anyone see the arturo gatti vs. mickey ward fight?

[rubthebuddha]

good god, this was one of the best boxing matches i've ever seen, if not the best. it wasn't even a title fight, but i've never seen two guys take so much punishment over the course of ten rounds (i've seen some fights with that much damage taken by ONE poor sap) -- and they kept going. body shot knockdowns (to me, more brutal to deal with over the course of a fight) and a few nutshots, one resulting in an allowed 5-minute break, which mickey ward took about 30 seconds of and went back and won it.

the verdict?

1. 94-94 draw
2. 94-93 mickey ward
3. 95-93 mickey ward

the deciding factor? the nutshot that gatti landed in the middle of the fight. one point got docked and that took it from a draw to a ward.

anyone else lucky enough to watch this gem of a battle?

:) :) :) :)

[scotty1]

No. Sounds great though.

A lot more exciting than what I watched, Harrison vs. Krence.

Harrison won, couple of flashes of excitement in an otherwise fairly dull bout.

When you know one of the fighters is going to win at the end of the first round its never going to be the most exciting battle. There were moments in the fourth when Harrison was rocked and I thought Krence might capitalise a bit more, but that was about it.

For the rest of it, Krence was kind of nervous of Harrison's hands, which is fair enough IMHO, the guys was 2 and a half stones lighter!

Summed up by the fact that Harrison left the ring with a smile, and Krence with a smile, two black eyes and a bloodied nose.

Still, don't get me wrong, Krence put up a good show against Harrison, went the distance and gave him a da*n good workout, which is what he needs right now.

Anyway, back to the original topic...

Oh yeah - Tyson and Lewis, June 8th!!:) Woop woop!!

'Course I won't get to see it.:(

[ReverendTim]

I saw the fight...you're right! Not only two guys with a heaping helping of heart, but ****ed educational from a technical perspective as well.

And man, when you saw Ward's cup FLY to the side of his shorts in slow motion...cringe factor off the charts! At least the Lowell Spinners got a little screen time.

(That's the baseball team logo he had on his shorts...not a euphamism for his genitalia...LOL!)

--
Rev. Tim

[Mutant]

I caught the last few rounds of that fight......holy sh!t that was good!
Those two guys are tough mofos, what a battle.

I've never seen two guys sustain so many solid blows and keep punching with such power and energy, not letting up until after the final bell. Neither guy was very defensive, just all out assaults from both fighters, truely awesome...no loser in that bout, just a points winner. I hope theyre both okay after that...Sustained punishment like that can cause brain damage.

[Archangel]

What a fukkin fight, one of the best I've ever seen. Really I don't know how these guys don't have brain damage, over 50% of the power punches landing?????? WTF!!! They both showed so much heart, I can't wait for the rematch.

[rubthebuddha]

i heard the announcers say ward was going to retire if he lost. good thing he didn't, because the boxing world would be without someone VERY frickin good.

i still don't know why at least one of them wasn't knocked loopy after that fight. each guy took enough in each round to justify them being flat on the canvas, but sheesh, neither of 'em took a dive until gatti went down late with the body shot.

man, you know it's a good fight when the announcers are stumbling over their comparisons of what's a step up from "fight of the year, no, fight of the century, no, fight of the ... um ..."

:)

now does anyone know about a replay?

[CLG]

Saw the fight and it was awesome! I wonder if Ward or Gatti will try for Kostya Tszyu?

Did you guys see that fight (Tszyu vs. Tackie?)? Tszyu outclassed him...

[rubthebuddha]

sadly, i saw it. it was right after ward and gatti went at it for 10 rounds of death. it looked like a kindergartner fighting a fifth grader, honestly. tackie was outnumbered, and he had only one opponent. :(

might have been interesting, but i was on the edge of the couch or on the floor in front of the tube for the last few rounds of the ward/gatti fight, and going from that to tszyu/tackie was NOT a step in a good direction.

anyhoo, again, the maddest of props to ward and gatti.