"People still look at me as the champion and that's very important to me"
About this Quote
The key word is "still". It carries the bruise of time. Championships end, bodies age, promoters move on, but the need to be recognized as the champion persists because the work was total. Hagler came up in an era that demanded not just winning but proving, over and over, that you were the baddest person in the room. His most famous nights (the wars with Hearns and Leonard) were as much about narrative as results. A split decision can make a champion feel like a question mark.
"That's very important to me" reads like candor, but it's also strategy. Fighters are trained to act immune to outside opinion; Hagler admits the opposite without sounding weak. He's staking a claim to dignity: the public gaze is a verdict, and he wants it to land where he believes it belongs. In a sport that sells invincibility, he's telling you what invincibility is made of: other people believing it long after the bell.
Quote Details
| Topic | Legacy & Remembrance |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hagler, Marvin. (n.d.). People still look at me as the champion and that's very important to me. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-still-look-at-me-as-the-champion-and-thats-118615/
Chicago Style
Hagler, Marvin. "People still look at me as the champion and that's very important to me." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-still-look-at-me-as-the-champion-and-thats-118615/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"People still look at me as the champion and that's very important to me." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/people-still-look-at-me-as-the-champion-and-thats-118615/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.





