Gatti Versus Ward 1

 If you had read a couple of my previous blog posts, I had written about two of my favorite boxers/fighters of all-time in the form "Irish" Micky Ward and Arturo "Thunder" Gatti. Their legendary trilogy of boxing matches are one of, if not the greatest trilogy of fights in the history of the sport of boxing.

One of the craziest things that I have noticed was the simple fact of all three of their fights were within a two year period. With the first fight, which is what I am writing about today, was fought on May 18 2002 at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.

It was a boxing bout at 142 pounds aka Super-Lightweight and it was set to go ten rounds. I mean, let's be honest with ourselves folks, no one could have ever predicted how special of a night this match was going to be.

From the opening round all the way to the final bell of round ten, both Gatti and Ward left everything in the ring. Honestly, with that being said, I do not think I can even find the words do it this fight justice.

Back and forth with both guys taking one another's best and most intense shots non-stop. Heck! By the sixth round of the bout, Ward as well as Gatti were a bloody mess and yet, neither one of them could finish the other off. They would just keep going and even after re-watching now that I am older, it still hard for me to believe Ward and Gatti just kept moving forward, not giving up.

In fact, just thinking about now as I am writing this is giving me goosebumps. I absolutely would have loved to been there live and in person seeing this two just go at each other. I also loved seeing all of the fans who were there just standing up and showering these two warriors with the love and the respect that both certainly deserved for all of their efforts.

There were two key moments in the fight between Ward and Gatti where in my humble opinion, helped get Ward the victory. The first was during the third round when Arturo smacked Ward with a low blow. Now to be fair to Gatti, I do not believe that the low blow was intentional, just an unfortunately accident but nonetheless, it was a key factor. 

The second key moment of the fight came during the ninth round where Micky absolutely hammered Thunder with a left hook to the body giving a crucial knockdown. However, Gatti refused to stay down and fought his way back. But ultimately, it would be Ward who scored a majority decision over Gatti and take a 1-0 lead.

Gatti, Ward 1 was named the 2002 Ring Magazine Fight of the Year as well as the Boxing Writers Association of America fight of the year. The bout itself has been dubbed "Fight of the Century" by boxing fans and writers. The ninth round of the fight has been considered the Round of the Century by Emanuel Steward (RIP) and other boxing writers. The Ring Magazine also named it the Round of the Year as well as USA Today's round of the year.

After the first fight, both immediately signed up for a rematch, but that is for another blog post. It was so cool to go back and watch this fight again. The best part of it is that I can watch again on YouTube 😁. 

Once again, nobody could have predicted how great the fight was going to be, let alone a trilogy of amazing fights yet to come.

These two certainly left an impression on many boxing fans as well as a young Joshua Yoder that's for sure. Thank you to both Ward and Gatti for giving us such an incredible fight. I can't wait to go back and re-watch the second fight!

Until Next Time!

God Bless and Be Safe Everybody! 🙏🙏🙏

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