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By TK Stewart - They fought three unbelievable wars against one another.
They exposed their hearts, bared their souls and shed their blood as they battled for thirty rounds in two different states over a thirteen-month period. Between May 2002 and June 2003 Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward became boxing legends. Their fights were like the fictional battles of Rocky Balboa versus Apollo Creed, filled to the brim with knockdowns, blood and drama - except they were real.
Like Ali and Frazier, Zale and Graziano, Saddler and Pep the names Gatti and Ward will be forever linked in boxing lore.
They became close friends after the punches stopped flying and now the retired Ward is training Gatti for Saturday’s fight against ‘The Contender’ reality show alumnus Alfonso Gomez in Atlantic City.
After the way he looked in his last fight against Argentina’s Carlos Baldomir, many in the boxing community began calling for Arturo Gatti’s retirement. Gatti, otherwise known as “the blood and guts warrior” or the “human highlight film” was knocked out in nine rounds against Baldomir. There would be no miraculous comeback on this night and it definitely wasn’t the same Arturo Gatti that boxing fans were used to seeing.
Gatti blames the knockout loss to Baldomir on a family situation gone bad and on a woman that he never should have gotten involved with.
“The last fight was very poor, but I was having major problems at home,” he explains. “I got involved with Satan’s daughter. She came into my life and she tried to destroy me as a person. If things aren’t working mentally for me the rest don’t follow up. I was sad because that was the only fight in my life that I wanted to pull out. But, I couldn’t do it for HBO, for Main Events and for my trainer or for myself. I’m not a guy that pulls out of fights. I’ve fought with broken hands, you know, and that’s the worse thing to do.” [details]
They exposed their hearts, bared their souls and shed their blood as they battled for thirty rounds in two different states over a thirteen-month period. Between May 2002 and June 2003 Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward became boxing legends. Their fights were like the fictional battles of Rocky Balboa versus Apollo Creed, filled to the brim with knockdowns, blood and drama - except they were real.
Like Ali and Frazier, Zale and Graziano, Saddler and Pep the names Gatti and Ward will be forever linked in boxing lore.
They became close friends after the punches stopped flying and now the retired Ward is training Gatti for Saturday’s fight against ‘The Contender’ reality show alumnus Alfonso Gomez in Atlantic City.
After the way he looked in his last fight against Argentina’s Carlos Baldomir, many in the boxing community began calling for Arturo Gatti’s retirement. Gatti, otherwise known as “the blood and guts warrior” or the “human highlight film” was knocked out in nine rounds against Baldomir. There would be no miraculous comeback on this night and it definitely wasn’t the same Arturo Gatti that boxing fans were used to seeing.
Gatti blames the knockout loss to Baldomir on a family situation gone bad and on a woman that he never should have gotten involved with.
“The last fight was very poor, but I was having major problems at home,” he explains. “I got involved with Satan’s daughter. She came into my life and she tried to destroy me as a person. If things aren’t working mentally for me the rest don’t follow up. I was sad because that was the only fight in my life that I wanted to pull out. But, I couldn’t do it for HBO, for Main Events and for my trainer or for myself. I’m not a guy that pulls out of fights. I’ve fought with broken hands, you know, and that’s the worse thing to do.” [details]
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