Quote Originally Posted by TIC View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Master View Post
When I wrote not bad, I was being sarcastic, it was very good.

If his last fight was a pass then so be it. Every fighter has at least one.

Spinks would have been a challenge but Hagler was a career middleweight. His body of work from Vito onwards I would argue is better than facing Spinks if taken together.

Why give up the title he worked so hard for to give it away. Hagler would not have received any favours from the alphabet boys if he relinquished the middleweight title.
oh you were being sarcastic?

so you do give marvin a pass but just for his last fight?

marvin was a career middleweight sounds like an excuse. i said marvin could have really moved up as early as completing the vito antuofermo rematch. so after that rematch i would say his body of work is less than stellar. "His body of work" you are using a false equivalence, tell me one opponent marvin fought from july eighty one onwards that would have been a bigger challenge than michael spinks

why not give up the title & look for bigger challenges? why would marvin need favours if he was moving up to fight michael spinks?
On the flip side I wonder how Spinks would have viewed or been received in facing a career middleweight who had yet to have his highest profile "fab four" fights. And what did Spinks bring in 81. Was that ever a topic with a single writer posing the question or calling for a match or Hagler to leave middle then. Genuine question. Was there ever a demand or market. Assuming Hagler would have gone up after Vito rematch in 81, completely erasing the Hearns, Duran and what is considered a high profile classic war with Mugabi and Leonard. Three HOFs gone just like that. Turns out greats could provide entertaining legendary fights. Duran, Mugabi, Hearns and Leonard were that. Spinks was literally champ for 1 whole month at the time. Who needed who more maybe with Spinks, Hagler was the one making over a million knocking off 3 top ranked challengers even before Duran. My old favorite on any top champion...sweep out the immediate division and challengers. Irony is and I did not "live" it live so could be totally off...but Spinks at times sounds a similar case and was looking for that 'explosion' of household name notoriety. He himself looked to go up specifically for the glory and finally a career purse, and Holmes wasn't exactly looking stellar and running very close with Witherspoon and Williams. Best I can tell that was Spinks very first million-dollar fight of his career.