speaker-0: Ding ding Hey, it's Cinema Cullis, Saturday night at the Fights. But you know us, it's never Saturday night when we do these so it's Monday night at the fights, baby. ⁓ just like the big shows in Vegas that they used to put on. Actually I I I'm imagining a Monday night boxing match, ⁓ Madison Square Garden with those ⁓ or Yankee Stadium with those page boys as the ring girls or something like that. That's
speaker-1: Yeah. I betcha that'll come back. I bet that'll come back.
speaker-0: gonna happen someday. Yeah, it's me and Rob here, Butch and Rob, talk to you about boxing because it's Saturday night the fights. Hey, if you joined us last time and I'm sure you did, you heard that we are da we were debuting last time the first of fifty ⁓ fights that we're doing gonna do ⁓ and those fights are the last fifty ⁓ ring magazine fights of the year. So we did a randomizer. We made a list of all fifty of them. We have a very complicated Dice arrangement to randomly choose the next fight. So the fight that we did last time was the only one that's not going to be randomly chosen on this list. And that was 2018's Canelo Alvarez versus Kennedy Galovkin 2. ⁓ since we had done that one first. ⁓ the the first one, the fight before that. And now we are doing it where we have the chart of fifty ⁓ Ring Magazine fights of the year from nineteen seventy all the way through twenty twenty. Minus twenty eighteen, 'cause that's how it equals fifty fights. And we rolled the dice and the first one we came up with is two thousand two's fight of the year, Mickey Ward versus Arturo Gotti, the first time. So they end up fighting a trilogy. Spoilers, when you have a fight this good and the first one you're gonna fight again. It that's how it that's how it goes. ⁓ well, so but I better let my co host introduce himself before I get too far into it. Say hello, Rob. What you got tonight?
speaker-1: Yeah, ⁓ this is a pretty well known trilogy. It's often listed as among the greatest, if not the greatest. I think the greatest is maybe a stretch. Trilogies in boxing history. ⁓ Mickey Ward and Arturo Gotti. ⁓ and this is the fight that started it all. This is one where ⁓ I hope you like hyperbole ⁓ during your broadcast. But it lives up to the hype and so ⁓ and it's it's from this ⁓ century. So we're in the two thousands. That's right. I think most of our listeners, if we had any, would be familiar with this, at least would have heard of this trilogy. And this is a this is an interesting fight between two interesting guys and ⁓ they're forever linked in ⁓ boxing history.
speaker-0: Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty hard to get my head around on this one. So this fight's gonna take place at ⁓ the boxing mecca of the East Coast. And whenever I say that, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. ⁓ it is It's a Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. That's right. Like Atlantic City, Memph Madison Square Garden. How about Mohegan Sun, bitches? That's where we're coming at you from May eighteenth, two thousand two. And this is a fight
speaker-1: ⁓ you can stand. Boxing after dark. Was this an HBO one?
speaker-0: I it might have been, yeah. So the the recording I watched was a recording after ⁓ after the ⁓ death a few years ago of Arturo Gotti, one of the two principals in this fight, ⁓ who died under mysterio circumstances. ⁓ do we wanna go ahead and tell people how that happened? ⁓ yeah. So maybe he strangled himself, maybe his wife killed him, we don't know. What do you
speaker-1: It's interesting that his wife got him she coerced them according to Wikipedia. Coerced them into ⁓ getting rid of their prenuptial agreement or she was gonna take the kids. And then ⁓ so she got got him to put her in the will and then three months later he had a mysterious hanging death, which sure looked to a lot of people like some funny business. Yeah. ⁓ but, you know, as as with Mitch Halburn's wife, she got away with
speaker-0: Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, Rob has a conspiratorial ⁓ sensibility about ⁓ good looking, famous, ⁓ successful men ⁓ killing themselves.
speaker-1: You Bob Geldoff, I know you killed Michael Legends.
speaker-0: So, ⁓ but no problems there. But this fight, I'm not gonna lie, this fight is a terrific fight. It is a fight that features no belts on the line. It's been a while since we've done a no belts on the line fight. ⁓ we kind of got into our little shtick of ⁓ heavyweight championship fights there for a while. A lot of w and again, this is w well known as one of the great trilogies of all time, but ⁓ what ⁓ takes a few points off it, of course, is that none of these three fights had a belt involved, right? These guys are not Right. Mickey Ward is ⁓ comes into this fight thirty seven and eleven. ⁓ which is not bad, I guess. It's he's not a he's not a sh ⁓ schlub or anything like that, but he's not a he's
speaker-1: He's a journeyman, yeah. He's he's can he's fought for the title, ⁓ he fought for the title twice before this fight in the ninety late nineties. So he's not a bum. He ⁓ and Gotti is a former world champ and would be again. He was the IBF junior lightweight champ from ninety five to ninety eight. He'd fought De La Hoya a couple fights before this. So they're they're not the cream of the crop, but they're, you know, like ⁓ you know, B list ⁓ I guess guys. Maybe in the Ward's case, ⁓ B minus, but Ward had been in the fight of the year the year before, so we will eventually get to that. But ⁓ you know, Ward was an interesting guy who had a movie made about him, right? The fighter. Marky Mark and I saw a fight where ⁓ Mickey Ward fought I wrote it down. Alfonso Sanchez in nineteen ninety seven. I don't know if you're familiar with this fight, Butch.
speaker-0: Christian Bale. Yeah.
speaker-1: He you know, ⁓ Ward was in, you know, his journeyman ⁓ stretch and ⁓ the Sanchez guy was an undefeated prospect. And Ward didn't do anything the whole fight, and he lost every minute of every round. Yeah. And ⁓ Larry Merchant was saying they should just stop the fight. Hopper and said, If you don't start fighting, I'm gonna stop it. It wasn't like the other guy was hurting him, but he just Ward wasn't doing anything. And he He literally just threw one body punch and ended the fight. It was out of nowhere. It's the most unbelievable out of nowhere knockout I've ever seen.
speaker-0: Put a bookmark in that 'cause ⁓ yeah. So
speaker-1: But Ward also had guys on his resume. I saw a guy who was ⁓ and five when he fought Mickey Ward. You know, it's not Yeah. He's not fighting all world beaters either. No.
speaker-0: ⁓ that's it's ⁓ it's an interesting career you have when you're thirty s thirty seven and eleven. Twenty seven knockouts, I will say this. He's thirty six years old in this fight. ⁓ the guy he's fighting, as you mentioned, Arturo Gotti, former champion, future champion. ⁓ thirty four and five with twenty eight knockouts, so a much higher knockout percentage. Well not a lot higher, but a little higher.
speaker-1: He's been in some fights of the year too. He fought Ivan Robinson on Fight of the Year. Both of these guys were in a ton of fights of the year. Ward was in three and Gotti was in four. ⁓ Gotti had had a rough stretch in ninety seven when he went ⁓ and three. He lost Angel Man Freddie and then Ivan Robinson twice. So that was a rough year. But here they are in two thousand and two. ⁓ both kind of on the upswing. And this is an action fight where they said if if you match this guy and this guy, you're gonna have a great fight and By God they did.
speaker-0: Yeah, so and and my favorite part about this is of course Artero Gotti was born in Italy and then he moved to Quebec and which is how you say ⁓ in Canada. I s I believe this is a sorry, we've been working on our French accents all weekend since we did ⁓ Diploma's sisters. ⁓ which features Margot Kidd are doing in Italian ⁓ I'm sorry, not Italian, a French accent. So that's great. ⁓ and then of course Irish Mickey Ward, ⁓ who's born in Lowell, Massachusetts. So ⁓
speaker-1: My favorite part of that butch is his given name is George Michael Ward.
speaker-0: Really? And he went by Mickey and and so s he was impressed by Tony Basel's video and so that's
speaker-1: He was impressed by the rest of the development and said, I can't follow that.
speaker-0: George Michael. ⁓ there you go. We call him Job for short. All right. So yeah, like I said, Frank Cappuccino is the referee of this. And this is then this was then ⁓ dubbed after this fight's over. No spoilers to say that this is gonna be a exciting fight. But this fight was dubbed the two thousand two Ring Magazine Fight of the Year. ⁓ like you said, Mickey Ward had won that before and Mickey Ward would would win that aga and I say win it. He was he was in one of the fights. He was one of the one of the contestants in the fight of the year before that and it's gonna be again next year, as it turns out. So yeah, waste not want not, ⁓ strike while the iron is hot. And of course, ⁓ as you said, Gotti is ⁓ in four of them, including this one and the one next year in two thousand three. ⁓ spoiler alert, that is gonna be the third meeting between these two fighters. So nobody dies in the ring in this one.
speaker-1: At this point, Mickey Ward's gonna have the last victory of his career sometime in the trilogy.
speaker-0: That's right. Exactly. Well the the yeah, these three fights will be his last three fights. So he never fought again after the third after Gaudi three. So ⁓ so that brings us ⁓ again, these guys are one hundredty two, which is what, lightweight? What is that? ⁓ Junior welterweight. That's right. ⁓ yeah, exactly. So they gained a pound and a half. They said Gotti had been all over the map. He'd fought at one fifty, he'd fought at one thirty eight and stuff like that. So
speaker-1: Junior watching. commented about how he changed styles a few times. He'd been a boxer, then he'd been a brawler, then he was a boxer, then he's a brawler.
