This week’s 87th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with former undisputed middleweight champion of the world ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993. Hagler was involved in high profile bouts against the likes of Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Vito Antuofermo just to name a few. Hagler is widely viewed as one of the best boxers of all-time and is regarded by many as the greatest middleweight to ever lace up a pair of gloves. Here is a complete transcript of that interview.
JENNA J: Marvin, now you fought some of the best fighters out there from any era. You fought Roberto Duran, you fought Thomas Hearns, you fought Sugar Ray Leonard. What was it like to fight all these great names and how do you think they would do in today’s division?
MARVIN HAGLER: Well you know, that was a tough time in a great era in a sense because I believe that all these guys could fight. You weren’t going to have a field day like with what they’re doing today. I mean all these guys had like over forty fights or whatever, where these guys now today have only like twenty fights and they’re world champions? I mean, come on! It took me fifty fights to get a shot at the title, which was probably the best thing so I was able to hold onto it a lot longer. Most of the fighters today, I think they hold the title from about six months to one year and then all of a sudden they lost it. So I still feel as though for the throwbacks in the old days that that was the best lesson for me, to go through the hard way, which I did, and then when you retire it’s knowing that you have fought the best in the world. You got nothing else to prove.
JENNA: What do you think about today’s stars? You have Manny Pacquiao who has come from 106 pounds all the way up to 147. You got Floyd Mayweather Junior out there. What do you think of today’s stars in boxing?
HAGLER: With the Pacquiao and Mayweather fight, I think that Mayweather might be a little scared. But then there’s another thing, and he’s almost looking like a Sugar Ray Leonard in the type of sense where he is dictating all of the time. Hello! If you’re going to fight, let’s fight! Let’s stop all this stuff. Let’s just get it on! I mean that is what boxing is about. So he’s trying to gain more money or whatever. I mean you already made enough money. Do you want to fight the guy? Yes or no? And I think that Pacquiao is saying, ‘Come on! Let’s do it today’. But I wouldn’t wait around for Mayweather. I would take another fight and still make as much money as I can and then leave the game while I’m still on top.
JENNA: When you speak of Mayweather, he’s a guy that always wants concessions. You fought a guy yourself that liked concessions and that was Sugar Ray Leonard. Looking back at that fight there, do you at all regret giving those types of concessions to him and do you think Pacquiao should stay with what he wants to do to make this fight happen?
HAGLER: Well the thing is, when you want to retire you want to go out knowing you fought the best in the world and this was the only fight that was left for me that meant anything. So normally, you would say ‘I’ll give you anything that you want. I’ll tell you what I’ll do—I’ll even fight you in your living room. I’ll come to your house’.
JENNA: You certainly did make that fight happen. When people look at it today, though, they watch the fight, everyone scores it differently. Yourself there, the last time we had you on you said you broke all of your TVs when you watch it. When you look at it now, do you have any regrets about the way you fought that fight? You fought orthodox for the first few rounds. Do you at all regret doing that?
HAGLER: No. If I look at it again, I’ll probably break another television. But anyway, I feel as though I did the best that I could do, whether I was fighting orthodox or whatever like that. The main thing is not trying to go out there and try to knock the guy out. The main thing is just to win that fight and that’s what I felt as though I did, and still do inside my heart, I don’t feel any differently. I still feel like a champion like I told you before and nothing has changed.
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CLICK HERE to read the entire interview transcript with Marvelous Marvin Hagler
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For those interested in listening to the Marvin Haglerinterview in its entirety, it begins approximately one hour and two minutesinto the show.
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