The sport has seen so many warriors in the past and will continue to do so but if you had to pick one fighter from history who should get this nickname, the unanimous vote would go to “Arturo Thunder Gatti”. His name will forever be synonymous with the word warrior because of how he chose to fight throughout his career. He was built differently. You know what’s special about Gatti, He was hurt on numerous occasions in his career and by hurt I don’t mean just hurt, hurt with brutal shots to the body and head and the pain was evident on his face, any other fighter in that situation in any era would have either quit or tried to make it out that round. So what would Gatti do in this kind of situations, he would flip the script immediately of the fight, would somehow gather his energy back and recover within seconds and by seconds I literally mean a few seconds, he would be the one who would come out of the round winning. This is what made Gatti special. Didn’t know what the word quit meant and never gave up in a fight, He set the bar so high when it comes to exhibiting toughness and will that every time you see a fighter hurt from a body shot and not get up, you get a feeling that the fighter quit which is unfair on other fighters. Gatti had losses in his resume but he never lost in the eyes of fans. After what he did and achieved in the ring, he could never lose. No fan in his life who has watched a Gatti fight would ever have any kind of complaint. Fans came to see Gatti fight and not the outcome of the fight, he created his legacy in such a unique way that no one ever cared about his wins or losses, all they ever cared about was to watch a Gatti fight because of what he brought to the table and this is what makes him special and separates him from the rest. I have seen fans giving him standing ovations and clapping in the middle of his fights and that too on numerous occasions in the same fight. That’s a rare occurrence for any other fighter but for Gatti, his career was filled with this kind of occurrence and that’s the respect of the highest nature you could ever show to a fighter during a fight.
The respect is just not limited to Fans. Every fighter and trainer in the sport when asked about Gatti would have 1 thing to say, he was a warrior.
De La Hoya was breaking down his fight with Gatti on Dazn round by round and this is what he said.
“There is no quitting in his game, he is a warrior and would punch like a rock would hit you. They don’t make fighters like Gatti anymore.“
Mayweather shared his experience of fighting Gatti:-
“He’d get knocked down four, five times, and he’d get back up, and in one shot he could take you out. I have always had a lot of respect for Arturo Gatti. (Trainer) Buddy McGirt wanted to stop the fight, but Gatti wanted to keep going, He was a tough guy.”
Almost every fight of Gatti’s career was a classic and can be considered the fight of the year but isn’t talked about or remembered in a way his trilogy with Ward is and has flown under the radar. But in my opinion, they were equally impressive and deserve a mention. Let’s talk about those fights.
Gatti – Rodriquez:- It was a great fight and all-out war. Most of the eye-catching shots were from Wilson who hurt Gatti in round 2 and put him on canvas. Gatti was hurt badly and was on wobbly legs in round 4. If you see the time left on the clock when he was hurt in rd 4 and was on wobbly legs, it was 25 seconds left for the round to finish. Any other fighter in his place from any era would have gone for the clinch and tried to make it out of the round. Yeah, correct any other fighter but not Gatti. He recovered instantly within seconds and won the remaining round out of nowhere. Round 4 can easily be considered one of the best rounds in boxing. Jim Lampley was commentating during the fight and these were his words during round 4
“And Gatti finishes the round by pulling it out from nowhere”.
Ultimately Gatti’s warrior spirit proved to be too much for Wilson Rodriquez and he was knocked out in Rd 6 but this fight was a proper slugfest and an absolute war. This fight deserved to be The Ring magazine Fight of the Year in 1996.
Gatti – Ruelas:- Another constant back-and-forth action until Round 4 where Gatti was hurt badly and wobbled and seemed to be almost out on his feet but as soon as he was hurt badly, instantly started landing bombs on Ruelas . Round 5 was another reason why we call Gatti a warrior. One of the best rounds in boxing, which was called by commentators a “battle of uppercuts”. Both fighters exchanged monstrous uppercuts and clean shots and took the best of each other until Ruelas couldn’t. Gatti’s landed a monstrous left hook and the fight was ultimately stopped by the Ref. This fight was The Ring magazine Fight of the Year in 1997 and rightfully so, It had everything.
