Who's the new Gatti?

The other night during Francisco Vargas' fight against Berchelt, Jim Lampley kept referring to Vargas as the modern Arturo Gatti, because he's been in two fight of the year fights. They cut over to Orlando Salido now and then and only mention that he was a past opponent, not that he's been in about seven fights like that. They didn't mention that Salido was routinely over matched, but he'd take on all comers; so he had a lot of red ink on his ledger like Gatti. They didn't mention the Roman Martinez fights, the Lopez fights, or the fight with Terdsak Kokietgym. Of course those fights were on Showtime and Box Azteca. Is he oblivious to everything but what happens on HBO?

Not that Lampley's opinion matters. Max Kellerman had to remind him of Matthew Saad Muhammad and Bobby Chacon, who were every bit the exciting blood and guts warriors that Gatti was. Anyway, who do you think is the heir apparent to the late great Arturo Gatti?

 

Yeah, that's part of it, but the definition I was working from was the guy who's been in the most great fight of the year contender type fights. Salido has 7, Vargas has 2. That was the point I was making.

Looking over your list I don't think a lot of them qualify. Provodnikov has one fight with Bradley, plus maybe his fight with Matthysse. John Molina Jr was really only good against Matthysse. Bradley was only interesting that one time against Provodnikov. I've always found him boring. Does Juanma Lopez have good fights besides the two with Salido we already covered? Gamboa stunk the joint out yesterday. He's got one exciting fight, that one with Crawford.

Pacquiao doesn't count because he was a pound for pound dude all time great for about a decade. That's not what Gatti was. Pacquiao had more good fights than Gatti even, but he was like Ali, supremely talented on top of being entertaining. Pacquiao had the first Morales fight, the first and fourth Marquez fights, Cotto, Hatton, and Margarito. You go back and watch that Torrecampo fight and it's short but sweet.

Donaire was exciting, but none of his exciting fights were compelling, or back and forth affairs. The first part of his career was just interesting because of how dominant he was against his competition, like a young Mike Tyson, or Golovkin. Gatti and Salido get into long sustained action packed wars.

Haven't seen enough Darchinyan to say, but Berto definitely fits the mold. He had great fights with Ortiz and Guerrero. Broner definitely doesn't fit that mold. His fights are only fun to watch when he's getting his ass kicked, and that's not do to his boxing as much as his behavior out of the ring.

Brook is very much not what I am talking about. Brook is too elite, too skilled, and hasn't been in any blood and guts wars. A decent effort against Golovkin just isn't enough. Porter might be an action hero if he gets the right partners.

I'm looking for guys with a long list of great fights, but who maybe aren't elite themselves. Juan Manuel Marquez had 2 great Pacquiao fights, plus his fights with Diaz and Katsidis were superlative as well. But he was a pound for pound guy and too elite to be just a blood and guts warrior. People were interested in his career and his skills. A guy like Brandon Rios who has two excellent matches with Alvarado qualifies. I'm talking about the Bobby Chacon's more than the Alexis Arguello's.

A good example of what I'm talking about is Monty Meza Clay, Giovanni Segura, or Hernan Marquez, Michael Katsidis, and Micky Ward. They aren't really household names, but they've generally given us more entertainment than the household names.