In 1987, Sugar Ray Leonard was a retired young fighter who left a big mark in boxing with his wins against Wilfred Benitez, Roberto Duran and Thomas Hearns, but who was 3 years away from his best shape (apart of being a damaged fighter- he has retina and, yes, cocaine problems). Marvelous Marvin Hagler was, in the other hand, a powerful, scary looking man that had held the World Middleweight Championship steadily since 1980, beating the crap of most of his challengers in the process.
When it was announced that Leonard was coming out of retirement and, apart of that, moving up in weight to challenge Marvin Hagler for the Middleweight crown, people thought he was nuts. Did he still have the legs, the speed, the skills to even make it to the 12th round against Marvelous? How could he think he could beat a man that many people saw as one of the baddest men in boxing? Was he nuts? After all, Leonard struggled to beat Tommy Hearns in 14. Marvelous pulverized the man in 3...
Hagler took the fight expecting to win quite easily. He suspected the smaller man had nothing left in the tank, and that he couldn't handle the pressure he was going to put on him. His plan was simple- overpower Leonard, corner him, work that body on the ropes until he crumbles. No science. No plan B- just go there, KO Leonard as expected, cash the check and retire. After all, he was Marvelous Marvin Hagler- the best middleweight in the world. He couldn't lose to a smaller and washed up man in Sugar Ray.
However, Ray spend a lot of time getting ready for Marvin. He studied the old Marvelous well and realized he still had the youth, the speed and boxing skills necessary to outpoint the big favorite. He realized Marvin was just going to walk towards him and try to stop him as quickly as possible, and knew that Marvin was not going to like constant side to side movement- after all, Marv was in his mid 30s already and one could see that he was starting to slip a bit in the skills department. So, he came in with a plan- not to KO the champ, as he knew he probably was not going to, but to surprise him... and outpoint him.
And that's exactly what Sugar Ray Leonard did. In a surprisingly close and competitive match, he proved to Hagler that he was no fruitcake- he was ready to outwork and outsmart Hagler for 12 rounds. Hagler didn't give up any time- he kept bringing his pressure, his power, his toughness to Leonard non-stop. But Leonard was able to take it and dish it out. By the 9th round, one could sense Marvin was starting to get frustrated- he was realizing he wasn't, as a champion, expecting to be fighting such a close fight with Leonard and, worst of all, losing to him. In the end, a tired Leonard had done such a great job in the first and middle rounds of the fight, that he was able to coast to a close Split Decision win against Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
Hillary Clinton resembled the former middleweight champion- She came in as a big favorite, expected to crush the unprepared lightweight junior senator from Illinois in a couple of rounds- he was not supposed to be ready for her. Her team was NOT prepared for a long, tactical battle against a superbly skilled politician. By March 4th, we could sense the desperation starting to get the best of Hillary and her team. By then, she knew she had lost, but her resiliency kept her in the fight, managing to win clearly some of the last rounds against the challenger.
Barack Obama resembled Leonard- He came in as a huge underdog who knew that Hillary Clinton's campaign's biggest weakness was overconfidence. They sub-estimated him. They didn't "train" for a long, tactical boxing match- they trained for a 5 round brawl. After Barack won the first round (Iowa) and made out of round 5 alive and well (South Carolina), Hillary's corner, and Hillary herself, lost their focus and let the young challenger shine without being able to do anything about it. Once he had it in the bag, he did coast a bit in the end, but just to avoid any punishment and save energy for the battles ahead (McCain).
So, in other words- just like Leonard W12 (SD) Hagler, Obama W12 (SD) Hillary.
![]()
![]()
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
