THE SHOWDOWN : Five Years Too Late, Hagler and Leonard Meet to Decide What?

Sugar Ray Leonard’s decision to return to the ring, after a retirement that more or less spanned five years, is either a magnificent ambition or an awful arrogance. Here he is, choosing out the greatest fighter of our time, and securing the fight with little more credentials than a wink and a smile.

What’s gotten into the man, who was already damaged goods five years ago? What’s gotten into us, moreover? The public, apparently bewitched by that retinal-repaired wink and that industrial-strength smile, is likely to make tonight’s fight at Caesars Palace the richest, most widely seen in history.

Evidently the man had built up quite a reservoir of good will during his brilliant career as a welterweight.

Certainly, he has done nothing since then, in five years as a cummerbund-cinched celebrity, to suggest he is worthy of tonight’s challenge to Marvelous Marvin Hagler, the middleweight champion with 12 title defenses behind him, the bald eminence who is unbeaten and undaunted in nearly nine years. Leonard has not had so much as a tuneup bout. The challenge is made on the basis of a year’s conditioning and, one might say, a lifetime of hubris.

“In a way, it’s an insult to any athlete,” says Larry Merchant, who sat alongside Leonard behind HBO microphones during much of that retirement, “for Leonard to not only come back after that inactivity, but to come back and perform in a Super Bowl.”

The fight experts accord Leonard little chance, all noting this might have been a great competition five years ago, when their destinies first seemed to demand each other. But not now, with Leonard looking out of place in anything but a tuxedo.

“Leonard knows how to fight Hagler,” admits Eddie Futch, the renowned trainer, “but knowing what to do and how to do it is not enough. He has to be able to do it.”

Still, there is an attractive enough aspect to Leonard’s glorious effrontery. Unlike many comeback attempts, Leonard is not coming back for the money, although he has been guaranteed $11 million. Nor is he really even coming back. “This is not a comeback,” he assures. “This is one fight.” He is returning for Hagler only, in about the same way and with about the same chance that Capt. Ahab pursued a white whale. “I see this man when I go to bed, when I wake up, when I sleep,” he complains.

Leonard thus assigns a desperate nobility to his quest. Anyway, this fight was always ahead of him, somewhere. As Leonard proceeded from Olympic hero to welterweight champion, numbering respected titleholders Wilfred Benitez, Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran among his victims, he really proceeded directly to Hagler, the malevolent presence whose blue-collar style promised a fight of contrast and, possibly, greatness.

The logic of boxing, such as it is, demanded it. Leonard, who earned $50,000 for a main event in only his third go, while Hagler was fighting for $1,500 in his 36th fight on the undercard, was either destined or doomed to redress this terrible inequity. The match was inevitable.

But then Leonard suffered that eye injury in 1982, several months after he had unified the welterweight division with a knockout of Hearns in a brilliantly tactical fight. Leonard underwent retinal surgery and then lingered over whatever anticipation still remained. Finally, having invited Hagler to a gaudy gala during which the working champion sat stiffly in a tuxedo, Leonard turned to him and said, “That fight will never happen.”

Hagler was stunned and steamed, but still anxious enough for a match that he was hopeful when Leonard came back in 1984. But again Hagler was left holding the bag. The tuneup bout, with Kevin Howard, was so desultory that Leonard immediately announced yet another retirement.

Hagler, disappointed, managed to go on to consolidate his greatness. At first a man so anxious to have things on his own terms that he anticipated history by having the courts change his name to Marvelous, Hagler eventually became comfortable as those historians caught up with his career.

With Leonard ringside for many of the fights, Hagler waded through the contenders. Promoter Bob Arum, who is also presenting this fight at Caesars Palace, shrewdly maneuvered Hearns back into a role of prominence and matched the two fierce punchers. In what many call boxing’s most furious eight minutes, Hagler collapsed Hearns’ jab, drew him into a brawl and destroyed him.

Hagler’s reputation was assured, his anger banked. “Maybe now I’ll get some commercials,” he said, anticipating his acceptance.

He did get commercials, which seemed to redress the unfair amount of exposure Leonard had going into his career. The acclaim and money, though late in coming, were satisfying. And most satisfying of all, he had attained them not simply with his record--now 62-2-2--but as a performer, as powerful as Leonard in his charismatic prime. The glinting dome, the sheer force of his will transformed in a ring made him a formidable and attractive presence.

“Destruct and destroy” was his curious slogan. It was perfect.

But just as Hagler began to wind down the career--the motor home was being gassed for another cross-country family vacation, the sporting goods store in Brockton, Mass., began to enjoy increasing amounts of his attention--Leonard returned.

What drives Leonard back, even he can’t articulate. Vanity, for one. He looked in the mirror one day and didn’t like what he saw. The roar of the crowd no longer included him at ringside as it did in the ring. He missed that. Anyway, how can a guy retire at 26?

Also, Leonard began to believe he could beat Hagler. He watched Hagler struggle over 15 rounds with Duran; surely Leonard was quicker afoot than Duran, then well past his prime. Even Hagler’s razing of Hearns was encouraging to Leonard. Hearns had hurt the champion. Leonard could do that, and stay out of Hagler’s way.

The decision made, both fighters plunged themselves back into the environments that made them most comfortable. Hagler, with little effort, began to work up a healthy rage against Leonard, whom he imagined as a privileged, protected celebrity. Leonard, knowing he’d need more focus than he brought to the Howard fight, quickly added middleweight muscle and heavyweight concentration. He cut down his normal availability to the press, offering 10 minutes each Monday during his training camp.