speaker-0: Well, he's gonna be a little bit of vol that in this fight too, so that'll be fun.
speaker-1: Yeah, Mickey Ward is one thing abroad.
speaker-0: That's right. Come forward. ⁓ yeah, we do have ⁓ he's very McGwigan esque, right? So ⁓ we've done the Barry McGwigan fight and we're gonna do it again, ladies and gentlemen, 'cause it was fight of the year. ⁓ so the so McWiggan is a pressure fighter, you know, g ⁓ don't let the other guy get a catch his breath and that's exactly what Mickey Ward is bringing to you in this. ⁓ it'll work sometimes and it won't work sometimes. We'll so we'll see how it ends up. ⁓ but anyway, anything else to say before we get to the ⁓ to the particulars of this ⁓ fight there, Rob?
speaker-1: No, this ⁓ you know, we saw a tactical fight of the year in our last broadcast. This is of the brain damage variety. If you like guys getting blasted in the face clean ⁓ every half a second, this is your k type of fight.
speaker-0: Yeah, and if you'll enjoy ⁓ seeing some blood spilled, you do not have to wait long in this fight. All right, so let's ring the bell and start this thing. I will start out round one. Ward comes out and he is doing a lun a lot of lunging punches early. He's firing from long range sometimes. ⁓ it it's like Deontay Wilder. I think Deontay Wilder in the last fight with Fury where he's doing that ⁓ body punch from halfway across the ring. The I think Ward does that a couple of times, except the difference is Ward is not six foot seven, so it's like from a few feet away kind of a thing. But it's ⁓ it's very telling. ⁓ and and ⁓ he lands a couple of times, Gotti lands a one two, and then Ward lands a one one two. Then there's a Gotti combo, five punch combo, ⁓ that it seems like they were trying to find later during the middle of the between rounds. They tried to identify the punch where they thought that cut happened, but The video clearly shows that the cut had already happened before that video. So I didn't see when it happened. ⁓ but it was a punch clearly, 'cause there's no real clashes of heads.
speaker-1: I think it was when Cappuccino was telling him he wanted a clean fight before during the pre fight instructions. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, there you go. So Gotti I thought was pretty elusive in the first round. ⁓ he you know, he goes to body. ⁓ Ward ⁓ looks hesitant to get off in the late in later in the round, I thought. ⁓ and then there's more combos from Gotti. ⁓ you know, and it looks pretty good ⁓ but ⁓ Ward is still marching in there. But anyway, it's way more activity by Gotti plus, you know, ⁓ that he his combos look crisper. So I gave round one to ⁓ a troll got
speaker-1: I agree. Put one in the column for ⁓ Italian Canadians everywhere because this was an easy round for Gotti. ⁓ Ward came out of the left hook. ⁓ Gotti answered with the right hook to the body. There was a nice one two by Gotti, as you said. A hard left hook by Gotti and then a shot to the body. And Ward was already cut. So we're probably talking what, a minute in the fight?
speaker-0: Yeah, it's a minute in, it's really early and you're like to live with a cut over his eye for the entire proceedings as they go.
speaker-1: ⁓ Gaddy threw a digging right uppercut to the body halfway through that was awesome. And then a lead right. And Gotti was dancing. He was up on his toes. It was all Gotti this round. A big left hook and then a right by Gotti. Ward was just following him, but he wasn't throwing. He you know ⁓ we've talked about that last time. But this is the start of the fight. He's not too tired to throw. He's just sort of ⁓ flummoxed at this point, I thought. ⁓ but this was all Gatti. It looks like it's gonna be a short night for Gotti.
speaker-0: for Ward, yeah, because he's ⁓ so how's round two go then?
speaker-1: For both of them, right? Yeah. So I wrote the cut is bad. Yeah. You know, when they showed it between rounds, like ugh. ⁓ big left hook by Ward five seconds in. ⁓ Gotti answered with a nice five punch combo. ⁓ and then ⁓ there was a nice one one two, which is jab jab right by Ward. ⁓ that's how I write that anyway. ⁓ I put Gaddy's winning most exchanges the first half of the round, then there's a nice one two by Ward.
speaker-0: So I
speaker-1: ⁓ now Ward is mixing in some hard jabs and body shots, so that's good. ⁓ clubbing left hook ⁓ to the back of the head by Gotti, and then a hard ⁓ straight right and a digging left hook to the body by Gotti. So ⁓ and Gotti got a warning for low blows. It was still a clear round for Gotti, but I thought it was not as one-sided as the first round. So I thought, well, at least Ward's Closing the gap, but I still thought it was a clear ⁓ getty round to I.
speaker-0: Yeah, I agree. There's a little wrestling in there too. I think they're they're not afraid to clinch and there'll be there'll be plenty of occasions for them to fight in the clinch, fight through clinches, fight around clinches in this fight. ⁓ and and ⁓ yeah, by the way, you said that Gotti got a warning. I believe that it was actually Arthur. I don't know who Arthur was, but it's Arthur's the way Americans say Arturo, which is funny 'cause Cappuccino surely is Italian, but he's saying, Arthur, Arthur, you gotta keep the punch up, Arthur. I'm sure Gaddy's good. The fuck's he talking to? I'm Arturo over here. I'm Arturova.
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. George Michael.
speaker-0: George Michael. Yes. Yeah, it's terrific. Yeah, so I gave it ⁓ to Gotti as well. ⁓ I think he was like you said, ⁓ you captured it perfectly, still fairly dominant but not as dominant, ⁓ that Ward was looking like he was waking up a little bit. ⁓ which is yeah.
speaker-1: Do you you know, I mean I can't imagine anyone ever not doing whatever Frank Cappuccino says in the ring. I mean, we you know, Richard Steele, you ignore him completely because the guy's a bum. And I've been remiss the last couple of podcasts of not mentioning Richard Steele. I hate that bastard. ⁓ but Cappuccino, he says knock it off. I don't I it wouldn't matter to me if it was Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. They would stop what they were doing. And
speaker-0: Yes.
speaker-1: And obey him. I I believe that.
speaker-0: That's right, exactly. We will do the we will do that. We'll get right on it there, Frankie. ⁓ yeah, exactly. So he does have a commanding way about himself, even though he's hardly a physically ⁓ imposing guy in the room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So ⁓ so round three then actually I thought that ⁓ while Ward kinda turned up in round two, I thought he turned it up enough in round three to win the round. I thought it was close. He probably got outpunched, but
speaker-1: Is eighty five. I mean
speaker-0: ⁓ there was some stuff in this round w that really ⁓ kind of put me over the over the top for him. So ⁓ he lands a right for Ward, yeah, I gave it to Ward. So right overhand grazes when he throws it. That's like the first punch he throws. They trade jabs, they exchange at close range. Gotti gets the better of it. But then Ward lands a counter and then ⁓ Gotti a four punch combo. Ward's going to the body a lot more in this round, which is really working for him. ⁓ Gotti looks good fighting off the ropes. You know, ⁓ but Ward goes body again and he just keeps coming. I said body, body, body by Ward. He's just really killing the body. And then ⁓ and then Gotti goes a bit low again and war is declared. I said they start fighting ⁓ you know, ⁓ Gotti's been fighting a very clinically ⁓ ta ⁓ you know, precision fight, but he throws it out the window ⁓ when the occasion calls for it. ⁓ and this is I mean I think I gave it to Ward because ⁓ he was really effective going to the body later in the round, but really I mean, he turned this from Gotti's fight to his fight in this round in terms of style. And ⁓ so far in this round it surely worked 'cause I think he was you know, ⁓ Gotti still didn't know if he was f boxing or if he was slugging at this point. So that's why I gave him ⁓ in a cl it was close, but I gave Ward the round in this one.
speaker-1: Yeah, I agree with most of what you said. I gave this round to Gaudy still. But I
speaker-0: You and you and Harold Letterman did, yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓ yeah, letter Lenmin did too. ⁓ and war was declared and I wrote war as declared. ⁓ and we didn't write that last week. Which is why I question its Fight of the Year status. ⁓ because I do think war should be declared in a fight the year. I'm sorry. ⁓ but anyway. ⁓ I'll I'll get to my my play by play of the round, blow by blow as it were, and then ⁓ kinda echo your thoughts. It was a nice write by Ward. They trade hard rights and left hook by Gotti. Gotti's shots seem heavy, but Ward starts trying to bull his way in. ⁓ at times he was lunging, but ⁓ he landed a nice left hook to the body and then another two. So he did start going to the body and as we talked about, he's known as a w really a withering body puncher. ⁓ yeah. yeah, and so it's like I don't know why you'd wait 'til round three. I would have started trying to assert that. Especially in a ten round fight, you gotta get going with the body shots. ⁓ Ward was having a rally. ⁓ right hooks and digging left hooks to the body. So he's throwing right hooks to the head, left hooks to the body. Gaddy answers, ⁓ a hard right to the body by Gaddy, and I thought Gaddy closed well. It was a close round, but I gave it to Gaddy. ⁓ but I definitely agree that through sheer force of will Ward turned it into the style of fight that it has to be for him to w have a chance. He has no chance the way it was fought in the first round.
