What a ****ing slugfest this was... Damn. I think the 9th round, (Next to holyfield-bowe 1 10th round) is the greatest round I've ever seen. Aturro took a knee with a body shot and got up at 9, and proceeded to take shot after shot by Micky. To me the ref could ahve stopped it, but I'm glad he didn't. Aturro went on to come back with explosive shots, and fought back hard. I love this fight. I just watched it with my family, (I've never seen this fight before, just never came around to watching it ) and was blown away. I was scoring it and I had it 95-96 Micky Ward (the 9th round did it for me, the bodyshot KD) but it was very very close. So, thoughts on this fight? what was your first reaction? Your scorecard?
I had Gatti winning the fight handily despite the knockdown. He was out-boxing Ward thoroughly throughout most of the fight. You know you're lacking in skills/imagination when Gatti is putting an out-boxing clinic on you.
From what I recall, it was. Ward was marching forward with his ear-muffs in a laughably amateurish fashion, allowing Gatti to control the ring with movement and a consistent jab. It's not like he needed any exceptional skills in that regard to pull it off against a fighter the caliber of Ward.
For the first 2 rounds Gatti was boxing with a jab and movement yes, but then Ward came on in the 3rd round and started landing body shots and backed Gatti up. Gatti still had moments where he would stick and move but ward would come on in the later rounds, and also lets not forget that Gatti had a point deducted for the low blow, and the knockdown, I had Ward ahead by one point. In other words Gatti tried to box but Ward started to land body shots and wear him out so Gatti started fighting toe to toe, and this gave Ward a better chance to win it
With the knockdown and low blow deduction I still had Gatti winning by about 2 points. 7 rounds to 3, I think I scored it.
I think I had Gatti winning it just. Amazing how he managed to come back after that bodyshot KD, he looked ready to be stopped. I was glad the ref didn't step in, otherwise we wouldn't have seen the heart from Gatti to fight back. Great trilogy
That's a little wide of a decision in my opinion :think Gatti wasn't able to outbox Ward the whole time, Ward made it into a dog fight with the bodyshots
