Hagler/Hearns is a spectacularly overrated fight

[OumaFan]

Agree/Disagree?

I mean I get that you have to take into account the context. It's a massive fight that had a big build up. Two great fighters, etc.

But if you just watch the fight, it's massively overrated as a great fight if you're just looking at it from a pure fight perspective. We see wars all the time. This fight was over by the end of the first round. The last two rounds Hearns was on wobbly legs.

The first round: epic. The overall fight: eh

Here's the fight:

[Violent Demise]

It's not overrated. For the simple fact that top fighters like that don't go at each other the way they went at each other. The way they fought is the way De La Hoya and Trinidad should of fought

[OumaFan]

It's not overrated. For the simple fact that top fighters like that don't go at each other the way they went at each other. The way they fought is the way De La Hoya and Trinidad should of fought

That's the argument for it.

It doesn't hold a candle to Castillo-Corrrales 1. Toney-Jirov shits all over it.

Hell, Ward-Burton is a lot better fight from a pure fight perspective, much less Ward-Gatti. And those are just well known "lower-level" fights, there are an endless amount of fights that were better from a pure action perspective.

[Violent Demise]

It's not overrated. For the simple fact that top fighters like that don't go at each other the way they went at each other. The way they fought is the way De La Hoya and Trinidad should of fought

That's the argument for it.

It doesn't hold a candle to Castillo-Corrrales 1. Toney-Jirov shits all over it.

Hell, Ward-Burton is a lot better fight from a pure fight perspective, much less Ward-Gatti. And those are just well known "lower-level" fights, there are an endless amount of fights that were better from a pure action perspective.

None of them were as highly ranked as them 2. It was the number 1 Junior middleweight against the number 1 middleweight. Ray Leonard was retired in 1985. So it was pretty much the number 1 pound for pound fighter vs the number 2 or 3 pound for pound fighter.

[OumaFan]

Well no fucking shit man

That's kind of the point, but not really the point.

[Violent Demise]

Well no fucking shit man

That's kind of the point, but not really the point.

That point is why it's so highly touted. Comparing Ward-Burton to it is just wrong. You should be ashame of yourself

[TitoFan]

I don't think rounds 2 and 3 were all that bad. Hearns was still throwing bombs. He just realized somewhere along the line that he wasn't going to hurt Hagler bad enough to make a difference. But he never stopped throwing. It was only 3 rounds, but damn... what 3 rounds they were. I wish we had more Hagler-Hearns fights in championship boxing history.

[OumaFan]

I fully accept that I do have a bit of a revisionist view on this because I didn't see it live. But I am old enough to have seen a replay of it without knowing what happened. And I was entranced by it.

Just looking back at it, the only argument that it's one of boxing's great fights (and every fight is judged by it, Castillo-Corrales was judged by it) is that it was two legendary fighters. Otherwise we've all seen better fights.

I think it's certainly the greatest first round between two elite all time fighters fighting in their prime for a major belt, but round 2 and 3 are a bit of a beatdown.

[TitoFan]

Well... to be fair, 10 great rounds beats 3 great rounds anytime. That being said, I think after seeing the 1st round, anything less in the 2nd round would've been a letdown. I thought Hearns resorted to moving more, because he knew he wasn't going to get Hagler out of there with one punch.... and he had good boxing skills. IMO, it was still a good round. Round 3, yeah.... Hearns was on wobbly legs from being hurt toward the end of the 2nd.

[VictorCharlie]

Better fights? Probably. Better 3 rounds of fighting? Not for me.

[greynotsoold]

I fully accept that I do have a bit of a revisionist view on this because I didn't see it live. But I am old enough to have seen a replay of it without knowing what happened. And I was entranced by it.

Just looking back at it, the only argument that it's one of boxing's great fights (and every fight is judged by it, Castillo-Corrales was judged by it) is that it was two legendary fighters. Otherwise we've all seen better fights.

I think it's certainly the greatest first round between two elite all time fighters fighting in their prime for a major belt, but round 2 and 3 are a bit of a beatdown.

It was a great fight. I remember the night it was on, getting off work and hauling ass to my friends house to watch it. That first round was incredible. By the end of the 2nd it certainly seemed like things were going Hagler's way, but there was that cut. When they stopped the action in the third to have the doctor look at it, it was dramatic as hell. Then when Hagler floored him...just an incredible fight. That was nearly 30 years ago and I remember that night like it just happened.