Marvelous Marvin Hagler hopes Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather can wage ‘War’

Abu Dhabi: It’s been billed in hyperbolic terms typical as boxing’s ‘Fight of the Century’ — but will Floyd Mayweather’s feverishly anticipated welterweight showdown with Manny Pacquiao in Las Vegas on May 2 live up to the hype?

Will it be an era-defining clash like Muhammad Ali’s ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ victory over George Foreman in Africa in 1974, or Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s three-round world middleweight destruction of Thomas ‘Hitman’ Hearns, which happened 30 years ago this month?

Hagler hopes so, but says this will only happen if both Pacquiao and Mayweather exhibit the same animalistic lust for combat as that witnessed in his savage eight-minute victory over Hearns, which has been dubbed ‘The War’.

“It takes two to tango,” he told media in Shanghai, China, at last week’s Laureus World Sports Awards. “That’s what brings the best out in fighters.

“If Pacquiao can bring the best out in Mayweather, it should be a great fight. I hate seeing heavyweights lying on the ropes or whatever. I don’t like a boring fight.

“It takes two to make a great fight. Tommy came to fight. I look at the great wars of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

“Those are the types of fights that can bring back boxing.”

Whether next weekend’s bout can match one of the most brutal fights ever appears unlikely, however. Most pundits believe that Mayweather will employ his famed defensive skills and movement to neutralise the indefatigable Pacquiao’s relentless attacking.

Hagler and Hearns, meanwhile, were of the same bloodthirsty mentality: unleash fists of fury and pray that you were the last man standing.

“He told me he would knock my bald head off,” Hagler, 60, said. “My motto was: Destruction and destroy.”

Hagler had defended his world middleweight title 10 times before fighting Hearns, a world champion at welterweight and light-middleweight.

Their fight — much like Mayweather and Pacquiao’s now — was viewed as crucial by the boxing fraternity in resuscitating a struggling sport, which had attracted vociferous calls for its abolishment over safety fears and which had been floored by the retirement of Ali.

Thankfully Hagler and Hearns arrived, along with Sugar Ray Leonard and Roberto ‘Hands of Stone’ Duran, to create a new and golden era of sustained pugilistic brilliance not seen since.

The so-called ‘Four Kings’ of boxing fought each other nine times between 1980 and 1989, plundering a total of 16 world titles between them across eight divisions.

But arguably the most memorable skirmish between the esteemed quartet came just over 30 years ago on April 15, 1985, at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.

In the pre-fight build-up, Hagler wore a baseball cap with ‘WAR’ on it, and said ‘I have the feeling I needed to kill somebody to get noticed’.

Similarly pugnacious, Hearns’ trainer, the late Emmanuel Steward, warned: “Tommy comes into the ring like a leopard let loose to feed.”

These were no idle deeds or boasts, either — as Hagler and Hearns walked the walk in the ring as vehemently as they had talked the talk.

YouTube videos bear testimony to the astonishingly fearless and bludgeoning approach of both men, who traded venomous blows from the first bell and refused to look for respite on the ropes or in each other’s arms.

“Half a minute to go in round one, how far can this one go?” exclaimed the American television commentator Al Michaels as the bull-like Hagler and the leaner and more gangly Hearns tore into each other.

Eventually, however, Hagler’s greater power at middleweight would prevail in round three — albeit only after he was examined by a ringside medic as his badly cut-up face gruesomely displayed the damage inflicted by Hearns’ withering onslaughts.

A devastating left hook was followed by a right, leaving Hearns dazed and dizzy and Hagler went in for the kill, toppling his rival with two more emphatic rights.

“The way I look at that fight, every time I see it I still get chills up and down my spine,” Hagler, who would fight twice more and lose his middleweight crown to Leonard in 1987, said.

“When I look at it, I’m glad it’s over. It was an exciting fight and the highlight of my career.”

How would Hagler tackle the unbeaten Mayweather, whose near-impenetrable defence and elusiveness may be impressive but ‘can send you to sleep’?

He replied: “If I was fighting Mayweather, I would do the same thing I did with Tommy Hearns and put the pressure on him right from the start. Basically not giving him time to think.”

Does he think Pacquiao will come out swinging from the outset as Hagler and Hearns did so spectacularly?

“With all the money involved in this fight, you would think he [Mayweather] would try to stay safe and try to go the distance and wait and see how Manny takes the boxing,” he said. “I don’t think Manny can out-box him, so he has got to come to him and he knows that.”

Uncertainty and intrigue surround the $300 million fight, given that one brilliant punch or momentary lapse in concentration could prove decisive and put paid to the most trusted of tactics.

The highly skilled Mayweather has arguably never been truly challenged, while Pacquiao’s all-action style has been punished with five defeats.

Hagler said: “He [Mayweather] really hasn’t been tested yet. I’m not a person to say who I will pick [to win] because fighters are the worst ones to make decisions because they will pick that guy and feel they know how they should be and how he should win, but then suppose this guy catches a lucky punch.

“Nobody has really put Floyd to the test. There has been only one person really caught him before and Floyd was able to shake it off and then come back by out-boxing him and outmanoeuvring him with his head.”

Pacquiao-Mayweather promises much, but their contrasting styles mean another ‘War’ of Hagler-Hearns’ visceral nature is improbable.

Instead, a cagey and cerebral affair is on the cards, Hagler believes.

He said: “This could be a chess game so they are playing games, so you never know what can happen here. Mayweather is a very crafty, slick, intelligent type of fighter.

“Pacquiao has been stopped before, so it all depends if he can get that shot.”