Wednesday is the 30th anniversary of the Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns fight. The Ring magazine deemed Hagler vs. Hearns the fight of the year in 1985, and the first round was round of the year.

ESPN Stats & Information looks back at the fight.

The buildup

Marvelous Marvin Hagler made his name as a middleweight during the 1970s. Hagler was 25-0-1 with 19 knockouts in three years as a professional before his first loss. In 1980, Hagler defeated Alan Minter in a three-round knockout to win the WBC and WBA middleweight belts.

By the mid-1980s, Hagler was making his 10th defense of both the WBA and WBC title belts and his fifth defense of the IBF belt.

Welterweight Thomas “Hitman” Hearns started 32-0 with 30 knockouts. His first loss came in a welterweight fight against Sugar Ray Leonard in 1981. Leonard scored a TKO victory in the 14th round, despite Hearns leading on all of the judge’s scorecards at the time.

A bout between Hagler and Hearns was scheduled for 1982 but was postponed when Hearns suffered a hand injury, and another three years elapsed before they fought. During the buildup, Hearns predicted that he would win with a third-round knockout of Hagler.

Hagler was 60-2-2 with 50 knockouts at the time of “The Fight.” Hearns was 40-1.

The fight

Both fighters came out aggressively. When the first round ended, play-by-play announcer Al Michaels summed up the action by saying, “That was an entire fight encompassed in three minutes.”

The pace of the second round did not match that of the first but had plenty of action. The third round, like the second, had a slower pace compared with the blistering first round, and Hagler continued to throw his hardest shots at Hearns. Within the first minute, referee Richard Steele stopped the fight momentarily because of a cut Hagler had suffered.

Hagler went back into attack mode. He hit Hearns with a head and body combination that sent him down. Hearns got up at the count of nine but could not continue. The fight was stopped at 1:52 of the third round.

The numbers

According to CompuBox, Hagler and Hearns each landed at least 50 punches in the first round. Hagler landed 50 of 82 punches (60 percent) and Hearns landed 56 of 83 (67 percent). Hagler did not throw a jab in the first round, according to CompuBox.

The combined 95 power punches landed in the first round is a middleweight record, according to CompuBox, and was nearly four times the average of 25 connects per round for middleweights.

Hagler was ahead on two of the three scorecards at the time of the knockout.

The aftermath

The first round was named Round of the Year by The Ring Magazine. Hagler was named co-fighter of the year in 1985 along with Donald Curry, and the bout was fight of year in 1985.

After the fight, it was revealed that Hearns broke his hand in the first round. The fight went on to be known as “The War” and was debated as one of the best of all time.

With the win, Hagler had successfully defended his WBA and WBC title belts 11 times with 10 knockouts. He fought two more times: an 11-round knockout against John Mugabi in 1986 and a 12-round split-decision loss to Sugar Ray Leonard in 1987.

Hearns retired after the loss but returned to the ring and competed until 2006.