Gatti – Robinson 1:- It was a non-stop action for 10 rounds. Robinson matched Gatti in every department that night. Robinson showed better hand speed and was accurate and precise with his punches. Compubox stats showed Robinson landed 400 punches out of 795 thrown. That’s more than 50% landed which is what favoured him an SD victory. Gatti who landed only 274 out of 835 thrown wasn’t the most accurate but whatever landed did the damage and had more significant and eye-catching impacts in the fight. Robinson wobbled on multiple occasions and in the 10th round was almost out on his feet, the fact that he survived that round shows he withstood the warrior’s test and matched the spirit exhibited by Gatti in that fight which is what won him the fight and makes this fight a classic. Both fighters gave as good as they got. The fight felt like a target practice for both fighters, even the commentators mentioned the same. This fight was an all-out war with both fighters not ready to quit. The fact that this fight was The Ring magazine Fight of the Year in 1998 and still doesn’t get enough mention and talked about is mad. A must-watch and I recommend it to all fans out there, if you haven’t watched it, do watch it and relive the greatness of Gatti.
Gatti – Robinson 2:- This wasn’t a 2nd fight. This was the beginning of the 11th round and they started where they had left off in the 1st fight. Round 3 of this fight has to be 1 of the best rounds you will ever see in boxing history. The fact that Gatti was able to absorb the kind of onslaught and beating in that 3rd round and continue to fight speaks volumes about him as a fighter. The crowd were on its feet in that 3rd round. The action continued till round 7 and it was one of the worse beating I ever saw a fighter take but as we all know there is no quitting in Gatti and he continued to fight. His first fight with Robinson was pretty close and could have gone either way but the 2nd fight showed Robinson was the clear winner. He had matched Gatti when it came to showing a warrior’s mentality and outland him when it came to connecting punches which is what got him the victory in both fights. However, no one cares about the result of these 2 fights and it has been that way for the whole of Gatti’s career. All fans care about and remember is that both fighters gave their all and delivered an all-time classic on both occasions. However these 2 fights in my opinion are not remembered in the same light as the Gatti-Ward trilogy, one reason could be that Gatti- Ward fought 3 times, had Robinson-Gatti would have fought 1 more time, maybe we would be having a different conversation. I read a Ring magazine article in which Joseph Pasquale a judge who had worked for both Gatti-Ward and Gatti-Robinson fights had this to say
“Those (Gatti-Robinson) fights were technically better, I thought, than Gatti’s fights with Ward,”.
Nevertheless, these 2 fights were an absolute war, and both fighters delivered an unforgettable night of boxing on both occasions.
Gatti – Ward rivalry:- If there was ever a compilation that needed to be made of the 30 most brutal rounds in boxing history, it would include all 30 rounds from Gatti – Ward fights. Widely considered as one of the greatest trilogy of all time. In my opinion, the greatest trilogy the sport has ever seen without a doubt and no trilogy comes close. Not only is the Gatti-Ward trilogy the best but Gatti-Ward 1 is also widely considered one of the greatest fights of all time and round 9 of that fight is considered as the greatest round in boxing history.
Teddy Atlas on his podcast THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas had Micky Ward on and he was discussing the Gatti-Ward 1 fight and especially the 9th round he mentions that it is the greatest fight he has ever seen and the 9th round in particular is the greatest round in boxing history he had ever seen. Teddy Atlas who is a boxing guy, historian and hall of fame trainer, has seen so much in the sport, to come from him about Round 9 being the greatest round in boxing history, it speaks volumes about how special those Gatti-Ward fights were.
At this point what do you even have left to say about Gatti-Ward and their iconic and unforgettable rivalry that hasn’t been said? Those were the epitome of how far a human could go in a fight to get victory not once but on 3 occasions. You know what’s crazy about those fights, Gatti and Ward fought each other 3 times in 13 months, yeah you heard it right, 13 months. That’s crazy, in times like today where you hardly find fighters active and fight only once a year, Gatti and Ward went to war 3 times in 13 months, That’s real fighting. Gatti-Ward 1 and Gatti-Ward 3 were Ring magazine fights of the year in 2002 and 2003, had the 2nd fight taken place in a different year, all 3 fights would have been fight of the year. 1st fight was the best out of the 3 and is also my favourite fight of all time, let’s talk about the 1st fight.
