'Blood & Hate: The Untold Story of Marvin Hagler’s Battle for Glory' Is Out Now

BOSTON, MA— Most know Marvelous Marvin Hagler from his epic battles against Thomas Hearns and John Mugabi and his controversial split-decision loss to Sugar Ray Leonard. But it is his escape from riot-torn Newark in the late 1960s, the unbreakable bond he built with the Petronelli brothers, and his 1980 title fight against Britain’s Alan Minter—with its deep racial animus—that captures the real story of Hagler.

In Blood & Hate, New York Times bestselling author Dave Wedge tells the riveting and inspirational tale of how Hagler overcame incredible odds, joined with Goody and Pat Petronelli to rise through the rigged ranks, and morphed from a fatherless teenager in Brockton, Massachusetts, into Marvelous Marvin Hagler, one of the best boxers ever and arguably the greatest middleweight in history.

It is the never-before-told story of how Hagler, with the Petronelli brothers, became world champion by beating British champion Alan Minter, who was backed by the National Front, a white-power organization. Hagler was pelted with bottles after defeating Minter in one of the ugliest chapters in sports history, which was captured in one of the most iconic sports photos of all-time.

Through exclusive interviews with Bob Arum, the Petronelli and Hagler families, and a who’s who of the boxing world, Blood & Hate reveals fascinating details about Hagler’s early life as well as the legendary Minter fight, and once and for all delivers the definitive chronicle of Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

The book is in development as a film with Academy-Award winner Sam Rockwell.

Among the riveting new information in Blood & Hate:

Exclusive new details about Marvin Hagler’s early life in Newark and how his family fled deadly rioting in Newark, New Jersey, in the late 1960s and moved to Brockton, Mass.
Hagler walked into the Petronelli Gym to learn to box after he was beaten up outside a Brockton housing project when he was just fifteen.
Hagler met the Petronellis in 1969, just as their friend, Rocky Marciano, who was planning to partner with them on the gym, died in a plane crash.
Exclusive details of Hagler’s earliest fights, including a pair of locally televised fights that were hosted in a small TV studio in Boston and four legendary bouts at the Spectrum in Philadelphia that contributed to Marvin’s transformation into “Marvelous.”
Don King ran a crooked boxing tournament on ABC that blackballed Hagler because he would not pay King.
Late U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill and late U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy both pressured Bob Arum and other top international boxing executives to give Hagler a title shot or face congressional investigation.
Don King showered Hagler’s first wife, Bertha, with gifts in a failed attempt to poach him from the Petronelli brothers.
Legendary Philadelphia fight promoter J Russell Peltz turned down a chance to own a piece of Hagler after the fighter lost two early fights in the 1970s in Philly.
Exclusive new details of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of the Israeli team from British champion Alan Minter’s family, who witnessed the deadly terror attack.
Minter told the press that “no Black man” would take his title before his 1980 championship fight against Hagler at Wembley Arena in London, touching off one of the most racially-fueled fights in boxing history.
Exclusive new details about the National Front, a white power group that backed Minter and was responsible for a reign of terror in London in the late ’70s and ’80s.
Exclusive new eyewitness details of the riot that erupted in Wembley after Hagler defeated Minter, including from Bob Arum, Minter’s family, and Hagler’s first wife, Bertha.