How Marvin Hagler drove this foe out of town

Marvelous Marvin Hagler, one of the great middleweight boxers of all time, died unexpectedly March 13 at his home in Bartlett, NH. He was 66.

His passing evokes memories of the opponent Hagler once scared so bad that he fled clear across country – before the fight even took place.

Back in 1977, this young reporter from the Fitchburg Sentinel & Leominster Enterprise covered a middleweight between Vinnie Curto, a boxer from East Boston, and DC Walker at the Wallace Civic Center in Fitchburg, MA.

Curto won by unanimous decision, and later that year, in September, was scheduled to fight Hagler, then a fearsome talent and a rising star, in Boston.

However, Curto, pictured at right, never made the date. Reportedly, he was so intimidated by the mere presence of Marvelous Marvin at a press conference before that fight that he completely disappeared.

Curto got as far out of Dodge as he possibly could, and eventually resurfaced in the Pacific Northwest. From there, Vinnie wound up in Canada.

The esteemed columnist from the Los Angeles Times, Jim Murray, wrote a column about the Hagler-Curto fiasco nearly 10 years later.

“No one knows why Curto didn’t go through with that fight,” Murray said. “Unless you belong to that growing majority that doesn’t understand why anybody shows up for a scheduled fight with Marvelous Marvin Hagler.”

For the offense, Curto was stripped of his state license and was not allowed to fight in Massachusetts for three years.

Marvin Hagler had a marvelous career, no pun intended. He was 62-3-2 with 52 knockouts from 1973 to 1987, and he was the undisputed middleweight champion from 1980 to1987.

Hagler, who was born in Newark, NJ and later moved to Brockton, MA, fought during the golden age of the middleweight division, and squared up against legends like Tommy Hearns, Roberto Duran, and Sugar Ray Leonard.

After avoiding Hagler, Curto, now 65, resumed his career in 1978. He finished with a 62-10-3 career record. On September 20, 1996, he won won the World Boxing Federation (WBF) Super Cruiserweight Title and then retired.

LA Times: Jim Murray column