Mickey Ward
Mickey Ward
From Espn.com about a month ago:
We were reminded of this again last Saturday night, when Irish Micky Ward and Arturo Gatti re-enacted the Drago-Balboa fight at the Mohegan Sun, with Ward prevailing in a dramatic majority decision that left everyone breathless, including me. Boxing needed one of these old-school battles, just two guys pounding the crap out of one another, utterly fearless, pushing themselves toward that sacred place where skills don't matter anymore, when it's all about determination and heart and nothing else.
I can't even remember the last time I watched a fight like this. Honestly, I'm stumped.
Remember that scene in "Godfather III," when Pacino pulled the "Just when I think I'm out, they pulllllll me back in" routine? That was the Ward-Gatti fight. I thought I was out of boxing, but that fight pulled me back in.
Throw Gatti and Ward in the same ring -- two bona-fide warriors with no regard for their own safety -- and the odds of a LaMotta Era donnybrook were off the charts. Gatti controlled the fight for the first four rounds, ultimately making the crucial mistake of hitting Ward below the belt (losing a point in the process). That seemed to awaken Irish Micky, who turned up the pressure in the middle rounds, almost like he found an extra gear.
Everything built toward the improbable ninth round, when Ward knocked down Gatti with a vicious left hook to the body, nearly polishing him off before wearing down midway through the round ... and then Gatti came roaring back, punishing an exhausted Ward with combinations, almost like target practice, to the point Ward looked headed for the canvas. Then Gatti punched himself out ... and here came Ward again, throwing bombs and nearly ending the fight in the final 20 seconds, as Gatti was practically out on his feet, wobbling like a bad actor in a second-rate boxing movie. But Ward had punched himself out twice in the same round; he couldn't even muster enough strength to pucker his lips and blow Gatti over.
The round ended like that, the fans on their feet and screaming for more, the fighters staggering back to their corners like drunks. This was stuff on the level of Hagler-Hearns, one of the five or six greatest rounds of my lifetime. It didn't matter that, at this breakneck pace, neither guy will have enough brain cells to successfully bag groceries in 20 years. All that mattered was the fight. Two boxers were bringing out the best of one another, regardless of the cost.
Between rounds, it seemed Gatti's corner wanted to stop the fight, but Gatti (a renowned comeback specialist) convinced them otherwise, finding renewed life in the final round, stunning Ward with combinations again and again. The fight ended with both men holding each other up, one of Gatti's eyes swollen shut, blood streaming from a cut under Ward's eye. As it turned out, Gatti boxed well enough to win the round, but Ward's decisive ninth round won him a majority decision. Both guys seemed satisfied with the result, both of them saying during the post-fight interviews that "The fight could have gone either way."
The Ward/Burton fight from last year was better than this one, that was by far the best fight I had ever seen.
:shrug: 
