Arturo Gatti vs Sharmba Mitchell in 2007

I dont hate him at all and he was a very talented boxer but man especially when he was young and upcoming he was pretty bad.
I try not to judge but I saw him in action a couple of times and I was actually shocked one of the encounters didnt end up in an actual streetfight.

 

People forget Gatti was a jr lightweight and he moved up. But make no mistake about it at jr.lightweight he had knockout power.
At jr.welter and above Gatti still could hit but nothing like when he was a jr.lightweight.
Lightweight Gatti knocks Mitchell out trailing on the scorecards.
And Mitchell didnt really like facing punchers as well- Johnson was a pretty good puncher but nothing like a Gatti and Johnson LEVELED him with one shot late in a fight he was losing.

jr.Welter sure I think Mitchell wins a decsion.

 

I didn't forget anything about Gatti's career including his Jr. Lightweight work. I'm 48 years old and was very active in the sport during not only both guys pro but also their amateur careers. Mitchell faced plenty of guys that were big punchers in his career. Sure he was caught Johnson which happens but he certainly navigated plenty of tough guys at 140. Like I said before, I'm banking on Mitchell's greater skill and athleticism to win out but of course Gatti always has a punchers chance like just about every high level fighter.

It is very true that Gatti's people avoided slippery guys like Mitchell. Look at his record and you will see that the majority of his fights were against fellow bangers or guys that would stay in front of him. Only in mega fights with Oscar and Floyd did he go outside of that formula but again, the money was there for those fights. Mitchell made a career fighting dangerous guys that most wanted no part of. You keep mentioning the Johnson fight but that was early on in his career and he became a champion after that fight.

I guess we will have to just agree to disagree on this one. Nine times out of ten I will take the superior boxer in a matchup especially when that guy has shown longevity and durability in their career and Mitchell had that before his knees failed him. Of his six losses, three of those were to hall of famers and the other six were high quality guys like Johnson and Paul Williams.

 

Great post. The one fight I wanted to see was Mitchell vs Zab which would have been interesting.

 

I agree. I think I would take Zab in that one. Both guys had speed but Zab had tremendous power to go with it. I was ringside for Judah vs Spinks II and was blown away by how good he was that night. There was nothing Spinks could do.

 

Zab was definitely a level above Mitchell.

Mitchell and Junior Witter would be competitive.

 

him and every contemporary. gatti was the cash cow of the less-than-ATGs of the moment. after the beating floyd put on him, maybe shambay would have won, but i'll take gatti that fought robinson over any mitchell i've seen.