Irish Thunder: The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward

mad good book it focuses a lot on his life and how he was treated as a kid
i definitely recommend it

 

I remember this. Sauol Mamby fell out, so he was replaced at the last minute by Mike "Machine Gun Mungin. According to boxrec.com, Mungin weighed in at 145 and Ward was at 136.5. Maybe Ward was outweighed by 18 pounds at the time of the fight, but not at the weigh in. Back then, they usually did the weigh in the day before the fight. Mungin had been largely inactive due to a prison sentence, but had fought at 140 earlier in his career. He was left handed and fast, hence the nickname. He was just too fast for Ward, although weight probably played some part - The biography and movie, althought I haven't seen/read them, may exagerate this event, as Hollywood often does. Other fighters have overcome big weight disadvantages, look at Paquiao against Margarito.

I like Mickey, but he was basically a club fighter who had a great Trilogy with Gatti.

 

Mungin was 8 1/2lbs heavier according to Brec

 

i think thats a little harsh, the film is being made on its own merits. he was an amazing fighter and led an amazing life. his achivements were all the more remarkable given his age and natural ability.

 

Mungin was more then 8lbs-I saw the fight and he looked aot bigger then Ward,

Ward a club fighter?Don't know too many club fighters that appear on HBO/ESPN numerous times and get paid 6 figures multiple times-perhaps you can give me some examples.

 

If these boxers lives are so interesting and amazing lives to warrant a movie in the first place, then why do movie makers constantly dick about with timelines, events, names etc?

I understand the pacing of movies, the necessity for action scenes every so many times but surely any boxers life is going to have sufficient action in it to negate the need for the historical editing that goes on in some of these films

Like the poster above says about the many discrepancies in the movie, why cant they just have '3 years later' or somesuch come up? its a biopic you would expect that wouldn't you? they rely too much on non boxing fans having no knowledge of reals events and ignore the fact that much of the core audience for this type of movie is going to be a boxing fan, it ruins the enjoyment of the film and makes it less a biopic and more an entertainment piece very roughly based on a real person

Rant over!!

 

I read it about 4 years ago and I loved it. I don't remember it well enough to give a proper review, but I believe I thought it was well researched and written. The story is, of course compelling.
Something else "Fighter" related that was riveting was an HBO documentary called "High on Crack Street." You can find it on Youtube. Edit: No longer o0n Youtube. Anyway it follows the trials and tribulations three crack addicts in Lowell, Mass. in the late 80s. One of them is Dicky Eklund.

 

{QUOTE}

"They also make a lot of how Dick Ecklund boasted of having knocked SRL down (at the conclusion of the 9th round of their meeting, when he steps over Ray's face en route to the neutral corner), and how many of his sycophantic neighbors and relatives bought into it. The footage clearly shows SRL going down as a result of a shove/slip (which was the correct call at the time), so it's hard to believe that anybody - even under the influence of crack and nostalgia - could honestly think otherwise. I don't know if that bit was just poetic license or if there were actually people in Lowell who held to such a silly notion.[/QUOTE]



For years Dicky claimed to have knocked Leonard down, although he later admitted it was a push.

 

Hard to believe they wont include the Gatti fights in the main film. I know casual film goers like the feel good ending in him realising a dream and winning a title but the fights he will be most remebered and the ones that defined him as a fighter are the Gatti fights. Imo the film would have been just as good if they included all the Gatti fights including both he lost. Its just an old fight movie cliche where an underdog wins the world title. In the first rocky film they had Rocky losing to Creed and that didnt diminish the film, in fact it made it even better.

 

Aye im just one of those people who when watching a fight movie tend to concentrate more on the boxers career than the overall plot. I suppose you have to make the film appealing to the general public who would pay as much if not more attention to the overall plot of the film :good

 

Maybe this is petty, but I just can't get behind a biopic about a guy in his forties who was an active fighter pretty recently. I'm sure his early struggles are inspiring, probably not moreso than a million other athletes, but why not let him be for awhile and see how he does as a trainer? If I want to "remember" Micky at this point, I'm going to watch Ward - Gatti I and Ward - Augustus. I'm all for vehicles that get non-boxing fans interested, but unless this thing starts getting seriously rave reviews, Mark Wahlberg isn't getting my ten bucks.