Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: Special Boxing Edition (Forrest, Gatti, Arguello)

I'm surprised there hasn't been a thread on this since it aired a month ago.

Check your HBO programming schedule and On Demand menu if you have a subscription. Otherwise, there should be clips posted somewhere online.

This was an eye-opener in some ways. For instance, I knew El Flaco had been mayor of Managua in later life, but not that he was a chronically suicidal drug-addicted Sandinista puppet. His final years - and indeed, his death - may have been the saddest of the three.

The Gatti piece was interesting - particularly the glaring lack of any input from Acelino Freitas, whose name was bounced around in a lot of the early reports as having been one of the last to see the couple together. They presented it in a very neutral way and the hard facts given were inconclusive - which is still the official position of those independent agencies who performed follow-up investigation after the Brazilian police ruled it a suicide.

The interviews with Forrest's godson will choke you up if you have any kind of heart whatsoever. It's also kind of spine-chilling how his friend was able to basically get neighborhood people to indirectly "snitch" by assisting him in his cooperation with the police.

 

Speaking of whom...this first aired a week before Valero's death. They likely re-shot Gumbel's concluding speech at the last minute to mention Arthur Mercante, since he died a mere two days before the first airdate (television programs are usually edited well ahead of time). For subsequent airings, the show was not modified in any way to make mention of Valero. Interesting.