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Marvin Hagler v Roberto Duran – Revisited
WBA, WBC and IBF World Middleweight Championship
November 12th 1983
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
This is my third instalment in the Revisited series.
It was 1983 and Duran had come off a remarkable victory against Davey Moore at Madison Square Garden claiming his THIRD world title. Many had written of the great Hands of Stone and didn’t give him a chance, but Duran proved them all wrong.
Hagler was the dominant Middleweight champion and had beaten anybody who was put in his way, Hagler believed the Middleweight crown belonged to him and nobody could take it away.
So it had been confirmed that Duran would take on Hagler, the fight was made. Hagler was a natural big Middleweight, and Duran started his career at Lightweight, it could be argued the fight was a ‘mismatch’. Rightly so Hagler was made the clear favourite and Duran at 33 was considered past it and Hagler would end the career of Duran. As ever, leading upto the fight Duran was intimidating Hagler, the bigger man and it worked.
As they squared of in the ring it was clear that Hagler felt intimidated by Duran, maybe he thought that Hands of Stone was still very dangerous, either way Hagler went onto win a very close decision.
The irony is that even in defeat Duran became victorious, Duran became the only person ever to take Hagler the full 15 rounds and even then the official scorecards showed Duran leading by 1 point on all 3 cards going into the last 2 rounds, so if Duran could have one 1 of the last 2 rounds he would have been declared champion, also Duran from the 3rd round onwards fought with a damaged right hand, the hand that has knocked out so many opponents.
Hagler was to say after the fight that “everyone’s talking about Duran, but I won”, “he is a Legend” said Hagler.
It was a close fight, but what amazes me to this day is that Duran lost but came out as the moral winner, in the eyes of the public, boxing world he was the winner.
Duran had no business being in the ring with any Middleweight, let alone Hagler, and he more than held his own, no, he nearly beat Hagler and that was a miracle in it’s self.
There was to be one more time when nobody would give a 37 year old Duran a chance, but once again Duran would prove them wrong and cement his Legacy and greatness FOREVER!
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Originally Posted by BIG H
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