speaker-0: He was he was he was kind of really out of his element in those first couple of rounds and now it's if he can ⁓ if he can it's not a guarantee if but if he can get the fight this way, this is his best shot at it. So yeah. I'm with you. All right, so round four then. Round four is where things get very, very interesting both in the ring and at ringside for some reason. and referee wise, it all goes crazy here and there on four. So what'd you see? Well I will say this before we get started. I should say this before we get started. They show a close up of Ward in his corner coming out for the bell in round four. He's already pretty messed up. His face is already pretty messed up. He's got a cut. He's bleeding from the nose. He'll be bleeding from the mouth pretty soon. He's marked up on the cheek, you know, and on the forehead. He you know, he's one of us ruddy Irish guys. He's he's showing the damage already and we're only three rounds in, so
speaker-1: I'm glad you brought that up, Butch, because today I went to go see my mom and ⁓ I listened to I I listened to our podcast ⁓ on my drive down and back. And the one that came up was when we did Israel Vasquez versus Raul Marquez two. That was which I think might have won Fight of the Year, so we may be revisiting that one. ⁓ but that was one where At the end of the fourth round, it looked like it was the end of the fourteenth round. And that's how Ward looks here, right? Yep. So, ⁓ you know, after three rounds it looks like he's gone thirty rounds. Anyway, not much happens the first minute really. They're both missing a lot. ⁓ and I think they're both, you know, a little slowed down a little bit. They've been quite a pace the first three rounds. A huge straight right by Ward blasts Gaddy right in the face at about a minute and five seconds. And then he tried to swarm he being ⁓ Ward, tried to swarm Gotti. ⁓ but then Gotti answered with about a ten punch rally of his own.
speaker-0: Dazzling. It was I wrote dazzling is what that was. It was just clinical, yeah.
speaker-1: I think it was a great ⁓ rally by Gotti and I also think that ⁓ Ward had punched himself out a little with his little rally. Then then Ward had another mini mini rally. So big shots by both guys. ⁓ and then a vicious left hook to the body drops Ward, but it's no knockdown, it's a low blow. And ⁓ the referee took a point.
speaker-0: Not even w not only was it no knockdown, but they took a point away. So it's d yeah, so I mean it yeah, it was that was a big turn, yes.
speaker-1: And when I saw it live live, you know what I mean? Yep. Yeah y twenty years later. ⁓ I looked like a knockdown to me. I I but but in the replay it was low. Yeah. However, then so as the referees gone, Okay, got five, ding ding, ding, ding, ding, and because he had not, I guess, made it clear enough to the timekeeper, the idiot timekeeper, who I can definitively say is an idiot in this fight. Ugh.
speaker-0: Yes. ⁓ it's not this is not the first thing we're time we're gonna mention the timekeeper and you should never mention the timekeeper.
speaker-1: never mention timekeeper. ⁓ that's like, you know, ⁓ you know, you're mentioning the ⁓ the the ring card girl or something. That well even that could be a good button yeah this this the the round ends and Ward does not get his rest. It is big though that it's ⁓ a ten eight round. In my opinion he won the round plus a deduction. if he ⁓ if ⁓ It's quite a swing. If if Cappuccino had not been on top of the action and had called that a knockdown, it would have been a ten eight round the other way. That's a four point swing. Yeah. And you don't get the rest from the low blow. which was deserved. I don't know how much he needed it or not, but it couldn't hurt. It was a it was it was quite a lot of action in a three minute stanza there. Well here
speaker-0: the thing, I am gonna end up giving this round to Gaddy. mostly on the on the back of ⁓ that really dazzling ⁓ work and the fact that I I mean you can say well okay you don't give him he w the that ⁓ that knockdown which was ruled not a knockdown was still at the end of a pretty good ⁓ combination of ⁓ you know a pretty good run of his so I gave him credit for that. Not for the knock I have it nine nine is what I have ⁓ round four scored. ⁓ But it was tough. ⁓ and you know and then I did write in the margin timekeeper shenanigans and I I forgot to write part two 'cause at some point
speaker-1: tell ya Butch ⁓ you're out of your mind. I scored that round for a ward all the way. That's a ten eight round. Clear ten eight round ⁓ Butch.
speaker-0: I don't know. I I think yeah, you're correct. Harold Letterman did indeed have that ten eight. ⁓ I just d think that like I said, ⁓ Gotti's ⁓ Gotti's combo was the was ⁓ at this point in the fight probably the best thing we'd seen in the entire fight.
speaker-1: That was a close round. It was it was.
speaker-0: And if yeah, i but you're right. You said on your scorecard and on Letterman scorecard, it's a four point swing. It went from a ten eight Gauddy round to a ten eight ward round on both your cards. That's a big deal when you're only four rounds in. So Yeah, in a ten round fight. ⁓ so ⁓ so ⁓ round five I said was a hellacious round is the word I wrote inside ⁓ the margin there. ⁓ there's ⁓ he ⁓
speaker-1: In a ten rounder.
speaker-0: Ward is just charging at him. He lands a short left and is just charging inside. I I said I thought that Gotti looks good, you know, even though well he's being pushed back and ⁓ but but Ward is just brawling inside and he's better at it, you know. And it's it's he's putting ⁓ he's pushing all the chips into the table in the center of the table is what he's doing. ⁓ now, you know, Ward pushes through and gets, you know, the better of it mid round. ⁓ it's his style of fight now. You know there's such banging body shots exclamation point. ⁓ Gaudi does answer. There's a great combo by Ward. What a combo I wrote and I gave Ward a round ten nine in round five.
speaker-1: Yeah, this was a great close round. ⁓ and it's got about as good of a last twelve seconds of a round as you would ever see in your life. Yeah. And the end of the round is spectacular. But ⁓ so Gotti can't so remember, ⁓ Ward's coming off a low blow at the very end of the round, didn't get the rest. And so Gotti comes out fast, and he's throwing he's testing Ward's body, which I think is smart. He even landed a shot on the thigh.
speaker-0: Yes. Which is considered low, I'm told.
speaker-1: Yes, it's ⁓ it's lower than low. It's ⁓ exactly
speaker-0: Beat the leg, Mr. Lawrence. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
speaker-1: you know, I it was either high on the ankle or low on the anyway. ⁓ finally though, Ward starts to fire back. So there was a little bit of a barrage at the start of the round by Gotti, but Ward starts to fire back. ⁓ Gotti has a nice combination, he's throwing ⁓ Ward's hitting him with occasional rights, and then Ward jumps on top of Gotti about halfway through the round. And they're trading. ⁓ I put Gotti's busier. ⁓ And some nice body shots by Gotti. I thought it was gonna be a Gotti round, but Ward heard him late. Yeah. And the last twelve seconds were blistering and I wrote wow at the end of that. And I gave a close round to ⁓ I still gave it to ⁓ Gotti. But it was close. It wa it was went from being a clear round to like, ooh.
speaker-0: Did they ⁓ is this ⁓ I'm trying to think of yeah, I mean so yeah, he does have Gotti in ⁓ in a little bit of a trouble here at the end of the round, but it's
speaker-1: And and Letterman gave ⁓ Ward the round and I assume it's based on that ⁓ that barrage at the end. But I I still gave it to ⁓ to Gotti.
speaker-0: Yeah, for me, ⁓ for me I gave it to Ward because of that barrage and because again the style of fight is now his style of fight now. So ⁓ they're fighting Ward's fight. ⁓ he's dictating the action, dictating where they're fighting, how they're fighting and stuff like that. So ⁓ so at halfway point in the fight, I've got it even, forty seven each. So
speaker-1: So I've got it ⁓ Ward forty eight or no I'm sorry, Gotti forty eight ward forty six.
speaker-0: Yep. That's what I figured. So, yeah. So had you switched to the round it would've been forty seven, forty seven. So Yeah. All right. So how about round six then? Now we're on the back side of this thing if it goes a distance.
speaker-1: ⁓ round six, ⁓ right by Ward who's on top of Gotti. So I I feel like Gotti ⁓ or Ward has ga grabbed the momentum. it's phone booth time. ⁓ they are nose to nose. And I thought the first half of the round was even. And then there was a haymaker right by Gotti. ⁓ a straight right by Ward slammed into him. Gotti started moving again, a couple body shots. By Gotti. ⁓ I put Gotti's able to reset or I'm sorry, rest. Gotti's able to rest with the distance that he created. And ⁓ so whenever they're fighting in close, I think it's about even. And when ⁓ they get a little separation, Gotti's able to kind of control that and score while not getting pummeled, and he can kind of recuperate a little. So I thought it was a good round in a couple ways for ⁓ Or Choro Gotti, I gave him the six, ten, nine.
