, SRL still bagged that title too.