I n this chapter, Hagler returns to Philadelphia and The Spectrum arena, where, from 1976-1977, he battled a cadre of formidable contenders on his way up the middleweight ladder. In August 1978 – one year removed from his previous trip to the storied fight town – Hagler, now the top threat to middleweight champ Hugo Corro, was set to take on grizzled veteran “Bad” Bennie Briscoe: The victories set up Marvin’s return to The Spectrum. But this time, he was known and no longer needed Philadelphia to be a proving ground. He was the fighter to beat. Bennie Briscoe was the last of the four Philadelphia fighters Marvin had to go through, after already facing Cyclone Hart, Willie Monroe, and Boogaloo Watts. Like all the others, Briscoe was a tough out. He was 60-15-5 coming into the fight. Also like several Philadelphia fighters, Briscoe was a transplant. Born in 1943 in Augusta, Georgia, he was one of fourteen kids and grew up poor. He was a standout football player and track athlete. He once caddied for President Dwight D. Eisenhower at Augusta National Golf Club. He moved to North Philly when he was sixteen to attend Simon Gratz High School. It was there that he wandered into Joe Frazier’s gym and began training alongside the future heavyweight champ. During the day, he was a city worker, first on the rat patrol and later as a garbage man. Throughout his life, wherever he was, he sent money from his weekly paycheck back to his mother in Georgia. “If he had a million dollars, he wouldn’t have a dime,” Briscoe’s brother Archie once said. “He would give it all away. He knew what it was like to be hungry.” Briscoe started fighting pro in 1962. In 1967, he fought Carlos Monzon before Monzon won the title. The fight was in Buenos Aires in Monzon’s homeland of Argentina and Briscoe
gave the favorite all he could handle. The fight was scored a draw but many thought Briscoe won. A few years later, in 1972, when Monzon was the undisputed middleweight champion, he gave Briscoe a shot at the title, again in Argentina. It was another battle, as Monzon was seriously hurt by an overhand right in the ninth that spun him and left him dazed. Monzon clinched to clear his head and eventually battled back to win a fifteen-round decision.
could not get Marvin a title shot. The brothers asked Peltz if he wanted to join their team and own a piece of Marvin. But Peltz – with Marvin’s losses to Monroe and Watts fresh in his mind – declined. It’s a decision that haunted him for decades. “They cornered me outside my locker room,” Peltz remembers. “They offered me a piece of the fighter at no cost.” “We’ll cut you in,” Pat told him. But Peltz was focused on his Philadelphia stable and passed up the offer. “That’s how I turned down 10 percent of Marvelous Marvin Hagler,” he says. “If I’d been smarter, I’d have signed him. But we didn’t just think that way in those days.” Peltz would often comp his fighters’ meals. It turned out to be an expensive proposition when it came to Marvin, whose large entourage, mostly made up of family, ran up huge tabs. “Hagler started bringing family with him and we started getting these rather high meal bills,” Peltz remembers. Attorney Steve Wainwright was part of his entourage. A flamboyant, bald-headed barrister, Wainwright was the son of former Brockton Mayor Richard Wainwright and was from a well-connected family of lawyers. He wore sparkly satin coats emblazoned with the word “BARRISTER” in rhinestones, sunglasses indoors and out, was friends with actress Bo Derek, and provided a lot of flash – and legal muscle – to Marvin’s entourage. “He was worth the price of admission to take a meeting with him because he was such a unique character and a bit of a nut,” said George Krieger, former vice president of HBO Sports. “They should have made a TV series about him.” It was Wainwright, a few years later, who filed the paperwork for Marvin to legally change his name to “Marvelous Marvin Hagler.” Marvin made the name change in 1982 to thwart the media, ring announcers,
In 1974, Briscoe fought for the vacant WBC middleweight title in Monaco, losing by seventh-round TKO to Rodrigo Valdes. He also fought former world champion Emile Griffith twice. In their first meeting in 1974, Briscoe lost a close decision at the Spectrum. In 1976, he fought Griffith to a draw in Monaco. “When Bennie fights, he comes to fight; he don’t come to play,” Griffith said. Russell Peltz promoted the August 24, 1978, Briscoe-Hagler fight in Philadelphia and recalls a meeting with Goody and Pat, during which they expressed frustration that they
During his early professional career, Hagler hadn't yet adopted his signature bald-headed look.
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