speaker-0: Yeah, I did too. And ⁓ you're exactly right. This is a big thing I think because ⁓ Ward definitely definitely wants to be inside and Gotti definitely at times can succeed there, but ⁓ he's just way more effective when they're at range, mid range or farther out. ⁓ yes, but he he can go the body really well from outside and ward kinda has to lunge in. They're the same height. ⁓ it's not a size difference.
speaker-1: You know what you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of whenever Riddick Bo and Evander would fight. When Bo would stay outside and jab, Evander had no chance. And you're like, Well, why doesn't he just do that all the time? Yeah. Absolutely and it's like you he forgets or he gets drawn into something or what. Then it's then it's kind of a toss up. But yeah, when Gotti's outside and he's moving, and I don't mean on his bicycle, but just you know, staying a little bit out of range, he You know, he he makes ⁓ Ward pay so much that for trying to come in that it's it's clear that he's dominating. But when they're in close literally a ⁓ nose is touching, that's Mickey Ward territory.
speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. Well I'll tell you what, don't worry. It's not there it's not in use yet, but ⁓ but Gotti did bring his bike to the arena, so ⁓ it it will it he'll probably get some use out of it. So so Gotti's corner after round six before round seven is telling him, You can rest tomorrow. Go out there and throw. Well and so and ⁓ and I thought he did. So ⁓ he's sniping outside. He rocks ⁓ ward Back briefly. ⁓ Ward's getting a bit of a a little bit of ⁓ something or other. I it looks like I'm saying ⁓ Waltery, but I don't think that's good. ⁓ that's correct. So ⁓ there's a good Ward right and ⁓ and ⁓ then Gotti replies and then he counters well. Ward's still coming on, ⁓ but Goty's more effective. ⁓ Ward is pounding the body in the clinch. He's still working that body, and I think you're starting to see some of the signs that it's really starting to get to to Gotti. ⁓ but ⁓ you know, I I said Ward has gotten a bit ⁓ outcl getting outclassed in this round a little bit. So I thought ⁓ Gotti won this round pretty easily. Round seven.
speaker-1: Yeah. I wrote this is a clear Gotti round at the end, so I agree with you. Straight right by Ward starts things off. Left hook by Gotti and then Gotti lands about a five punch combination again. ⁓ Ward landed another nice right, ⁓ but then Gotti answered with one. And ⁓ left hook stunned Ward and Gotti threw a nice combination at the two minute mark. ⁓ I put Gotti's busier again, but Ward is having his moments, but I I thought Clearly in this round Gotti's back on track and getting the better of the action. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, for sure. And so ⁓ so now I'll just ⁓ I'll let you t talk about it but before I you do round eight then Ward's corner tells him bang the shit out of him. Not to put too fine a point on it. But we kinda know that's what he's supposed to do. Go out there ⁓ I don't know I I don't know this stuff. Just go out and kill the guy as Polly Woods said to Rocky. So yeah, it's pretty much what they're telling him. So what'd you see in round eight?
speaker-1: Well, ⁓ there was an uppercut by Gotti. He's moving side to side and jabbing. ⁓ he digs ⁓ a couple nice right hooks to the body. I thought Gotti had a strong first minute. Yep. ⁓ Ward halfway through the round lands a right hook and then a big right by Ward at the two minute mark started a rally for him. Yes. And Gotti had ⁓ stop punching. I think because of those body shots you've been talking about. a right hook buckles Gotti, but he fires back and ⁓ as the round comes to an end, Ward is pummeling Gotti on the ropes ⁓ to steal a close round. So I gave the round ten nine cl very close to Ward.
speaker-0: Yeah, I th I that's exactly how I saw it. I gave it to Ward for the last forty five seconds basically. It's about kind of how I had it calculated out. ⁓ because it was you know he's ha he's coming on and again it it took a while, kept banging on the shit out of him, but eventually it Yeah, the shit the shit was banged as it were. And now ⁓ now we ⁓ enter ⁓ round nine.
speaker-1: Yeah, let's check out back. Which is the Ring magazine round of the year.
speaker-0: Yeah, or if you're ⁓ Emmanuel Stewart who was commenting on the on the on the commentary team, round of the century, I believe he said those words. Of course it was two thousand two at the time, so he probably was right. He's probably right. At two thousand two it probably was the round of the century, ⁓ for sure. And it might be a little bit of hyperbole, but ⁓ yeah, so so Ward is on him in you know, like literally it's the bell rang and less than a half a second later Ward is on top or Ward is on top of him. He is swarming him at this point. And then ⁓ and then he ⁓ drops him with a body shot. By the way, how many fights have you seen where both fighters go down from body shots in the fight? That's pretty amazing. But they are both just killing the body. They're yeah, I mean, so th he goes down from a body shot and he looks bad. ⁓ he's in trouble.
speaker-1: Not a lot.
speaker-0: And there the the whole commenting team, Lampley and the rest are just like, ⁓ this is bad. He's he may not recover from that. ⁓ you know, Ward could swinging with Haymakers body and head, chasing him around the ring. Gaddy is ⁓ game, but he's hurt. He goes he even goes to the body. ⁓ then he goes to the head two, three, two times, three times, four times with one twos. ⁓ and then Gotti goes ⁓ to the body and the head. But then God, I don't even know how to describe They're they're just literally winging at each other and you know, the ward at the end of the round, they're like, you know, just ⁓ they they were saying I he could Cappuccino could have stopped it at any time in that end of that round 'cause Ward is just killing him, basically. Right? It's it's it's yeah, it's it's amazing, ⁓ that it does go because because Ward knocked him out knocked him down early with that body shot was swarming him and then the middle of that round Gotti like is really effective. I mean he's like landing, landing, landing, landing and all of sudden Ward turns it on again and just about has his mana out. Just about did. It was amazing. What did you see? I I said I de I said definitely wrote round of the year and my margin for sure. I can't imagine there was a better
speaker-1: No, it won round of the year. I wrote wow. There was a scoring controversy on this round. Thank you. One one judge had this round scored ⁓ ten seven. The other two had it ten eight. Yeah. Now, ⁓ Lampley speculated that that might have been an error. You're a lot you you can give an additional point, you know, we you can give a ten eight round with no knockdowns, for example. Yeah. And I'm okay with it if that's what the guy was doing. Yeah. Giving an extra point for the
speaker-0: Yes.
speaker-1: The beating. ⁓ I didn't score it that way because I'm with you. I thought there was a full minute where Gotti beat the hell out of Ward in the middle when Ward is punched out. I guess I'll tell you what I wrote. ⁓ Ward jumped all over Gotti. My wife wishes I would jump on her like that. ⁓ it was right out of the gate. ⁓ left hook to the body drop Gotti at about the twenty second mark. So we're talking the very start of the round. And he's You know, as the count's being administered, he's in a visible agony. Yeah. I mean, just like he looks like he's gonna cry. ⁓ and I'm not saying that to not Gotty, I'm just you don't usually usually boxers play off like, ⁓ I'm you know
speaker-0: Yeah, he is visibly distressed. ⁓
speaker-1: Yeah. War there there's no way Ward doesn't know that he
speaker-0: I mean, so yeah, Virgil Hill, the light heavyweight guy from years ago, or was he cruiserweight guy from years ago, got knocked out on a body blow and it was it was literally that. He's just like he lo he's looks like, you know, ⁓ he's crying over there 'cause it's again, your your ribs are broken, you probably can't breathe and stuff like that. I don't know how bad this was, but he looked like that bad when I mean they w the i they were immediately like, ⁓ he's in trouble.
speaker-1: Yeah, and there's two and a half minutes to go in the round. So it's like ⁓ if I was Ward, I would've not have thrown another head punch the rest of the night, honestly. Yep. ⁓ and Ward jumps all over him and it's brutal. ⁓ and Gotti looks shot, ⁓ but he does not quit. And he could have. Yeah. He could've said, you know what, fuck this. Yep. Right? and he fights back and ⁓ has a little bit of a rally and then it it becomes clear that Ward has punched himself out 'cause he was really throwing home run shots trying to and he gassed himself out. And then ⁓ Gotti beats him up for a full minute. A minute. And now ⁓ now Ward is is back on the offensive as as Gotti is kinda punched out and it's amazing. And he definitely was on the Ward was on the verge of knocking out Gotti.
speaker-0: Gotti's hands are at his waist as he's getting hit in the face with le with left and rights. I mean he's like and he's bobbleheading. I mean it's not like a snapping over here, it's like the bobbleheading whenever he gets hit. It's
speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. I told ya we tonight we wa me and Mrs. Madness watched ⁓ Rocky, the original one. And round fifteen, you know, when ⁓ Creed's got his ribs broken and Rocky's all beat up and they can't even raise their arms. Yep. That's it. That's where
speaker-0: Yeah, I mean it's in real life, except it's round nine. I mean they didn't even go to round fifteen to get there. They're already there round nine. ⁓ but thankfully for them this is not a fifteen round fight or even a twelve round fight. They only have one more round to go 'cause that And Well, we'll even see if they both come out for the twelve for the tenth round. ⁓ and there's some controversy on that too, isn't there?
speaker-1: Yeah. There sure is, ⁓ I I I I would have been okay with Cappuccino stopping it. Of course I'm more okay with him not stopping it. But it was r he he had to be close to pulling the trigger.
