Gatti vs. Ward I, II, III - Greatest Ever?

[edgarg]

In response to the title of your thread,no,the Gatti-Ward is not the "greatest ever".Quite frankly,it's as overrated a trilogy as you'll ever find in boxing.A truly great first fight,no doubt.But the second fight was a one-sided boxing exhibition,and while Ward did his best to make it competitive the third time around,it was more of the same: Gatti boxing his ears off.


Both men have engaged in greater contests than the last two fights of that three-part series.Mind you,I'm not against two of the most exciting fighers of recent times receiving such plaudits - they deserve it.

The above is EXACTLY what I was going to write in. The only all-out slugging (crowd pleasing) fight was the first one. In the second, Gatti changed his style and tactics and boxed Ward's ears off and the same in a very tame 3rd fight. Yet, for some reason, people (admittedly boxing ignoramuses as they are) are always talking about the wonderful Ward-Gatti trilogy.

I liked Ward, Gatti not so much, and I remember how in the Shay Neary fight in England, ward was being beaten all over the ring and kpet coming back and eventually broke down Neary and KO'd him. That was almost my first recollection of Ward, or maybe it was the Emanuel Augustus (Burton) fight which was really good, mainly because of Burton who, although outsized and outweighed was a first class fighter with a variety of punches usually only seen in the most versatile of champions.

A great pity that he wasn't managed and handled properly, a top world champion for sure if he had been.

[figzuki]

Barrera-Morales is the greatest trilogy ever....

[Thread Stealer]

In response to the title of your thread,no,the Gatti-Ward is not the "greatest ever".Quite frankly,it's as overrated a trilogy as you'll ever find in boxing.A truly great first fight,no doubt.But the second fight was a one-sided boxing exhibition,and while Ward did his best to make it competitive the third time around,it was more of the same: Gatti boxing his ears off.

Agreed. The trilogy was rather one-sided. Gatti-Ward 2 was a 9-1, 10-0 shutout. Gatti-Ward 3 was fairly one-sided as well. Ward won 2 rounds, one when Gatti broke his hand, and the other when he scored a late KD after being outboxed for the first 2:55 of the round. Gatti won about 22-24 of the 30 rounds in the trilogy. The first fight was a classic, but the trilogy as a whole is not as good as trilogies like Ali-Frazier, Bowe-Holyfield, Zale-Graziano (from what is said of it) and Barrera-Morales. If not for the fourth fight, then Vazquez-Marquez is easily better as well.

And Gatti-Ward 3 didn't deserve 2003's Fight of the Year. Toney-Jirov and Gomez-Arthur were superior fights more deserving.

Both men have engaged in greater contests than the last two fights of that three-part series.Mind you,I'm not against two of the most exciting fighers of recent times receiving such plaudits - they deserve it.

Yeah, I wouldn't rank Gatti-Ward 3 (the 2nd best fight of the trilogy) as a top 5 fight of either Gatti or Ward.