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The best three minutes in boxing?
Marvin Hagler (right) versus Thomas Hearns
Photo:
AP
There are boxing matches that only develop their fascination slowly and in the course of the fight.
When the two athletes in the ring first feel each other, assess, wait and dance around their opponent, looking for the first weakness.
And there is the first round of Marvin Hagler against Thomas Hearns.
It's April 15, 1985, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where else. This legendary hotel, modeled after ancient Rome with columns, capitals and coliseum in the cotton candy style of the gambling town, has seen so many boxing dramas.
Ali, Holmes, Tyson, Klitschko, Foreman, Holyfield, they were all the gladiators who performed here.
But this evening, this opening round, it is unique.
At this point in time, Hagler is at the zenith of his skills, he has not lost in nine years, is world champion of the WBC, WBA and IBF middleweight championships.
His last fight, which he did not win, was against the Italian Vito Antuofermo in 1979, which was not a defeat either, but a draw after an extremely controversial judge's decision.
Hagler died on Saturday in New Hampshire at the age of only 66.
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Marvin Hagler (right) against Roberto Duran in 1983
Photo: AP
After the Antuofermo fight, Hagler punched away everything that came into the ring.
The man with the striking bald head is the star in world boxing in the mid-1980s, alongside Sugar Ray Leonard and Larry Holmes.
Ali has quit, Tyson and Holyfield are just switching to the professional camp.
The heavyweight division has its small dent, the world is looking at the middleweight division, suddenly here they are, the charismatic boxers: Hagler, Leonard and Thomas Hearns.
Hearns, tall, an elegant guy, very different from the wild Hagler, who rose from the light middleweight division, has an impressive record to show.
He has won 40 out of 41 fights, 34 of which by knockout.
He is a serious challenger, Hagler knows that very well.
His plan: attack the opponent from the very first second, hit him with blows in order to demoralize him from the start.
His only problem: Hearns has the same plan.
And so the two boxers hit each other after the first gong like two madmen, never has the image of the flying fists fit as in the first three minutes of this fight.
Both beat incessantly, not a moment to rest, not a moment to take back.
Brutal certainly, but it's not a fight, both are too well trained for that, even in the breathlessness of hitting each other you can see the quality of the two fighters, you can guess why Hagler called himself "Marvelous", fantastic, wonderful .
He'll even have the name entered on his passport later.
These three minutes, the first round Hagler against Hearns, are then named "Round of the Year", the fight becomes the "Fight of the Year," and to this day the confrontation is considered the best fight ever in the middleweight division.
The fight only lasts three rounds, eight minutes to be precise: After Hagler and Hearns continued to hit each other obsessively and incessantly in the second round, both fighters are already badly marked.
Hagler has a bleeding wound over his forehead, Hearns broke his slap hand, as he himself stated afterwards.
Hagler knows that he has to do something very quickly, otherwise the referee will take him out of the ring.
So he sends out the right one again, he catches Hearns in the head, his legs go weak, Hagler does not let up, he realizes that now is his big chance, he lands two more hits, Hearns goes down, Hagler cheers, the Fight is over.
The boxing historians give it the name "The War".
You don't have to translate that.
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Sports legends among themselves: Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard
Photo:
STR New / REUTERS
It is the culmination of Hagler's boxing career - which only lasted two years after that.
On April 6, 1987, Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard meet, the promoters have given the fight the title "The Super Fight" in advance.
Leonard is at least as much a superstar as Hagler, unlike Hagler, he's a public darling, but he hasn't fought in years.
In order to win him over for a comeback, he was allowed to choose the type of glove, and the ring was enlarged at Leonard's request.
Conditions that Hagler cannot cope with very well.
This time it's the full distance, and at the end of the twelve laps two of the three judges see Leonard in front.
Another judgment that upset the minds, many experts consider Hagler to be the winner, but that is of no use to him.
He's losing the world title.
He will never get into the boxing ring again.
From the ring to the film set
Ten years later, Marvelous Marvin Hagler reappears in public, he plays in "Two Fists for Miami" with Terence Hill.
The lexicon of the international film grumbles: "A cheap film that focuses on a certain audience potential due to the fashionable topic of virtual reality, countless fights and the alleged star Terence Hill, but at no time can it prove its right to exist."
It was certainly not because of the film review that Hagler later complained: "I never got the recognition I deserve from others." In fact, he never has the fame of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard or Joe Frazier, either of a Rocky Marciano achieved.
Nevertheless, he is one of the greats of his sport, the first round against Hearns has become a document of boxing history.
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Marvin Hagler (center) in 2001 with former South African President Nelson Mandela, who died in 2013, and former boxing champion Lennox Lewis
Photo: Juda Ngwenya / REUTERS
Marvin Hagler was only 66 years old, on Saturday he died "unexpectedly" in his house in New Hampshire, as his family reported.
Another one has died from the great days of boxing, when this sport was still fascinating, magnetic, wonderful for so many.
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