speaker-0: Yeah. For sure he was close and it's un it's unclear whether ⁓ Gotti's corner was close too because it's like they c they come out and I think it looks ev people in both corners look like they thought the fight was over.
speaker-1: I thought the fight was over. I I went so so we're going to round ten now. Right. So I give that round ten eight. Yep, two ⁓ the round of the year lived up to that and more. They come out it it looks like ⁓ Gotti's saying, No, I don't wanna come out. Yeah. We're not the fight's over. And and wards starts celebrating and there's a there's quite a few people in the ring, about three from each corner in the ring. Yeah. It sure looks like everybody I think Gotti's corner was quitting and Cappuccino's like, What are you doing? The fight ain't over.
speaker-0: Yes, exactly. Made him go back out there.
speaker-1: Not only that, the timekeeper has started the round and does not stop it and thirty seconds has run off before they catch him up.
speaker-0: Yes. Everybody out. So two and a half minutes left in that round. And I wonder if that made any difference in how
speaker-1: So I think Gotti got a one minute rest when they finally said, Okay, I guess we're fighting, he was rested. ⁓ and it's just a terrible job of the timekeeper and probably by the ref. ⁓ but Gotti ⁓ controlled the tenth, I thought, and Ward was getting rocked by the end of it. Yeah. ⁓ and I think it's all because I think it was a KO that was waiting to happen and through Incompetence is the only word I can think of for the timekeeper and possibly Cappuccino, who I have a ton of respect for. ⁓ the fight was allowed to continue continue. Gotti took advantage and I thought clearly won the tenth. How'd you see it?
speaker-0: ⁓ agreed. ⁓ I do I think ⁓ I don't know if the extra thirty seconds ⁓ at the end of the round would have helped Gaudy finish off Ward or not. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that if that round had started right away, ⁓ in in the in the tenth as it should have instead of starting late that that probably would have definitely given Ward a chance to get in there and just swarm him and kill him and be d scrape him off his shoe is what I think.
speaker-1: Gaudiwa intended for that round to happen because his corner people were in the ring with
speaker-0: It's weird. ⁓ it's weird, but you're right. Cappuccino's basically saying, What are you doing? The fight's still on. He's literally like got one guy's neck over here and the other guy's neck over here. He's like putting him come on, you guys are supposed to fight here. It's like, you know, ⁓ dad, we don't want to fight anymore. Well, you're gonna fight anyway, because it's a tenth round and I get paid to be on camera and I'm yeah. So it but you're exactly right. I at some point ⁓ I also wrote that ⁓ it sure felt like Ward was giving Gotti the round. And then and then I said and then a re and then a Rocky Two remake happens where literally the two of them are just standing there kind of waggling like this and occasionally going, WHAP You know, they're not even they don't even put their hands up to you know, and their heads are just like on s shock absorbers. It's like you can almost hear the pinball sound when they get hit. Ding ding ding ding ding, you know, when they get hit and stuff like that.
speaker-1: And it's crazy too 'cause this could be a pivotal round on the scorecard. In fact it almost certainly has
speaker-0: You may say it's pivotal, so at the end of the round I gave it ten nine to Gaudy. So let's go to the scorecards. ⁓ Harold Letterman's gonna score this fight ninety four ninety four a draw.
speaker-1: Which I am okay with. How'd you score?
speaker-0: I scored at ninety-four ninety-four a draw. I had I had ward up one after the end of nine and he gave the fight away, it felt like. Yeah, if he just goes out there and like puts in he had to have been the guy with more in the tank left at this point, right? He had to be. After the ninth round, he had to be. If he got flummoxed or what happened to him, but man, he just gave it away. But I I say that no one for well.
speaker-1: Had to be. Gotti. Yeah. I had it ninety five, ninety three for Gotti. That being said, it's one of those fights where you're probably gonna be okay with ⁓ anything that's not an Adelaide Bird scorecard.
speaker-0: Yeah. And we're not gonna get that because ⁓ the two ⁓ the three ⁓ judges are gonna score at Lombardi's gonna score at ninety four, ninety four, even just like me. ⁓ Weisfeld is gonna score at ninety-five ninety three, which is what you had it, right? Mm-hmm. And then Flaherty's gonna go ninety four ninety three for Ward. So Ward wins two of the three with the third one being even. Majority decision for Mickey Ward.
speaker-1: I had it ninety five, ninety three for Gotti though. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, ⁓ yeah, that's right. You had a ninety-five ninety three for Gotti. That's right. So ⁓ yeah, so but yeah, I thought ⁓ I thought this was ⁓ incredibly impressive fight in terms of both of these guys really, you know, showed they were dominant at one aspect of it. Ward when they were brawling, ⁓ the the the sloppier it looked the better Ward was and the sharper they looked the better Gotti was. ⁓ Gotti fell too much into the trap of fighting Ward's fight. or let Ward kind of ⁓ dictate the terms and that's what lost in the fight, which makes it completely okay in my book that that's how it ended.
speaker-1: I'm okay with it too. I it ⁓ there was a clear punch stat advantage for Gotti, so I'm a little surprised by the decision. Yeah. But also in a close fight that's a war where one guy has a point deducted and gets knocked down, yeah. ⁓ you know, that makes up a lot of ground. So I'm okay with it.
speaker-0: It's tremendous. It a tremendous fight. And a tr fight so tremendous that they will fight twice more.
speaker-1: Yeah. And they're not gonna wait years and years to do it. They're
speaker-0: Both of those fights are gonna be in the next year, right? So both those fights will take place in two thousand three, I think, and one of them, spoiler alert, we will be talking about at some point later because it will also be fight of the year for two thousand three, whereas it was for two thousand two. So that's pretty amazing. ⁓ well by by the way, not be the last time we see that because you are correct that ⁓ Israel Vasquez and Roel Marquez will have two fight of the years in a row as well. So they did twice it they did two of their three fights ended up as fights of the year as well. So that's very exciting. and we've of course watched those already. This was new for me and ⁓ yeah, ⁓ Mickey Ward is quite a quite a fighter, really ⁓ really is ex exemplifying the ⁓ Irish schlugger kind of aspect of boxing.
speaker-1: Yeah, he reminds me of kind of Jake Lamata and Raging Bull. Yeah. Just ⁓ I'm coming in, I'm gonna take w pay whatever price it takes to impose my will on you.
speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ man. Yeah. Listen, I thought Canelo in the last fight we did was just tremendous going to the body and these guys are both like that. I mean these guys can really I mean they they they look like they're when they're punching the head it's a completely different thing than when they're going to the body. They go to the body, it's like you know, it's like the difference between hammering a nail in the wall for a picture and swinging a sledgehammer trying to drive, you know, a spike in the ground. It's amazing how just ⁓ how much a power they put in those body shots is amazing.
speaker-1: The other the other thing about these two is is that ⁓ defense is just a rumor. They neither one of these guys is a great defensive ⁓ fighter.
speaker-0: Defensive fighting, I don't think it exists. Yeah, bang, bang, bang. Yeah, so ⁓ so if we're gonna put this in the spin master then and say, okay, we if we're we have two fights in front of us that we've done we did Canelo Alvarez, Kennedy Galovkin two, which was fight of the year in twenty eighteen. This is our second one. ⁓ Ward Gotti one. ⁓ where do you rank these two relative to each other?
speaker-1: Well, it's not close. I have Ward Gotti One which is a definite war and legit fight of the year. And then I have ⁓ Alvarez and Galavkin, which was a good very good fight and an excellent fight, but not a great fight, in my opinion.
speaker-0: Be you speak ⁓ truth. So ⁓ so that takes us through our second of our fifty fight ⁓ cavalcade. ⁓ up next ⁓ when next we meet we will be spinning the wheel and the wheel landed on ⁓ nineteen seventy eight, which means that we will be taking up Muhammad Ali defending his title against one Leon Spinks aka Kid Quick. So that's very exciting. Can't wait. ⁓ w one of the f earliest boxing memories I have is this fight, I think, unless it's a fake memory, which I'm perfectly ⁓ willing to admit is a possibility, but I do remember watching this fight, I believe, with my dad. My dad really, really, really, really, really wanted somebody to beat Muhammad Ali, and we'll see if it happens in the fight of the year nineteen seventy-eight with when Leon Spinks at six ⁓ and one challenges for the heavyweight championship with
speaker-1: Are we doing that Thursday? I can't.
speaker-0: Can't remember. I think so. It's not gonna be very long, ladies and gentlemen. So if you're hanging on every word, ⁓ waiting for that next episode to drop, you won't have to wait very long.
speaker-1: And I believe this fight will feature the greatest disparity in size between ref and combatants in the history of boxing. So I'm looking forward to it.
speaker-0: That is gonna be awesome to behold. All right. So thanks again for joining us here on Saturday Night to Fight Cinema Cully, and we'll see you next time.
speaker-1: Yeah. I betcha that'll come back. I bet that'll come back.