Hagler, knowing that Leonard is a powerful persuader, refused to get into any kind of mind game with Leonard and, in fact, bolted the publicity train before Leonard’s blandishments became too dangerous to his psyche. Even the hefty percentage of the gross, which could push his $12-million guarantee as high as $30 million, was not incentive enough for Hagler to endure Leonard’s never-ending praise.

Leonard, meanwhile, had his own trial by publicity. Although Arum opened every press conference by saying, “The eye is not an issue,” it most assuredly remained one with everybody else. There was a feeling that the public felt betrayed by Leonard’s comeback. He had left for good reasons, endangered but nevertheless enriched by his sport. He had acquired fame and money, had retained his health. He had had it both ways. But then to endanger that eye . . . he was called on it whenever stopped. And he refused to answer, with a sullenness that grew unattractive.

Leonard himself is convinced he is in no danger of reinjuring the eye and has produced retina specialists to say as much. The other day, he brought in Dr. Robert Jeffrey Parker to proclaim the stability of the eye. The Nevada State Athletic Commission is satisfied with the results of the retinal probe--”nothing I’d want to get used to,” according to the weary Leonard--as are doctors who performed tests on behalf of Lloyd’s of London, the promoter’s insurer.

That aside, the buildup has proven phenomenal. Pay-per-view and closed-circuit sales, and the sale of next week’s broadcast by HBO, will contribute to a total pot of at least $60 million. More people will pay more than ever to see this fight. Presumably, the attraction is the contrast in styles, the gifted Leonard vs. the hard-scrabble Hagler. The element of mystery, carefully preserved by Leonard’s refusal to take a tuneup bout which might have let air out of the promotional balloon, also contributes to the wonder of the fight.

There are no lack of possible scenarios. Some see Leonard winning when Hagler, whose brows are thin scar tissue after 66 fights, begins to bleed. Or Leonard being one of boxing’s great improvisers, Hagler blowing up out of frustration, a la Duran’s “no mas” fight with Leonard. Others see Leonard winning because his relative youth counteracts his layoff. Leonard is pressing 31, but Hagler is pushing at least 33. Leonard’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, skeptical of a birth certificate that Hagler’s camp produced the other day, called Hagler “a man of all ages.”

Some see Leonard outboxing Hagler. Hearns, who predicts a Leonard win, says, “He’s the better boxer of the two. He thinks very, very well in the ring.” He predicts that Hagler will pressure Leonard in the first round, “but after that, Leonard will go back to his boxing and Hagler to his stalking.”

Eddie Futch, who trained the last man to beat Hagler (Willie Monroe, 1976), says, yes, it is possible for Leonard to beat Hagler. “Leonard has a chance if he can go the distance. He knows how to fight Hagler, to box him, counter him and give him angles. He should not elect to punch it out with Hagler.”

Duran gave Hagler trouble, Futch says, because Hagler overlooked his tremendous boxing skill. That is how Leonard must fight Hagler.

“But those five years of inactivity,” Futch insists, “that will be the major factor. Things are always a little different when you finally get into the ring. He’ll wonder why the things that worked in the ring aren’t quite on the money in the ring now. Suddenly, you can’t quite get out of the way of all those little punches.”

Futch agrees with almost everybody else that, “Five years ago, this had a chance to be a great fight. Leonard had a chance to outbox him, outspeed him. I don’t think that kind of speed exists today.”

But the trouble with any logical analysis is that it ignores the personalities of two powerful performers. It is hard to imagine the proud Hagler, a man who once advised his handlers to let him die in the ring before stopping his first title challenge, falling down to Leonard, a man he has resented nearly a lifetime.

Yet, Leonard’s sheer audacity confuses the issue as well. His boldness may be futile and, ultimately, even harmful. But foolish ambitions, such as Leonard’s, are as attractively American as a devotion to hard work, such as Hagler’s. At times, each approach has found its reward.

Boxing Notes

A publicity ploy went somewhat awry when Irving Rudd, drum beater for the Leonard camp, took a piece of paper Leonard had doodled on to a graphologist. Referring to some question marks Leonard drew, Marie Bernard wrote: “During his practicing he continuously thinks of the dubious outcome of the fight . . . he thinks fearfully of losing the fight in the sixth round.” The report, you may be sure, was not found in publicity kits. . . . The fight is sanctioned by the World Boxing Council, which derives its $250,000 fee from Hagler’s purse. Explaining why the inactive Leonard was suddenly ranked in the top 10, making a title fight possible, Jose Sulaiman, WBC president, said a special clause was invoked, allowing “any former champion of distinction” to come back, if the public overwhelmingly demanded it. . . . The World Boxing Assn., which had also honored Hagler as its champion, has stripped him of its title over a title defense dispute. . . . Here’s a statistic: 11 of 14 comebacks by 12 different champions, without tuneups, were unsuccessful. . . . Although greed can not be discounted, it is hard to argue that either fighter is doing this for the money. Leonard has made at least $42 million in the ring, Hagler $25 million. Both are comparatively frugal men. . . . Although Leonard held the junior middleweight title briefly, all but one of his 34 fights have been at welterweight. All of Hagler’s, including his amateur bouts, have been in the 160-pound division.

THE SHOWDOWN TALE OF THE TAPE

Hagler Leonard Age 32 30 Weight x-160 158 Height 5-9 1/2 5-10 Reach 75 74 Chest normal 40 39 Chest expanded 42 41 Biceps 15 15 Forearm 12 11 3/4 Waist 30 30 Thigh 22 21 Calf 15 13 Neck 16 15 1/2 Wrist 7 7 Fist 12 11 Ankle 9 9 3/4

X-exact weights at weigh-in