Thanks to the misinformation spread by antivaxxers and a former rival, the mourning widow of boxing legend “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler felt the need to clarify that her husband’s unexpected death was not caused by a COVID-19 vaccination.
Kay Hagler, the boxer’s wife for more than 20 years, released a statement on Monday through the same group of Facebook fans in which she announced the death of her husband. After thanking fans for his love and messages of support, Hagler denied speculation that the death was caused by complications from the COVID-19 vaccine, calling these comments “stupid” and “absurd”.
Hagler’s reaction was read, with the observation that she admitted that her English was not perfect:
I was the only person close to him until the last minute, and I am the only person who knows how things went, not even his family knows all the details and I DO NOT accept to read any stupid comment without really knowing what happened. It was certainly not the vaccine that caused his death. My baby left in peace with his usual smile and now is not the time to talk nonsense.
Hagler went on to announce that there will be no funeral because Marvin hated funerals, but she is planning “something special” according to his wishes.
How Marvin Hagler’s death turned into an anti-vaccine rallying cry
The death of “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler was announced on Saturday, with no cause of death revealed beyond the unexpected. It was not long before reckless speculations spread.
Many of the speculation was prompted by an Instagram post by Hagler’s rival, Thomas Hearns, in which he claimed that Hagler was in the ICU battling the side effects of the vaccine. Hearns later reported the anti-vaccine messages that emerged from his post in a different post, which has already been deleted. From The Ring magazine:
“Allow us to have our peace. Our love and respect for Marvin and his family, this is not an anti-vaccine campaign … It is outrageous to keep this in mind during the death of a King, Legend, Father, Husband and more. “
Media such as The Daily Mail and Fox News soon passed Hearns’ post on to their readers. Other figures, such as Aubrey Huff, former MLB player and well-known Twitter agitator, and rapper RA the Rugged Man they were also spreading the story. Numerous anti-vaccine accounts on Twitter were able (and still can be) disseminating the narrative. Some, like Huff, compared the situation to the false story of Hank Aaron allegedly dying for the same reason.
Snopes has since dismissed the Hagler rumor as false.
More from Yahoo Sports: