Monday, Nov. 17, 1986

People

By Guy D. Garcia

"Let's rumble," said the announcer before the stage curtain at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel rose to reveal Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvelous Marvin Hagler perched atop separate pedestals. Last week's midday macho matchup was strictly for exhibition, however. The pair were announcing their superhyped superfight, set for April in Las Vegas. "This is not a career for me," jabbed Leonard. "This is one fight." Shot back Hagler: "There is no one else out there for me." Both blared that they were not doing it for the money. Still, the green spoke pretty loudly too. The guaranteed $23 million purse (twelve for Hagler, eleven for Leonard) is the largest in boxing history. And away from the media glare, the Great Adversaries sounded more like cozy capitalists than fuming pugilists. "Marvin asked me about my restaurant," reports Leonard. "I asked him about his sports shop."