Score it!... Leonard-Hagler (Part 2)

It's been more than twenty years since Ray Leonard's controversial twelve round split decision over Marvin Hagler, and fans are still arguing about who really won. Some say Leonard stole the title that night. Others maintain he was the worthy winner.

Today, our panel of Boxing Bulletin writers picks up where we left off yesterday, and offers up out scorecards for the final six rounds of that memorable fight.


ROUND SEVEN









"Leonard’s legs just can’t carry him the way they did earlier in the fight, and he’s forced to stand and fight at close range and just can’t do much to keep Hagler off him. Some nice body work from Hagler. He also mixed in some nice little hooks and uppercuts on the inside. Definitely the most effective round of the fight so far by either fighter. " - AF

"Hagler touched Leonard up; his right jab is landing repeatedly as Leonard tires. Ray has become increasingly more flat-footed, making the bout far more intriguing than it was in the early going." - MN

"Hagler finally starts getting his jab going and it leads to his best round of the night. Gets in several hooks and left hands along with solid body work." - ML

ROUND EIGHT









"Marvelous landed some brutal body punches." - MN

"Hagler fights his fight the majority of the round. Ray seems to need
to a breather at this point." - JV

"Easy round to score for Hagler." - LP


ROUND NINE









"Hagler has a full head of steam now and he hurt Leonard with a short left hand. Most of the round has Hagler drilling Ray with hard body and head shots on the ropes and Ray firing back with flashy flurries. Very exciting round. But I wouldn't call it a close one." - ML

"Marvin is really smacking Ray around now. 3 minutes of steady punishment interrupted by a few seconds of trickery." - LP

"Ray has a few shoeshines but nearly enough to overcome the beating he took." - JV


ROUND TEN









"Hagler's round due to rough inside work. Inside work that I'm not sure the judges took note of." - MN

"Marvin closed strong to take it." - ML

"I thought Hagler took it with some short shots at the end when Ray did nothing but hold on." - LP


ROUND ELEVEN








"Leonard showed some true grit and gutted out this round, letting his hands go more than any other in the fight. Ray's round based on activity." - MN

"One of Leonard’s best rounds." - JV

"Leonard landed the harder punches. Amidst all the showboating that I didn't care for, he planted his feet and scored with hard shots, while Hagler pitter patted away." - ML





"If you give extra points for showboating, Ray takes it. But in terms of actual fighting, I thought they were dead even." - AF


ROUND TWELVE







"Not a whole lot happened in the final stanza. Hagler stalked and Leonard ran. Despite the courage SRL showed in the few rounds prior to this, boxing fans may have had a far more endearing image of how he performed in the fight if he finished strong. Then again, if he engaged he might have gotten dropped. Nevertheless, he decided to skip along the ropes showboating and gave Hagler the round." - MN

"All the effective stuff was done by Hagler. You can't win a round without fighting, and Leonard didn't do much of it." - AF

"Hagler's the only one who landed anything this round." - LP






"Ugh. Leonard just embarrasses Hagler. And Hagler embarrasses himself trying to out showboat Ray. Ray punctuates the whole night with the famous highlight reel shoeshine that wouldn’t have budged a 1st grader. But hey, Hagler let it happen." - JV

"Leonard didn't land everything in those flurries, but he landed more than Hagler. Marvin just followed him around the ring and let him out punch him off the ropes." - ML

To wrap it up...

Lee Payton and Andrew Fruman both scored the bout, 116-113 Hagler. Michael Nelson also had it for Hagler by a 115-113 tally, while Mark Lyons and Jon Vaci had Leonard as the winner by scores of 115-113 and 115-114.

Here are some of the ringside press scores:



As for the official cards, Leonard won by a 2-1 split verdict. Judge Dave Moretti called it 115-113 Leonard, while Lou Fillipo scored it for Hagler 115-113. Then of course there's Jose Guerra and his 118-110 card for Leonard.

Guerra scored rounds 7, 8 and 9 for Leonard. Both Moretti and Fillipo scored those for Hagler, as did the entire Boxing Bulletin panel. Our panel was in at least 80% agreement on 9 of the 12 rounds, 5 of which we had for Hagler.

