By Michael Marley

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum had nothing but kind words for brothers Goody and Pat Petronelli, the low key Brockton, Mass., pair who handled the career of middleweight champion and superstar Marvelous Marvin Hagler in conjunction with Top Rank.

Pat, who was 89, died in September and brother Gopody died Sunday in Sagamore, Mass., at the age of 88.

"They were loyal, unflappable guys, both of them," Arum said. "When somebody dies you try to say nice things but the brothers were loyal and hardwoking. As Marvin's promoter, I always knew they had my back.

"I worked more with Goody as he was the manager and Pat was more the trainer for Hagler.
"Just decent, decent guys who didn't play any games whether the opponent was Sugar Ray Leonard or anyone else. I found them to be splendid people to work with."

The lives of the Petronelli Brothers changed one day when a 16 year old from Newark, NJ, came walking into their gym.

He was Marvin Hagler and the Petronellis helped him become so Marvelous. Hagler held a lustrous six and a half year run as middleweight champ and he never turned his back on the Petronellis even when he was making the big money. Pat's son, Tony Petronelli, was a good enough pro to win an NABF title and to share the ring with awesome Wilfred Benitez.

Brockton's boxing roots go back to 49-0 heavyweight champ Rocky Marciano aka "the Brockton Blockbuster." Brockton High School's generally superb football teams are known, appropriately, as the Boxers.