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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1987)
1 Tuesday, April 7, 1987/The Battalion/Page 7 1l I m j Sports Leonard strips Hagler of crown ugar Ray scores controversial split decision LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Sugar ay Leonard returned to the ring in Ipectacular fashion after a three- ear layoff and upset Marvelous tfarvin Hagler Monday night to be- :ome middleweight champion. Leonard won the 12-round bout (m a split decision to become box ing’s 10th triple champion. I Leonard circled and impressed Budges with flurries in the late founds in one of the great comeback "lories in boxing history, although jme thought the aggressive Hagler ad an edge. Judge Lou Filippo scored it 115- |13 for Hagler while judge Dave :tti saw it 115-113 and Jo Jo juerra had it 118-110, both for .eonard. The Associated Press favored agler, 117-112. “I see myself taking him out,” .eonard said of a dream he had in ^ie days before the fight. Leonard ouldn’t take him out, but he did hat the oddsmakers gave him little hance to do. Hagler, losing for the first time in 8 fights, dating to 1976, was a 2 , /2-l ■avorite. T “He, to me, is still the champion,” the jubilant Leonard said in the ridg after the fight as a sellout throng of 15,366 in an outdoor arena at Cae sars Palace cheered him on. The only belt Leonard will get is the World Boxing Council belt. The International Boxing Federation didn’t sanction the fight and will de clare the title vacant. The World Boxing Association has stripped Hagler of the title. Leonard, fighting for only the sec ond time since his last undisputed welterweight title fight in Feb. 1982, came out circling and made Hagler miss badly in the first four rounds. Then in the fifth, Hagler landed some head shots and hurt Leonard with a left to the head. Throughout the fight, the stalk ing Hagler seemed to land the harder shots. But Leonard, looking very tired from the sixth through 10th rounds, never quit fighting, landing several combinations al though they seemed to lack sting. In the 11th round, Leonard went flat-footed and outpunched Hagler with several flurries to the head, fol lowed with a beautiful hook to the body and a hook to the head. Throughout the fight, Hagler trapped Leonard on the ropes, only to have Leonard flurry to get free. Both men went at it toe-to-toe in the final round and on a couple of occasions Leonard circled his hand in the air to lead cheers for himself. Hagler hurt Leonard with a left to the head, but then the bell sounded. “I beat him,” Hagler said. “I beat him, and he knows it. “I told you about Vegas. They stole it. I stayed aggressive, and I won the fight.” “I made a comeback that was the greatest accomplishment of my life,” Leonard said. “It was an impossible task. I prepared myself for one year, so it was a case of a young guy com ing back against a young guy.” Their ages weren’t really in ques tion, The questions coming in were whether Leonard could overcome inactivity and if Hagler had slipped badly. Many observers felt Hagler had showed signs of slowing down dur ing his 1 Ith-round victory over John Mugabi on March 19, 1986 in Las Vegas. Another question was Leonard’s eyes. He had retinal surgery on the left eye in 1982 and a surgical proce dure on the right in 1984. The eyes were never a factor Monday night. After the fight, Leonard indicated he might fight again. “It depends on the contract,” he said. The victory gave Leonard a 34-1 record with 24 knockouts as he be came the seventh welterweight or former welterweight champion to win the middleweight tile. One of the first six was Leonard’s namesake, Sugar Ray Robinson. Sugar proved sweet in outing with Hagler K\r\Q, Arum engage in scuffle after Leonard-Hagler bout LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Ri val promoters Don King and Bob Arum engaged in a pushing and shoving match at the end of the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvelous Marvin Hagler middleweight title fight Monday night. With the ring crowded and the fans waiting for the decision, King moved along press row ges turing and shouting, “I told you, 1 told you,” and headed for Leon ard’s corner. Arum, who promoted the fight, caught King from behind as his long-time rival started up the steps to the ring. He tugged at the jacket of King’s tuxedo, tearing a pocket, and succeeding in getting King back down the steps. Security guards separated the two and no punches were thrown. Arum seemed composed after the scuffle. “That man had nothing to do with this fight,” he said. “There was no way he belonged in the ring. “I asked security to remove him. I’m not getting down on that man’s level.” Leonard’s eye unscathed LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Pro moter Bob Arum had insisted all last week that Ray Leonard’s damaged