How did you have it?

Did you agree with Moretti or Fillipo... or Guerra?

Part 1
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Score it!... Leonard-Hagler (Part 1)

Welcome to the first edition of Score It!

For the first installment of this series, we’ll look back to April 6, 1987. On that night, Marvelous Marvin Hagler put his middleweight title on the line against former welterweight champion, Sugar Ray Leonard. Debates have raged for over 20 years about who really won that evening, with both sides steadfastly believing they are right.


We've assembled a panel of Boxing Bulletin writers to judge the fight and explain their scores. Today, we'll break down rounds 1-6.

The Judges: Lee Payton, Mark Lyons, Michael Nelson, John Vaci and Andrew Fruman.

ROUND ONE









“Leonard's round fairly handily. He stuck some nice jabs in the early going, and threw a few combinations before tying Hagler up. The only definitive Hagler blows were a couple of body punches.” – MN

“Leonard didn’t sit still, while Hagler followed, never managing to close the distance enough to get off. Leonard meanwhile picked his spots nicely to stop and fire off scoring blows.” – AF


ROUND TWO








“As commentator Gil Clancy pointed out, it's puzzling why Hagler would come out in the conventional stance again. Did Hagler ever explain his rationale? He clearly did better in the first round when he switched to southpaw. One of the great mysteries in boxing. This is one of the rounds Leonard "stole"; it was about even going into the final 30 seconds, before Leonard landed 4-5 good blows.” – MN

“Hagler is still just following him around. Ray continues to land with right hands and gets in a nice hook. Leonard is clinching big time but Marvin just isn't doing any work.” - ML





“Leonard did nothing but run, hold and hit on the break, while Hagler chased and tapped the body while being held. Not enough really happened to warrant giving this to anyone, I’m calling it even” - LP


ROUND THREE






“Marvin really banged Leonard in the clinches and was the only one throwing anything real this round. The challenger's plan is obvious- run, hold, hit on the break, throw a couple decent shots and run some more. Good for show, but not enough to earn the round.” – LP






“I thought Hagler had a slight lead with a minute to go, thanks to his steady pressure and decent bodywork, but some clean right hands and a couple nice combos by Leonard over the final minute pushed him ahead.” – AF






“Finally Hagler started using his southpaw stance and landed several lead straight lefts. Leonard as usual came on in the second half, but not enough to steal the round.” – JV


ROUND FOUR







“Another close one. Hagler landed some good body shots and poked Ray with a few left hands. Leonard potshotted, held, landed a very low bolo punch, and edged it with a combination at the end.” – MN







“Hagler didn’t land often, but he consistently pressed and unlike the two previous rounds, Leonard wasn’t able to flurry late and steal it. I wouldn’t argue with anyone who gave the last round to Hagler, and I wouldn’t argue with anyone who gave this one to Leonard. Both were razor close.” - AF


ROUND FIVE








“This is the round Marvelous started putting some hurt on his elusive foe. Leonard did good for a minute, then Hagler worked him over.” - MN

I would have given an otherwise close round to Leonard, but Hagler buckled his knees with a right uppercut.” - JV






“Ray's best round, so far. He actually threw some meaningful shots in there and was very accurate with right hands underneath and down the middle. It was all Ray until the champ got through on an exchange with 45 seconds to go that seemed to fire him up. He started working Leonard over and making him very uncomfortable, but was fought back the whole way. Hagler shook him a little at the end, but he was outworked, so I gave it to Leonard.” – LP



ROUND SIX









“Leonard bounces back with a strong round. Marvin presses forward but doesn't get much accomplished. Ray is visibly tiring but he paint brushes Hagler with several solid combinations the best of which was a right to the body and a hard hook to the head at the end of the round.” - ML

“Hagler managed to consistently get within punching range, but a spirited effort from an increasingly tired looking Leonard carried the round.” – AF

“Hagler did some good work on the inside with short punches, but Leonard landed the flashier punches and more of them.” - JV

We'll take a look at the second half of the fight tomorrow. Part 2

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