Sugar Ray Leonard, five-division world champion, has waged wars, epic wars with the likes of Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Donny Lalonde. Yet when Leonard thinks back on his Hall of Fame career, one fight, one beautifully brutal battle, stands out.
“Marvin Hagler,” Leonard told Sports Illustrated in a phone interview. “That was the closest I have come to death.”
For a boxer, compliments don’t get much better.
Hagler died on Saturday, his wife, Kay, announcing Hagler’s passing on Facebook. He was 66. Born in Newark, N.J., in 1954, Hagler’s family moved to Brockton, Mass.