Word: hagler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
BEST COMEBACK Returning to the ring against everyone's wishes, Sugar Ray Leonard protected his repaired retina long enough to restore his crown in a startling upset of Middleweight Champion Marvin Hagler...
...Hagler hit him less but hurt him more. Leonard had weighed in that morning at 158, just half a pound lighter than the natural middleweight he was fighting, and after a day's sustenance had entered the ring at 163. But he would leave it weighing 150. The bulk he had added, more to withstand power than dispense it, melted as he went until Leonard was himself again -- tough and quick fisted, bright and quick witted but as small as a child. Sometimes he feigned exhaustion, keeping a right-hand lead at the ready, and other times he truly sagged...
Guile, however, had no role in the ninth round, when Leonard finished winning the crowd and started finishing the fight. In terrible peril on the ropes, he twice flurried his way out and left Hagler shaking apart and griping aloud for a different kind of fight. Somewhere Leonard found the legs to obey his corner elf Angelo Dundee, who set him to dancing like Ali, complete with funny faces and windmills. Hagler smiled sadly. Before the last round began, Leonard raised a beckoning glove to the crowd, and by following suit Hagler only confirmed whose game they had been playing...
...told Hagler, "You're still champion." Hagler thought he heard, "You beat me, man." Having first blurted, "Twelve rounds isn't a championship distance," Manager Pat Petronelli was unconvincing in the next instant when he claimed that his man won them anyway. "Sugar Ray Leonard," the ex-champ said miserably, "of all people." To himself as much as anyone else, Leonard exulted, "I saw every punch coming," and no one should expect him to quit now. Maybe he will next try the light-heavyweight champion, his old friend Hearns. In a way, Leonard has beaten a heavyweight already. He knocked...
Throughout the fight, Hagler trapped Leonard on the ropes, only to have Leonard flurry to get free...