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Marvelous Marvin Hagler thinks not fighting Pacquiao will hurt Mayweather’s legacy

Marvelous Marvin Hagler flew to Malaysia as a guest of the Laureus World Sports Awards to be held Wednesday evening there. The 59-year-old former undisputed and unified middleweight champion of the world was there to promote education through sports.

Hagler also spent time talking to the media about the current landscape of boxing.

“I see from the outside and watch it. It’s much better. I know what it feels like. I had the black eyes and the busted lips and the injured ribs,” he said. “When I see someone else get pounded around, I’m just so glad it’s not me.”

Hagler retired in 1987 after losing via split decision against Sugar Ray Leonard. To this day, the New Jersey native still thinks he should have won that fight. Physically, he could have continued his career after the loss but he refused to come back to the ring as protest.

“There’s a lot of good fighters out there but they’re all young. They’re still growing,” Hagler said. “There are different countries that have good fighters. Germany, France, and England all have good fighters. America, we’re kind of slow. Italy is looking pretty good.”

Hagler finished his career with 62 wins against only three losses and two draws. He knocked out 52 of his opponents and he holds wins against fellow legends Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran. In those times, boxers were larger than life characters. They weren’t earning as much as they are today but they were highly respected.

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“I don’t think we’ll find another superstar soon,” Hagler lamented. “Maybe in another ten years but ultimately we will because boxing will never die.”

Asked why the fighters then are different from the fighters now, Hagler explained that it’s all about hunger.

“I believe that even though the fighters now are not as great as the fighters back in the 70s, they work just as hard, they put in their time,” he said. “Now the whole thing is that there’s more money now. That changed the sport because these guys are not as hungry as before.”

“And now the fighters are not dictated to fight the best challengers because they can make good money fighting other guys.”

He then talked about Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao to drive home his point.
“Back then you had to fight the number 1 contender regardless of who it was. When I was the undisputed champion, I had three challengers at any given time. When I was done with the mandatory challenger with the WBC, I move to the WBA, then the IBF,” Hagler pointed out. “Today they can fight the number 6 or the number 8 guy.”

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Mayweather is scheduled to fight Marcos Maidana in May. The Argentinean holds the WBA welterweight title but he is only ranked ninth in the division by Ring Magazine.

“Mayweather is going to retire after a couple of more fights because there’s nobody out there,” Hagler said. “Mayweather-Pacquiao won’t have the interest it had before. Maybe they would have pulled in a hundred million dollars but that’s gone now.”



Hagler however added that Mayweather owes it to himself to fight Pacquiao.

“If he retires and he does not give Pacquiao his shot, there will always be a conversation that maybe he was afraid of him,” Hagler said. “I believe that the best way is to fight the top. The way my career led me, [I had to] fight the best. This way you feel good about yourself.”