Hagler Won’t Retire, Will Fight Leonard Next March

Marvelous Marvin Hagler discarded retirement plans Monday when it was announced that he will fight Sugar Ray Leonard in a middleweight championship showdown that could yield record purses for both boxers.

Hagler ended the suspense when his co-manager, Pat Petronelli, announced a March 1987 fight against Leonard to be promoted by Top Rank, Inc. The site and exact date were not announced.

Hagler, who was reportedly at his summer home in Bartlett, N.H., was unavailable for comment.

If the long-awaited fight comes off, the gross could challenge the 1982 Larry Holmes-Gerry Cooney heavyweight title bout, which reportedly paid each fighter $10 million.

“This will absolutely be a record purse for each boxer,” promoter Bob Arum said.

Arum said he did not have a contract with Leonard.

“Now, we will make an agreement with Ray,” he said. “We’ll be fair. You deal with the champion first, and we have an agreement with Marvin.”

Mike Trainer, Leonard’s attorney, told WRC-TV in Washington: “We don’t have a contract, we haven’t agreed on anything. We haven’t even spoken to (Petronelli) out of courtesy because of Marvin’s problems making up his mind.

“We haven’t (talked to) anybody. I’ve said, ‘Pat, I’ll wait to hear from you.’ As of now, I haven’t heard from Pat yet.”

Trainer said he would have no problem with such a bout between Leonard and Hagler.

“Pat’s a man of his word. If he says he will call me, he’ll call me. If he wants to get the fight going, to get an agreement together--great, let’s go do it. I’m ready whenever (he is),” Trainer said.

Hagler, listed as 32 years old, has been fighting professionally since 1973 and has been contemplating retirement lately, largely because of pressure from his wife, Bertha.

“He and Bertha came to a conclusion, and Marvin is going on,” Arum said. “It’s exciting.”

Hagler has been middleweight champion since knocking out Alan Minter in September 1980 and has defended that title 12 times--two short of the division record held by Carlos Monzon. Hagler’s most recent defense came last March in Las Vegas with an 11th-round knockout of John Mugabi.

Throughout, however, Hagler has hungered for the big payday that a fight with Leonard could provide. They often have seemed headed for such a showdown, only to have other factors interfere.

Leonard, one of the heroes of the 1976 Olympics, knocked out Wilfred Benitez to win the welterweight title in November 1979. He lost the crown to Roberto Duran seven months later before regaining it in the controversial “No Mas” fight in November 1980.

There were four more fights, one in which Leonard won the junior middleweight title from Ayub Kalule, as he seemingly moved inexorably toward the 160-pound division to challenge Hagler. Then, quite suddenly, the planned showdown was scrapped when Leonard underwent surgery for a detached retina in his left eye on May 9, 1982.

Exactly six months later, with Hagler present in a theatrical setting that included six former champions and entertainer Wayne Newton, Leonard emotionally announced his retirement from the ring, saying, “The feeling is gone. I will not come back. That’s it.”

Leonard stayed away for 27 months. On May 11, 1984, again with Hagler at ringside, Leonard faced unheralded Kevin Howard in a 10-round fight at Worcester, Mass. Howard knocked the ex-champion down, but Leonard recovered for a ninth-round knockout that put his career record at 33-1. After the fight, disappointed with his performance, he once again announced his retirement.

Last May, just before his 30th birthday, Leonard began talking of a comeback again, but only against Hagler. He said he had seen something that convinced him he could beat the champion. However, it seemed Hagler might not make the date.

Hagler talked of retirement and said he thought that with Leonard idle for more than two years, the ex-welterweight champion ought to fight a ranked opponent before getting a shot at the middleweight title. When it became obvious that Leonard was interested only in fighting Hagler, he agreed.

According to Petronelli, the decision to fight Leonard was made because “in 20 years time, Hagler did not want fight fans who were evaluating his accomplishments as champion, to say he ever ducked any challenger, particularly Sugar Ray Leonard.

“He felt right along that Sugar Ray Leonard didn’t deserve the shot, that he was taking a shortcut,” Petronelli said. “He wanted to fight him, but he’d rather have him earn his way to it.”

If they do fight in March, the bout would be Leonard’s first in 34 months and only his second fight in more than five years.