WHEN it comes to the most enduring of debates over controversies that litter the history of sports, the argument over the righteous victor when Sugar Ray Leonard fought Marvellous Marvin Hagler remains up there.

The fight unfolded on April 6 1987 at the Caesar’s Palace Outdoor Arena in Las Vegas. It pitted a two-years-retired Sugar Ray against a Hagler who hadn’t tasted defeat in eleven long years. Thus the stage seemed set for Leonard’s annihilation.

But then boxing is a sport in which logic exists to be defied and in which the impossible is often rendered possible under the lights. And it was precisely this idea of the possible that occupied Leonard’s mind as he sat ringside a year prior and watched Hagler struggle against a durable but limited John “The Beast” Mugabi, before stopping him in the 11th round.

Leonard came away from the Mugabi fight convinced that he could come out of retirement and overcome Hagler, sure that he’d detected evidence of decline in a man who carried with him into the ring an aura of menace that oftentimes succeeded in defeating his opponents before a single punch was thrown.

Both men were a study in contrast: Leonard catapulted into the limelight and lavished with lucrative endorsement and sponsorship deals upon turning pro after his illustrious gold medal victory at the 1976 Montreal Olympics: Hagler forced to slug his way up from the very bottom at small hall shows in front of unforgiving crowds for derisory purses, while working a full-time job hauling bricks on construction sites for the company owned by his managers and trainers, the famed Petronelli brothers.

It was the boxing equivalence of the romantic vs the puritan, the artist vs the artisan, fuelling a rivalry that was as fierce as it was bitter.

The hype generated in the lead-up to the fight reflected the stakes. Hagler, whose resentment over Leonard’s popularity and status as the darling of the sport cut deep, was determined to put things right by knocking out boxing’s once golden boy. In this he had just reason to feel confident. This was a fighter who’d knocked out 52 of his 66 opponents and had maintained that all-important momentum, viewed as crucial to a champion’s reign. In this he was not alone. 

The smart money felt that Leonard, given his decidedly lacklustre performance outing against Kevin Howard three years previously, would be no match for Hagler’s relentless pressure and intensity, and that he would fall.

Leonard was no fool; he knew he was taking a gamble. Almost alone in believing he could overcome his toughest test of his career and defeat Hagler, he understood that his would have to be a near punch-perfect performance on the night. 

This is when Quincy Taylor entered proceedings.

Angelo Dundee, Leonard’s trainer — and former trainer of Muhammad Ali — had by now established a vast network of contacts in gyms all across America. It was through those contacts that he was made aware of Taylor’s fit as an ideal chief sparring partner to help Leonard get ready to face Hagler. Despite only having three professional contests to his name by this point, Taylor was a southpaw with an aggressive come-forward style.

Dundee’s decision to hire Taylor proved an act of genius, as history was to prove.

Here’s Leonard: “He [Taylor] hit me so hard [in sparring], I was out cold. I played it off so no-one would know. But I was out. The thing about it was I was going to slug with Hagler. I knew my hands were faster, and he had a lot of scar tissue. I was really dominating all of my sparring partners. But that punch woke me up. Thank God for Quincy Taylor.”

As part of his preparations, considering that he’d been out of the ring for so long, Leonard had tested himself in a couple of real fights behind closed doors — complete with regulation gloves, referee, and no headgear — to try and get rid of any ring rust. It was Quincy Taylor who made him change his gameplan from standing toe to toe with Hagler, to boxing him. It was a shift that saw him achieve the impossible and defeat Marvellous Marvin Hagler on points by split decision.  

Hagler v Leonard was at the time the richest fight in boxing history, with Hagler receiving $12 million (£9.6m) and Leonard $1m (£8.8m). 

Hagler’s camp had been so confident before the fight that in exchange for the larger purse, they let Leonard adviser Mike Trainer dictate a large 24 x 24 ring, 12-ounce gloves rather than 8 or 10-ounce, and a shorter 12-round distance, instead of the traditional 15 rounds. All of the above favoured Leonard.

“The whole idea is that the Hagler camp was so confident that their guy would win, so basically their thought was to give them anything they wanted,” said Leonard publicist Charlie Brotman “The size of the gloves, the size of ring; it didn’t matter. They didn’t care. They thought Hagler was going to beat the crap out of that little kid.”

They miscalculated.

Hagler remained bitter about the split decision defeat to Leonard ever after. He never fought again and turned his back on the sport for many years. However, despite the loss his status as a legend was never in doubt. His death at age 66 on March 13 2023 served to remind the world that even a man who bestrode the sport of boxing like a colossus was mortal in the end.

Sugar Ray went on to fight a further five times, finally retiring in 1997 after losing to Hector Camacho in his second defeat on the bounce. It was a sad end to a glittering career. But no matter, for as with Marvin Hagler, his legacy as a legend of the sport remains secure.

Years later, Leonard told a reporter, almost with the regret of a man looking back at the entire contents of a life and legacy distilled into just one night: “Someone comes up to me and says, ‘The Hagler fight. Great fight, man, great fight.’ “I hear it every day of my life. And every now and then, I hear, ‘Ray, you know, you didn’t win that fight, man.’

Perhaps, in the end, it was boxing itself that won.