speaker-0: gonna happen someday. Yeah, it's me and Rob here, Butch and Rob, talk to you about boxing because it's Saturday night the fights. Hey, if you joined us last time and I'm sure you did, you heard that we are da we were debuting last time the first of fifty ⁓ fights that we're doing gonna do ⁓ and those fights are the last fifty ⁓ ring magazine fights of the year. So we did a randomizer. We made a list of all fifty of them. We have a very complicated Dice arrangement to randomly choose the next fight. So the fight that we did last time was the only one that's not going to be randomly chosen on this list. And that was 2018's Canelo Alvarez versus Kennedy Galovkin 2. ⁓ since we had done that one first. ⁓ the the first one, the fight before that. And now we are doing it where we have the chart of fifty ⁓ Ring Magazine fights of the year from nineteen seventy all the way through twenty twenty. Minus twenty eighteen, 'cause that's how it equals fifty fights. And we rolled the dice and the first one we came up with is two thousand two's fight of the year, Mickey Ward versus Arturo Gotti, the first time. So they end up fighting a trilogy. Spoilers, when you have a fight this good and the first one you're gonna fight again. It that's how it that's how it goes. ⁓ well, so but I better let my co host introduce himself before I get too far into it. Say hello, Rob. What you got tonight?
speaker-1: Yeah, ⁓ this is a pretty well known trilogy. It's often listed as among the greatest, if not the greatest. I think the greatest is maybe a stretch. Trilogies in boxing history. ⁓ Mickey Ward and Arturo Gotti. ⁓ and this is the fight that started it all. This is one where ⁓ I hope you like hyperbole ⁓ during your broadcast. But it lives up to the hype and so ⁓ and it's it's from this ⁓ century. So we're in the two thousands. That's right. I think most of our listeners, if we had any, would be familiar with this, at least would have heard of this trilogy. And this is a this is an interesting fight between two interesting guys and ⁓ they're forever linked in ⁓ boxing history.
speaker-0: Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty hard to get my head around on this one. So this fight's gonna take place at ⁓ the boxing mecca of the East Coast. And whenever I say that, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. ⁓ it is It's a Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. That's right. Like Atlantic City, Memph Madison Square Garden. How about Mohegan Sun, bitches? That's where we're coming at you from May eighteenth, two thousand two. And this is a fight
speaker-1: ⁓ you can stand. Boxing after dark. Was this an HBO one?
speaker-0: I it might have been, yeah. So the the recording I watched was a recording after ⁓ after the ⁓ death a few years ago of Arturo Gotti, one of the two principals in this fight, ⁓ who died under mysterio circumstances. ⁓ do we wanna go ahead and tell people how that happened? ⁓ yeah. So maybe he strangled himself, maybe his wife killed him, we don't know. What do you
speaker-1: It's interesting that his wife got him she coerced them according to Wikipedia. Coerced them into ⁓ getting rid of their prenuptial agreement or she was gonna take the kids. And then ⁓ so she got got him to put her in the will and then three months later he had a mysterious hanging death, which sure looked to a lot of people like some funny business. Yeah. ⁓ but, you know, as as with Mitch Halburn's wife, she got away with
speaker-0: Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, Rob has a conspiratorial ⁓ sensibility about ⁓ good looking, famous, ⁓ successful men ⁓ killing themselves.
speaker-1: You Bob Geldoff, I know you killed Michael Legends.
speaker-0: So, ⁓ but no problems there. But this fight, I'm not gonna lie, this fight is a terrific fight. It is a fight that features no belts on the line. It's been a while since we've done a no belts on the line fight. ⁓ we kind of got into our little shtick of ⁓ heavyweight championship fights there for a while. A lot of w and again, this is w well known as one of the great trilogies of all time, but ⁓ what ⁓ takes a few points off it, of course, is that none of these three fights had a belt involved, right? These guys are not Right. Mickey Ward is ⁓ comes into this fight thirty seven and eleven. ⁓ which is not bad, I guess. It's he's not a he's not a sh ⁓ schlub or anything like that, but he's not a he's
speaker-1: He's a journeyman, yeah. He's he's can he's fought for the title, ⁓ he fought for the title twice before this fight in the ninety late nineties. So he's not a bum. He ⁓ and Gotti is a former world champ and would be again. He was the IBF junior lightweight champ from ninety five to ninety eight. He'd fought De La Hoya a couple fights before this. So they're they're not the cream of the crop, but they're, you know, like ⁓ you know, B list ⁓ I guess guys. Maybe in the Ward's case, ⁓ B minus, but Ward had been in the fight of the year the year before, so we will eventually get to that. But ⁓ you know, Ward was an interesting guy who had a movie made about him, right? The fighter. Marky Mark and I saw a fight where ⁓ Mickey Ward fought I wrote it down. Alfonso Sanchez in nineteen ninety seven. I don't know if you're familiar with this fight, Butch.
speaker-0: Christian Bale. Yeah.
speaker-1: He you know, ⁓ Ward was in, you know, his journeyman ⁓ stretch and ⁓ the Sanchez guy was an undefeated prospect. And Ward didn't do anything the whole fight, and he lost every minute of every round. Yeah. And ⁓ Larry Merchant was saying they should just stop the fight. Hopper and said, If you don't start fighting, I'm gonna stop it. It wasn't like the other guy was hurting him, but he just Ward wasn't doing anything. And he He literally just threw one body punch and ended the fight. It was out of nowhere. It's the most unbelievable out of nowhere knockout I've ever seen.
speaker-0: Put a bookmark in that 'cause ⁓ yeah. So
speaker-1: But Ward also had guys on his resume. I saw a guy who was ⁓ and five when he fought Mickey Ward. You know, it's not Yeah. He's not fighting all world beaters either. No.
speaker-0: ⁓ that's it's ⁓ it's an interesting career you have when you're thirty s thirty seven and eleven. Twenty seven knockouts, I will say this. He's thirty six years old in this fight. ⁓ the guy he's fighting, as you mentioned, Arturo Gotti, former champion, future champion. ⁓ thirty four and five with twenty eight knockouts, so a much higher knockout percentage. Well not a lot higher, but a little higher.
speaker-1: He's been in some fights of the year too. He fought Ivan Robinson on Fight of the Year. Both of these guys were in a ton of fights of the year. Ward was in three and Gotti was in four. ⁓ Gotti had had a rough stretch in ninety seven when he went ⁓ and three. He lost Angel Man Freddie and then Ivan Robinson twice. So that was a rough year. But here they are in two thousand and two. ⁓ both kind of on the upswing. And this is an action fight where they said if if you match this guy and this guy, you're gonna have a great fight and By God they did.
speaker-0: Yeah, so and and my favorite part about this is of course Artero Gotti was born in Italy and then he moved to Quebec and which is how you say ⁓ in Canada. I s I believe this is a sorry, we've been working on our French accents all weekend since we did ⁓ Diploma's sisters. ⁓ which features Margot Kidd are doing in Italian ⁓ I'm sorry, not Italian, a French accent. So that's great. ⁓ and then of course Irish Mickey Ward, ⁓ who's born in Lowell, Massachusetts. So ⁓
speaker-1: My favorite part of that butch is his given name is George Michael Ward.
speaker-0: Really? And he went by Mickey and and so s he was impressed by Tony Basel's video and so that's
speaker-1: He was impressed by the rest of the development and said, I can't follow that.
speaker-0: George Michael. ⁓ there you go. We call him Job for short. All right. So yeah, like I said, Frank Cappuccino is the referee of this. And this is then this was then ⁓ dubbed after this fight's over. No spoilers to say that this is gonna be a exciting fight. But this fight was dubbed the two thousand two Ring Magazine Fight of the Year. ⁓ like you said, Mickey Ward had won that before and Mickey Ward would would win that aga and I say win it. He was he was in one of the fights. He was one of the one of the contestants in the fight of the year before that and it's gonna be again next year, as it turns out. So yeah, waste not want not, ⁓ strike while the iron is hot. And of course, ⁓ as you said, Gotti is ⁓ in four of them, including this one and the one next year in two thousand three. ⁓ spoiler alert, that is gonna be the third meeting between these two fighters. So nobody dies in the ring in this one.
speaker-1: At this point, Mickey Ward's gonna have the last victory of his career sometime in the trilogy.
speaker-0: That's right. Exactly. Well the the yeah, these three fights will be his last three fights. So he never fought again after the third after Gaudi three. So ⁓ so that brings us ⁓ again, these guys are one hundredty two, which is what, lightweight? What is that? ⁓ Junior welterweight. That's right. ⁓ yeah, exactly. So they gained a pound and a half. They said Gotti had been all over the map. He'd fought at one fifty, he'd fought at one thirty eight and stuff like that. So
speaker-1: Junior watching. commented about how he changed styles a few times. He'd been a boxer, then he'd been a brawler, then he was a boxer, then he's a brawler.
speaker-0: Well, he's gonna be a little bit of vol that in this fight too, so that'll be fun.
speaker-1: Yeah, Mickey Ward is one thing abroad.
