Boxers’ pride goes on the line today

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 46

Boxers’ pride goes on the line today

NZPA-AP Las Vegas Marvellous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard put their pride on the line today when they match boxing skills that must have been eroded by time and inactivity.

“This is a fight that I have always desired,” Leonard said. “This is a fight that gets me up in the morning.” “If this is my last fight, it will be my best,” Hagler said. “All I learned in boxing will come out tonight.” But some people, Leonard included, think Hagler, who turned pro in 1973 and has had 66 fights, has begun to slip. As evidence, they point to his eleventh-round knockout of John "The Beast” Mugabi in which the middleweight champion was hit with a lot of solid shots. “He has been sitting on the other side of the ring and thinking he has the tools to do it,” said Hagler, who will be 33 on May 23. “I wouldn’t want to fight me if I was off for two-and-a-half years.” Leonard’s last fight was a ninth-round knockout of a journeyman, Kevin Howard, on May 11, 1984. He was knocked down in the fourth round and retired for the second time immediately after the

fight. “There was no reason for Kevin Howard,” said Leonard, who turns 31 on

May 17. Since 1981 Leonard has scored a third-round knockout over Bruce Finch, on February 15, 1982, in a welterweight title defence and then defeated Howard. Since 1981 Hagler has fought nine times for 58 rounds. “I think Leonard should have had a couple of fights first to get down his timing and all that,” said

Emile Griffith, who in 1966 became the last welterweight champion to win the middleweight title. “But I think he was afraid he would lose.” A veteran trainer, Eddie Futch, who favours Hagler, said: “It is difficult coming up to the middleweight division from a lower weight and fighting a first-class opponent the first time. I don’t think it will go the distance.” Hagler expects Leonard to be a different fighter today than he was against Howard. “Every time a fighter fights me they get in the best shape of their life,” Hagler said. “I anticipate he will look like the old Leonard for (all) the rounds he can. But there will be a loophole, and I will find it.” Some people wonder if Hagler might not show too much respect to Leonard, as many felt he did when he beat Roberto Duran on a 15-round decision on November 10, 1983. "Leonard is not anybody’s god,” Hagler said. “He has got two arms. He gets tired like anybody

else.” “I have to have stamina,” Leonard said. He began working to attain it

even before he issued his challenge to Hagler last May. Leonard looks like a middleweight. He has thickened in the arms and through the chest and thighs. Could those changes be cosmetic, as was the case when a trim-looking Muhammad Ali was battered by Larry Holmes? “I know I punch pretty

good,” Leonard said. “My body shots are effective. To say I punch like a middleweight, I don’t know. I don’t know what a middleweight punches like.”

One who feels Leonard does not punch like a middleweight is Hagler’s co-manager, Pat Petronelli, who also doubts Leonard can take a middleweight’s punch.

"Leonard can make one mistake and it can be over,” Petronelli said. “Marvin can make a dozen mistakes and he will still be looking at Leonard.” Almost everyone agrees that Leonard must try to outbox the left-handed Hagler. For his part, Hagler will be applying pressure, although few believe he will charge from his corner as he did when he overwhelmed Thomas Hearns in three rounds at Las Vegas on April 15, 1985.

“Leonard is going to box, try to steal a round, make it go 12 rounds,” said Goody Petronelli, Hagler’s other manager and trainer.

“He is not going to go toe to toe with Marvin.”

Hagler has worked hard at cutting off the ring, but sticking and moving does not seem to be in Leonard’s plans. “If you stand toe to toe with him, he will wing with you,” Leonard said. “The key to fighting him is to present a distorted picture, not to run. Upper body movement takes Hagler away, breaks up his concentration.”

The bout will be shown live today on Television One, starting at 2.45 p.m.