left eye was “a non-issue” in his mid- delweight championship fight against Marvelous Marvin Hagler Monday night. He turned out to be right. Hagler did not make the eye a prime target as he stalked Leonard around the ring throughout the 12 rounds. He hit the eye for the first time in the second round, but Leon ard showed no particular reaction. The eye, which underwent correc tive surgery for a detached retina in 1982, prompting Leonard’s retire ment from the ring, was unmarked at the end of the fight. It underwent its stiffest test in the fifth round, when Hagler tagged it at least three times. Leonard never blinked, though, dancing his way out of trouble. In the ninth round, Hagler backed Leonard into a corner and punished him with combinations, a number of them connecting with Ray’s left eye. Again, there was no apparent damage. Leonard had undergone exten sive examinations by ophthalmolog ists in the months before Monday night’s title fight. Dr. Louis Angio- letti, director of the retinal evalua tion center at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, gave Leonard a clean bill of health on the eve of the fight. By Hal L. Hammons Sports Writer Angelo Dundee, Sugar Ray Leonard’s manager, said Ray would do it. Angelo was outspoken. Angelo was confident. Angelo was lonely. Angelo was right, - Sugar was sweet. Marvelous was not. And Monday night found Ray Leonard on top of the Viewpoint middle- weight divi sion. And on top of the world. Standing on top of Marvelous Marvin Hagler. And now self-proclaimed sports experts across boxing fan dom will have claimed to have seen it coming. Right. Ask them what they did with all the' loot they took home from Vegas. And Hagler supporters will scream “robbery!” as long as they have their breath. Let them. Smile. And score one for the un derdog. Whether or not the victory was earned is immaterial. The point is the boxing world failed to see anything but a media-hyped event that would end in disaster for an overmatched Leonard. Surprise, surprise. This one lived up to the hype. In all the hoopla over what round Hagler would take Sugar out, people forgot some big facts. Leonard is the fastest fighter and the best boxer Hagler has ever faced. Maybe the best in the world since the heyday of Mu hammad Ali. And, as fans may have over looked, he is one of the hardest hitters in recent memory in any of the lower divisions. Of course, Thomas Hearns will probably go down in history as the one who couldn’t win The Big One. His fight with Leonard was a classic, but Ray’s speed in the early rounds, coupled with his stamina and power toward the end, proved too much for Hearns. In Hearns’ Superfight II with Hagler, Hearns looked strong and hit Hagler well, but suc- combed to a Hagler onslaught in the third. The fight was marred by an injury Hearns said he sus tained early in the fight. No tell ing what would have happened if Hearns had kept punching. Common Opponent Compari son I — draw. The real comparison centers around Roberto Duran. Discount the first Duran-Leonard matchup on account of a combination of Leonard’s youth, enthusiasm and stupidity. In the second fight, Leonard fought the way he fights best; and he embarrassed Duran severely. In the Duran-Hagler fight, Du ran was at the peak of his comeback. And he gave Hagler the fight of his life and made him look bad. Hagler won by a nose. And remember this is the Du ran that turned to Ray, at ring side during that fight, and told him there was no way Hagler could beat him. That was the fight that formed Dundee’s strat egy to combat Hagler. Common Opponent Compari son II — big edge, Leonard. Everybody wondered, could Leonard carry the extra weight, more than he ever has in his ca reer? Could he shake off the ring rust of five years with only one fight? Could he show the same speed of hand and foot that made him a legend? And could he muster enough confidence to face Hagler, per haps the best middleweight of all time, after a mediocre showing against a mediocre opponent in his previous comeback attempt? Everybody knew the answer to all of those questions would be discovered in the last two or three rounds if Leonard could stay al ive that long. He did, and he shined. Give Yourself The Graduation Present You Deserve Today! With no payments for 90 days Quality Pontiac-Buick-GMC Trucks and Subaru is offering guaranteed financing for graduating Aggies and graduate students. With your proof of employment and good credit or no credit, we'll finance your purchase for up to 60 months through GMAC. With no payment due for 90 days. With as little as 5% down. You've worked hard for your degree so give yourself the present you deserve. We have a special shipment of cars Just for this very special event, Gary Congratulations! Stevenson’s QUALITY Pontiac • Bulck • GMC • Subaru 601 S. 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