In the run-up to his legendary scrap with Thomas Hearns in the 1980s, Marvin Hagler was sharpening his edge at Palm Springs.
By Chris McNulty in Indio, California
In the middle of the desert, Hagler got to work.
The temptations of the bright city lights are far in the distance. The world here, between the rolling swathes of sand, the palm trees and the seemingly never-ending stretches of freeway that don’t ever seem to bend, is different here.
The landscape is broken only by the thousands of windmills that were immortalised in Mission Impossible III.
Hagler was on a brisk walk around the adjoining golf course, accompanied by the Petronelli brothers, Goody and Pat, who’d trained him since his early days in their Brockton Gym
Hagler came upon a little grove of citrus trees.
Pat Petronelli knew what was coming.
“Naw, come on, you’re not gonna do it.”
“Just watch!”
There, in the piercing desert heat was the middleweight champion of the world, hanging from the tree bagging the fruit.
A golf cart swung by and its bemused occupant had to stop.
“Marvin, what you doin’ up there?”
“Hey, I’m picking me some oranges, Bob. That all right?”
Quite what the 82-year-old Bob Hope made of it all is unclear, but Hagler stopped Hearns in the third round of their legendary meeting.
Jason Quigley’s designs mightn’t quite be on the citrus trees of the desert, but in other ways the heights of Hagler are in the crosshairs of the Ballybofey man as he gets ready to defend his NABF middleweight title against rugged Mexican veteran Freddy Hernandez on Thursday night in Fantasy Springs Resort, Indio.
You can’t help but be captivated by the landscape here.
For Quigley, it has become a home-from-home. Thursday’s title fight will be his sixth at the venue.
“The first time I went there, I was like: ‘Wow’,” says Quigley.
“It’s right in the middle of the desert, but you have everything you need within the resort. There’s nothing for miles. It’s ideal. I really like it in Fantasy Springs. It’s become something of a home venue.”