"Blood and Hate" by Dave Wedge
The boxing world is familiar with the name Mavelous Marvin Hagler. New England, especially the city of Brockton is even more familiar with the bald-headed, goateed former Middleweight Champion of the World.
Hagler's journey to the belt was not an easy one. "Blood and Hate" begins on the streets of Newark, New Jersey, where Marvin would have to crawl from room to room in the apartment he shared with his mother and siblings during the Summer of 1967, when reports of police brutality during the arrest of a black cabbie soon exploded into burning buildings and gunshots. Having enough of needing to tell her children to keep the lights off and avoid the windows, Ida Mae Hagler packed up her six children and moved to Brockton, where they moved in with Ida's cousin. Marvin Hagler, then fifteen, went to work in construction while his other siblings went to school.
Marvin also liked to go to parties like a lot of high school kids. One night, at a party, he approached a girl who was dating an amateur boxer. The boxer, Dornell Wigfall, didn't like anyone else talking to his girlfriend. Marvin, who wasn't know to back down from anyone tried to fight. He suffered one of the few losses in his fighting life. The next day, he went to the Petronelli Brothers Gym. Marvin Hagler began to train and learn the "Sweet Science" of boxing. Under the tutelage of Pat and Guerino (better known as"Goody") Petronelli, Hagler turns into one of the toughest, most feared fighters in the world. Dave Wedge's book looks at the grueling training regimens of Hagler and the remote locations where Hagler and the Petronelli Broithers travel to in order to get away from distractions. There is also a look at the dark, connected side of boxing; the side where the likes of Don King cook up creative and questionable gimmicks to promote the sport and come up with excuses to give title shots to undeserving "contenders" who have signed on to his empire.
Wedge's book looks at the fights Hagler faced in and out of the ring. As he climbs the ranks, Marvelous Marvin Hagler faces the politics of the boxing world that prevents him from a coveted title shot. "Blood and Hate" exposes cases of bribery and fixed fights from mob involvement and the questionable decisions from judges that The Triangle publicly question.
Hagler wants a shot at the Middleweight title. He wants it so bad, he considers leaving the Petronelli Brother and breaking up the fabled "Triangle" in order to sign with King. Hagler reluctantly decides to give the blue-collar brothers from Brockton one last chance. Throughout the career of Brockton resident, a trail of bloodied and defeated fighters are left on the canvas as a result of the hard-hitting, fast-moving Marvin Hagler.
"Blood and Hate" takes the reader from a riot-torn New Jersey neighborhood to the streets of Brockton that leads to Petronelli's gym. From there, Hagler fights anyone who dares to step into the ring with him as he proves to the world he is worthy of a title shot. Wedge's book takes you inside the mind of the tough, intimidating, and sometimes impatient fighter who rightfully wants to know why the Boxing World continues to duck him when a belt is going on the line. Readers will find out how he got the name "Marvelous". Spoiler Alert: The book ends with Hagler winning the World Middleweight Championship in London in 1980 and the infamous riot, led by The National Front that followed. The rest of his career and personal life is summed up in a brief Epilogue and Afterword. If you are interested in reading about his final fight, a contreversial split-decision loss to Sugar Ray Leonard, in April of 1987, the fight only gets two sentences near the end of the book.
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