The great boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler has died. He was probably one of my three favourite boxers. Like the Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto, but even more so, he represented [represented being the key word, as one can never really know what kind of person someone is in private] a certain ideal of tough, honourable, fearsome, straightforward, skilled, exciting boxer. Iconic yet unknowable.
Though his record shows 3 losses and 2 draws, each of those results was disputed, particularly his famous last fight, against the equally great, but more showbiz, Sugar Ray Leonard.
Marvin was a middleweight throughout his career. The rest came to him. He didn't need to go to them. His greatest moment is his three-round war with Thomas Hearns in 1985, almost universally considered the greatest short fight of all time, with the first round being considered the single greatest round of all time.
A year or so ago, I wrote a villanelle called 'Rewatching the first round of Hagler/Hearns on youtube'. I guess it's about finding a kind of peace in excitement and in brutality. I hope you like it:
Rewatching the first round of Hagler/Hearns on youtube
Rewatching the first round of Hagler/Hearns
on youtube, I forgot, for once, the speed
the daylight fades, the age of night returns.
While New York turns to dust and Paris burns,
for three wild violent minutes, I am freed
rewatching the first round of Hagler/Hearns,
how Marvin stalks and Tommy never learns
that when he swings and struts and pays no heed
the daylight fades, the age of night returns,
the ceaseless press of doom; my spirit yearns
to wrench itself away from the news feed,
rewatching the first round of Hagler/Hearns
for every thrilling second the plot turns.
When Tommy staggers, Marvin starts to bleed,
the daylight fades, the age of night returns
as, once again, my grudging mind discerns
where history’s set, the future takes its lead,
rewatching the first round of Hagler/Hearns
the daylight fades, the age of night returns.
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