speaker-0: That's right. Come forward. ⁓ yeah, we do have ⁓ he's very McGwigan esque, right? So ⁓ we've done the Barry McGwigan fight and we're gonna do it again, ladies and gentlemen, 'cause it was fight of the year. ⁓ so the so McWiggan is a pressure fighter, you know, g ⁓ don't let the other guy get a catch his breath and that's exactly what Mickey Ward is bringing to you in this. ⁓ it'll work sometimes and it won't work sometimes. We'll so we'll see how it ends up. ⁓ but anyway, anything else to say before we get to the ⁓ to the particulars of this ⁓ fight there, Rob?
speaker-1: No, this ⁓ you know, we saw a tactical fight of the year in our last broadcast. This is of the brain damage variety. If you like guys getting blasted in the face clean ⁓ every half a second, this is your k type of fight.
speaker-0: Yeah, and if you'll enjoy ⁓ seeing some blood spilled, you do not have to wait long in this fight. All right, so let's ring the bell and start this thing. I will start out round one. Ward comes out and he is doing a lun a lot of lunging punches early. He's firing from long range sometimes. ⁓ it it's like Deontay Wilder. I think Deontay Wilder in the last fight with Fury where he's doing that ⁓ body punch from halfway across the ring. The I think Ward does that a couple of times, except the difference is Ward is not six foot seven, so it's like from a few feet away kind of a thing. But it's ⁓ it's very telling. ⁓ and and ⁓ he lands a couple of times, Gotti lands a one two, and then Ward lands a one one two. Then there's a Gotti combo, five punch combo, ⁓ that it seems like they were trying to find later during the middle of the between rounds. They tried to identify the punch where they thought that cut happened, but The video clearly shows that the cut had already happened before that video. So I didn't see when it happened. ⁓ but it was a punch clearly, 'cause there's no real clashes of heads.
speaker-1: I think it was when Cappuccino was telling him he wanted a clean fight before during the pre fight instructions. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, there you go. So Gotti I thought was pretty elusive in the first round. ⁓ he you know, he goes to body. ⁓ Ward ⁓ looks hesitant to get off in the late in later in the round, I thought. ⁓ and then there's more combos from Gotti. ⁓ you know, and it looks pretty good ⁓ but ⁓ Ward is still marching in there. But anyway, it's way more activity by Gotti plus, you know, ⁓ that he his combos look crisper. So I gave round one to ⁓ a troll got
speaker-1: I agree. Put one in the column for ⁓ Italian Canadians everywhere because this was an easy round for Gotti. ⁓ Ward came out of the left hook. ⁓ Gotti answered with the right hook to the body. There was a nice one two by Gotti, as you said. A hard left hook by Gotti and then a shot to the body. And Ward was already cut. So we're probably talking what, a minute in the fight?
speaker-0: Yeah, it's a minute in, it's really early and you're like to live with a cut over his eye for the entire proceedings as they go.
speaker-1: ⁓ Gaddy threw a digging right uppercut to the body halfway through that was awesome. And then a lead right. And Gotti was dancing. He was up on his toes. It was all Gotti this round. A big left hook and then a right by Gotti. Ward was just following him, but he wasn't throwing. He you know ⁓ we've talked about that last time. But this is the start of the fight. He's not too tired to throw. He's just sort of ⁓ flummoxed at this point, I thought. ⁓ but this was all Gatti. It looks like it's gonna be a short night for Gotti.
speaker-0: for Ward, yeah, because he's ⁓ so how's round two go then?
speaker-1: For both of them, right? Yeah. So I wrote the cut is bad. Yeah. You know, when they showed it between rounds, like ugh. ⁓ big left hook by Ward five seconds in. ⁓ Gotti answered with a nice five punch combo. ⁓ and then ⁓ there was a nice one one two, which is jab jab right by Ward. ⁓ that's how I write that anyway. ⁓ I put Gaddy's winning most exchanges the first half of the round, then there's a nice one two by Ward.
speaker-0: So I
speaker-1: ⁓ now Ward is mixing in some hard jabs and body shots, so that's good. ⁓ clubbing left hook ⁓ to the back of the head by Gotti, and then a hard ⁓ straight right and a digging left hook to the body by Gotti. So ⁓ and Gotti got a warning for low blows. It was still a clear round for Gotti, but I thought it was not as one-sided as the first round. So I thought, well, at least Ward's Closing the gap, but I still thought it was a clear ⁓ getty round to I.
speaker-0: Yeah, I agree. There's a little wrestling in there too. I think they're they're not afraid to clinch and there'll be there'll be plenty of occasions for them to fight in the clinch, fight through clinches, fight around clinches in this fight. ⁓ and and ⁓ yeah, by the way, you said that Gotti got a warning. I believe that it was actually Arthur. I don't know who Arthur was, but it's Arthur's the way Americans say Arturo, which is funny 'cause Cappuccino surely is Italian, but he's saying, Arthur, Arthur, you gotta keep the punch up, Arthur. I'm sure Gaddy's good. The fuck's he talking to? I'm Arturo over here. I'm Arturova.
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah. George Michael.
speaker-0: George Michael. Yes. Yeah, it's terrific. Yeah, so I gave it ⁓ to Gotti as well. ⁓ I think he was like you said, ⁓ you captured it perfectly, still fairly dominant but not as dominant, ⁓ that Ward was looking like he was waking up a little bit. ⁓ which is yeah.
speaker-1: Do you you know, I mean I can't imagine anyone ever not doing whatever Frank Cappuccino says in the ring. I mean, we you know, Richard Steele, you ignore him completely because the guy's a bum. And I've been remiss the last couple of podcasts of not mentioning Richard Steele. I hate that bastard. ⁓ but Cappuccino, he says knock it off. I don't I it wouldn't matter to me if it was Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. They would stop what they were doing. And
speaker-0: Yes.
speaker-1: And obey him. I I believe that.
speaker-0: That's right, exactly. We will do the we will do that. We'll get right on it there, Frankie. ⁓ yeah, exactly. So he does have a commanding way about himself, even though he's hardly a physically ⁓ imposing guy in the room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So ⁓ so round three then actually I thought that ⁓ while Ward kinda turned up in round two, I thought he turned it up enough in round three to win the round. I thought it was close. He probably got outpunched, but
speaker-1: Is eighty five. I mean
speaker-0: ⁓ there was some stuff in this round w that really ⁓ kind of put me over the over the top for him. So ⁓ he lands a right for Ward, yeah, I gave it to Ward. So right overhand grazes when he throws it. That's like the first punch he throws. They trade jabs, they exchange at close range. Gotti gets the better of it. But then Ward lands a counter and then ⁓ Gotti a four punch combo. Ward's going to the body a lot more in this round, which is really working for him. ⁓ Gotti looks good fighting off the ropes. You know, ⁓ but Ward goes body again and he just keeps coming. I said body, body, body by Ward. He's just really killing the body. And then ⁓ and then Gotti goes a bit low again and war is declared. I said they start fighting ⁓ you know, ⁓ Gotti's been fighting a very clinically ⁓ ta ⁓ you know, precision fight, but he throws it out the window ⁓ when the occasion calls for it. ⁓ and this is I mean I think I gave it to Ward because ⁓ he was really effective going to the body later in the round, but really I mean, he turned this from Gotti's fight to his fight in this round in terms of style. And ⁓ so far in this round it surely worked 'cause I think he was you know, ⁓ Gotti still didn't know if he was f boxing or if he was slugging at this point. So that's why I gave him ⁓ in a cl it was close, but I gave Ward the round in this one.
speaker-1: Yeah, I agree with most of what you said. I gave this round to Gaudy still. But I
speaker-0: You and you and Harold Letterman did, yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah. ⁓ yeah, letter Lenmin did too. ⁓ and war was declared and I wrote war as declared. ⁓ and we didn't write that last week. Which is why I question its Fight of the Year status. ⁓ because I do think war should be declared in a fight the year. I'm sorry. ⁓ but anyway. ⁓ I'll I'll get to my my play by play of the round, blow by blow as it were, and then ⁓ kinda echo your thoughts. It was a nice write by Ward. They trade hard rights and left hook by Gotti. Gotti's shots seem heavy, but Ward starts trying to bull his way in. ⁓ at times he was lunging, but ⁓ he landed a nice left hook to the body and then another two. So he did start going to the body and as we talked about, he's known as a w really a withering body puncher. ⁓ yeah. yeah, and so it's like I don't know why you'd wait 'til round three. I would have started trying to assert that. Especially in a ten round fight, you gotta get going with the body shots. ⁓ Ward was having a rally. ⁓ right hooks and digging left hooks to the body. So he's throwing right hooks to the head, left hooks to the body. Gaddy answers, ⁓ a hard right to the body by Gaddy, and I thought Gaddy closed well. It was a close round, but I gave it to Gaddy. ⁓ but I definitely agree that through sheer force of will Ward turned it into the style of fight that it has to be for him to w have a chance. He has no chance the way it was fought in the first round.
