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I was watching sports on HBO I found a trilogy of fights between Autro “Thunder” Gatti and “Irish” Micky Ward and noted it was a tribute to Gatti’s passing. I’ve not been watching too much boxing in the last 10 years but it has always been one of my favorite fighting contests growing up.
Aturo Gatti was born in Italy and migrated to Canada. He grew up as a teen in New Jersey and was a notable blue collar boxer especially due to his exciting fighting style. I found a good overview of his life here. In this post I’ll talk a bit about his fighting style and show one good highlight video I found of the Gatti vs Ward trilogy. Here is a good overview of the sad case of his murder and the highlights of his boxing career I found.
I would like to commend HBO on highlighting this exciting fighter’s trilogy with Micky Ward. I watch all three fights (which is normally hard for me after watching a lot of MMA) but was action was exciting all the way through. If you get a chance to see them on HBO – do it.
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As I was searching for videos of the fights on youtube and I was (again) disappointed by folks adding music tracks to the fights – often over the ringside announcers. I guess if I was looking for creative music videos I might be interested but if one is looking for information on a boxer – one can only stomach the “Rocky” theme so many times. Just like looking for karate videos and having to sit though yet another rendition of “Kung Fu Fighting.”
Of the trilogy of Gatti vs. Ward, Gatti won the last two fights and arguably the first one should have been a draw (one judge gave Ward a 10-8 round without justification). The fight I liked the best was Gatti vs. Ward 2. Here is the highlight video roughly broken up into thirds.
I really like how Gatti fights and how he judges the gap and moves his head and body. With the movement he created openings that would not have been there otherwise. He held his hands almost like one would in karate – probably due to fighting on the outside of the gap unless he was striking.
Too many fighters in MMA today do not understand how to box effectively but do understand slugging. A boxer like Gatti understood both and was a good judge of distance! An almost unbeatable combination for most boxers and MMA fighters alike. True an MMA fighter has to know kicks and the ground game to be effective but the point I am trying to make is fighters with good boxing have an advantage over many MMA sluggers.
The world has lost a great fighter in Arturo Gatti and I hope he rests in peace.
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August 19th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Boxing is one of the oldest sports and one of the most popular. The punches are the main points in boxing and that is what people love watching. But what can I say more about boxing? It’s a kind of sport that many will love because there is money in it.
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