Gatti – Ward 1:– Based on the compubox number Gatti threw 779 punches in total to Ward’s 550 punches. Gatti landed 45% of his punches to Ward’s 49%, remember this was 10 round fight and the numbers would have been even higher had it been a 12-round fight. Micky Ward’s money punch was his left hook to the body(liver shot) and the precision and technique with which he would throw that left hook was picture-perfect. It was almost certain if he landed his signature left hook, there is no getting up from that and he made a living out of it by knocking guys out with a left hook to the liver. Micky Ward was so good with his left hooks that all people thought he had was just a left hook and his career was filled with stopping guys from left hooks to the liver. Ward easily landed more than 20 of his signature left hooks on Gatti and still couldn’t stop Gatti. After the constant back-and-forth action till round 8, we thought we had seen it all but both Gatti and Ward had other plans and the plan was to deliver the greatest round in boxing history. Let’s talk about round 9 of that fight, Finally, Ward caught Gatti with the left hook to the body which hurt Gatti so bad, he was forced to take a knee, to take a breather. Even after getting back, Ward continue to land a barrage of similar left hooks (around 6-7 hooks) to the body of Gatti but Gatti somehow survived the round. The fact that Gatti had taken so much punishment by the end of round 9 that it was certain the fight would get stopped. Buddy McGirt who was the trainer of Gatti even mentioned after round 9 to him that he is not going to allow Gatti to take his kind of punishment and is going to stop the fight. With so much confusion before the beginning of round 10, it felt like the fight had stopped and Micky Ward even raised his hand thinking he had won but Gatti had other plans, he just kept moving forward as round 10 started ignoring all kinds of instructions or conversation from Buddy McGirt and choose to continue fighting. Not only did Gatti show heart by choosing to fight in round 10 after that brutal pain and beating he took in round 9, but he also started to land his power shots and in fact, he threw more and out-landed Ward in the next round which was the round 10 and won the round. That’s crazy and shows that he had some kind of special powers to recover instantly. From being in unreal pain and close to being stopped in round 9, comes back and fights in round 10 like he is the fresher fighter out of the 2 and wins the round. Also, special thanks to the referee Frank Cappuccino who let the fight continue especially in Round 9. Had it been any other referee on any other given day, he would have said I have seen enough and would have stopped the fight.
Commentary peaked at this moment:- Do you know what makes this fight iconic and unforgettable other than the fighters themselves who laid it all on the line, it was the commentators, this round saw in my opinion the best commentating I have ever heard for a fight. Thanks to HBO who took boxing as a sport to a different level and their commentating team which included legends like Jim Lampley, Emanuel Steward, and Larry Merchant. The way the whole fight and especially round 9 was expressed and commentated on made this fight memorable. It felt like the greatness that was displayed inside the ring was equally matched outside the ring and put to words in the best possible way. Here are some of the iconic and my favourite lines said by commentators during that round 9 which resonates to this day.
Jim Lampley :- Ward nods as if to say – “common, common, COMMON LETS FIGHT”
Emmanuel Stewart :- “You know, you dream of fights like this but very seldom do they live up to the expectation, This is even more than you could dream of!”
Jim Lampley :- “Just imagine if you bought a ticket”
Jim Lampley :- “Stop it, Frank! You can stop it anytime!… Arturo Gatti is out on his feet…Frank Cappuccino is going to let them keep going!”
Emmanuel Stewart :- “And here comes Gatti back”
Emmanuel Stewart :- “This should be the round of the century”
After the 30 rounds of brutal wars, they were considered blood brothers. There is a clip after their 3rd fight which would make any boxing fan emotional. Micky Ward was in the hospital and the doctors were examining him, that’s when the doctors opened the curtain and said someone else is in the room and wants to say Hi to you from the other side of the bed, it was none other than Arturo Gatti and the first words out of his mouth were “Hey Micky are you okay”. That shows the respect and admiration they had for each other after putting each other through 30 rounds of hell. Also, Ward then went to coach Gatti for the last few fights of his career and gave a eulogy at Arturo’s funeral.
Gatti’s legacy as boxing’s greatest warrior will continue to live on, Gone but will never be forgotten.
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