Marvelous

Marvin Hagler has perhaps never been so all out fucking terrifyingly marvelous as he was on this date 26 years ago. That was the night that he pulverized Alan Minter in London and finally won the middleweight title he so coveted. It was a crown he would not relinquish until Ray Leonard showboated him to death seven years later.

The Minter fight is one of two key fights central to the Hagler mystique as disrespected and disgruntled outsider. The first took place in November of 1979, against then middleweight champ Vito Antuofermo. Under the guidance of the stubborn Petronelli brothers, Hagler had labored for years without a title shot, and when he finally got it, he was robbed by the judges. After pummeling Antuofermo for 15 rounds, the fight was ruled a draw, a result that so disgusted one of the judges that he threw an all-out temper tantrum afterwards. (That’s a post-Hagler-bout Vito on the right, bad moustache and all – I always liked him – a real goombah’s goombah).

Not surprisingly after the beating that Marvelous had given him, Vito lost his very next bout, to British journeyman Alan Minter. Minter then won a rematch with Antuofermo in the summer of 1980, which would turn out to be his only title defense.

On September 27th, he fought Hagler, the mandatory WBC challenger. The atmosphere in Wembley was ugly. Before the fight, Minter, not a bad chap really, had thoughtlessly said that he would never let a black man take his title, a remark he quickly recanted. But the Thatcher-era hooligans loved the racial tinge it brought to the event – skinheads and National Front gobs showed up at Wembley in droves.

They were treated to the sight of their lad getting the piss knocked out of him. Minter simply didn’t belong in the same ring as Marvelous. He was cut in the first round, wobbled in the second, and nearly murdered in the third, at which point the fight was mercifully stopped. Hagler fell to his knees in triumph, weeping with joy. And then the riot began, as the ring was pelted with bottles and debris. Shit got completely out of control – Marvelous was led out of the ring with his handlers covering his bald head with their hands. (Minter, quite the hilariously oblivious Cockney, was so brain-dead he didn’t even know there was a riot until they told him about it in the locker room – “are they after me?” he asked. No, Alan, no mate - you've had enough for one night)

For years afterwards, Hagler would speak of that fight with acid in his voice, the fight where he’d finally won his title and the racist bastards didn’t even let him celebrate what he’d done. Marvin always thought the whole world was out to get him. And that was one night when he was pretty much right about that.