speaker-0: He was he was he was kind of really out of his element in those first couple of rounds and now it's if he can ⁓ if he can it's not a guarantee if but if he can get the fight this way, this is his best shot at it. So yeah. I'm with you. All right, so round four then. Round four is where things get very, very interesting both in the ring and at ringside for some reason. and referee wise, it all goes crazy here and there on four. So what'd you see? Well I will say this before we get started. I should say this before we get started. They show a close up of Ward in his corner coming out for the bell in round four. He's already pretty messed up. His face is already pretty messed up. He's got a cut. He's bleeding from the nose. He'll be bleeding from the mouth pretty soon. He's marked up on the cheek, you know, and on the forehead. He you know, he's one of us ruddy Irish guys. He's he's showing the damage already and we're only three rounds in, so
speaker-1: I'm glad you brought that up, Butch, because today I went to go see my mom and ⁓ I listened to I I listened to our podcast ⁓ on my drive down and back. And the one that came up was when we did Israel Vasquez versus Raul Marquez two. That was which I think might have won Fight of the Year, so we may be revisiting that one. ⁓ but that was one where At the end of the fourth round, it looked like it was the end of the fourteenth round. And that's how Ward looks here, right? Yep. So, ⁓ you know, after three rounds it looks like he's gone thirty rounds. Anyway, not much happens the first minute really. They're both missing a lot. ⁓ and I think they're both, you know, a little slowed down a little bit. They've been quite a pace the first three rounds. A huge straight right by Ward blasts Gaddy right in the face at about a minute and five seconds. And then he tried to swarm he being ⁓ Ward, tried to swarm Gotti. ⁓ but then Gotti answered with about a ten punch rally of his own.
speaker-0: Dazzling. It was I wrote dazzling is what that was. It was just clinical, yeah.
speaker-1: I think it was a great ⁓ rally by Gotti and I also think that ⁓ Ward had punched himself out a little with his little rally. Then then Ward had another mini mini rally. So big shots by both guys. ⁓ and then a vicious left hook to the body drops Ward, but it's no knockdown, it's a low blow. And ⁓ the referee took a point.
speaker-0: Not even w not only was it no knockdown, but they took a point away. So it's d yeah, so I mean it yeah, it was that was a big turn, yes.
speaker-1: And when I saw it live live, you know what I mean? Yep. Yeah y twenty years later. ⁓ I looked like a knockdown to me. I I but but in the replay it was low. Yeah. However, then so as the referees gone, Okay, got five, ding ding, ding, ding, ding, and because he had not, I guess, made it clear enough to the timekeeper, the idiot timekeeper, who I can definitively say is an idiot in this fight. Ugh.
speaker-0: Yes. ⁓ it's not this is not the first thing we're time we're gonna mention the timekeeper and you should never mention the timekeeper.
speaker-1: never mention timekeeper. ⁓ that's like, you know, ⁓ you know, you're mentioning the ⁓ the the ring card girl or something. That well even that could be a good button yeah this this the the round ends and Ward does not get his rest. It is big though that it's ⁓ a ten eight round. In my opinion he won the round plus a deduction. if he ⁓ if ⁓ It's quite a swing. If if Cappuccino had not been on top of the action and had called that a knockdown, it would have been a ten eight round the other way. That's a four point swing. Yeah. And you don't get the rest from the low blow. which was deserved. I don't know how much he needed it or not, but it couldn't hurt. It was a it was it was quite a lot of action in a three minute stanza there. Well here
speaker-0: the thing, I am gonna end up giving this round to Gaddy. mostly on the on the back of ⁓ that really dazzling ⁓ work and the fact that I I mean you can say well okay you don't give him he w the that ⁓ that knockdown which was ruled not a knockdown was still at the end of a pretty good ⁓ combination of ⁓ you know a pretty good run of his so I gave him credit for that. Not for the knock I have it nine nine is what I have ⁓ round four scored. ⁓ But it was tough. ⁓ and you know and then I did write in the margin timekeeper shenanigans and I I forgot to write part two 'cause at some point
speaker-1: tell ya Butch ⁓ you're out of your mind. I scored that round for a ward all the way. That's a ten eight round. Clear ten eight round ⁓ Butch.
speaker-0: I don't know. I I think yeah, you're correct. Harold Letterman did indeed have that ten eight. ⁓ I just d think that like I said, ⁓ Gotti's ⁓ Gotti's combo was the was ⁓ at this point in the fight probably the best thing we'd seen in the entire fight.
speaker-1: That was a close round. It was it was.
speaker-0: And if yeah, i but you're right. You said on your scorecard and on Letterman scorecard, it's a four point swing. It went from a ten eight Gauddy round to a ten eight ward round on both your cards. That's a big deal when you're only four rounds in. So Yeah, in a ten round fight. ⁓ so ⁓ so ⁓ round five I said was a hellacious round is the word I wrote inside ⁓ the margin there. ⁓ there's ⁓ he ⁓
speaker-1: In a ten rounder.
speaker-0: Ward is just charging at him. He lands a short left and is just charging inside. I I said I thought that Gotti looks good, you know, even though well he's being pushed back and ⁓ but but Ward is just brawling inside and he's better at it, you know. And it's it's he's putting ⁓ he's pushing all the chips into the table in the center of the table is what he's doing. ⁓ now, you know, Ward pushes through and gets, you know, the better of it mid round. ⁓ it's his style of fight now. You know there's such banging body shots exclamation point. ⁓ Gaudi does answer. There's a great combo by Ward. What a combo I wrote and I gave Ward a round ten nine in round five.
speaker-1: Yeah, this was a great close round. ⁓ and it's got about as good of a last twelve seconds of a round as you would ever see in your life. Yeah. And the end of the round is spectacular. But ⁓ so Gotti can't so remember, ⁓ Ward's coming off a low blow at the very end of the round, didn't get the rest. And so Gotti comes out fast, and he's throwing he's testing Ward's body, which I think is smart. He even landed a shot on the thigh.
speaker-0: Yes. Which is considered low, I'm told.
speaker-1: Yes, it's ⁓ it's lower than low. It's ⁓ exactly
speaker-0: Beat the leg, Mr. Lawrence. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah.
speaker-1: you know, I it was either high on the ankle or low on the anyway. ⁓ finally though, Ward starts to fire back. So there was a little bit of a barrage at the start of the round by Gotti, but Ward starts to fire back. ⁓ Gotti has a nice combination, he's throwing ⁓ Ward's hitting him with occasional rights, and then Ward jumps on top of Gotti about halfway through the round. And they're trading. ⁓ I put Gotti's busier. ⁓ And some nice body shots by Gotti. I thought it was gonna be a Gotti round, but Ward heard him late. Yeah. And the last twelve seconds were blistering and I wrote wow at the end of that. And I gave a close round to ⁓ I still gave it to ⁓ Gotti. But it was close. It wa it was went from being a clear round to like, ooh.
speaker-0: Did they ⁓ is this ⁓ I'm trying to think of yeah, I mean so yeah, he does have Gotti in ⁓ in a little bit of a trouble here at the end of the round, but it's
speaker-1: And and Letterman gave ⁓ Ward the round and I assume it's based on that ⁓ that barrage at the end. But I I still gave it to ⁓ to Gotti.
speaker-0: Yeah, for me, ⁓ for me I gave it to Ward because of that barrage and because again the style of fight is now his style of fight now. So ⁓ they're fighting Ward's fight. ⁓ he's dictating the action, dictating where they're fighting, how they're fighting and stuff like that. So ⁓ so at halfway point in the fight, I've got it even, forty seven each. So
speaker-1: So I've got it ⁓ Ward forty eight or no I'm sorry, Gotti forty eight ward forty six.
speaker-0: Yep. That's what I figured. So, yeah. So had you switched to the round it would've been forty seven, forty seven. So Yeah. All right. So how about round six then? Now we're on the back side of this thing if it goes a distance.
speaker-1: ⁓ round six, ⁓ right by Ward who's on top of Gotti. So I I feel like Gotti ⁓ or Ward has ga grabbed the momentum. it's phone booth time. ⁓ they are nose to nose. And I thought the first half of the round was even. And then there was a haymaker right by Gotti. ⁓ a straight right by Ward slammed into him. Gotti started moving again, a couple body shots. By Gotti. ⁓ I put Gotti's able to reset or I'm sorry, rest. Gotti's able to rest with the distance that he created. And ⁓ so whenever they're fighting in close, I think it's about even. And when ⁓ they get a little separation, Gotti's able to kind of control that and score while not getting pummeled, and he can kind of recuperate a little. So I thought it was a good round in a couple ways for ⁓ Or Choro Gotti, I gave him the six, ten, nine.
speaker-0: Yeah, I did too. And ⁓ you're exactly right. This is a big thing I think because ⁓ Ward definitely definitely wants to be inside and Gotti definitely at times can succeed there, but ⁓ he's just way more effective when they're at range, mid range or farther out. ⁓ yes, but he he can go the body really well from outside and ward kinda has to lunge in. They're the same height. ⁓ it's not a size difference.
speaker-1: You know what you know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of whenever Riddick Bo and Evander would fight. When Bo would stay outside and jab, Evander had no chance. And you're like, Well, why doesn't he just do that all the time? Yeah. Absolutely and it's like you he forgets or he gets drawn into something or what. Then it's then it's kind of a toss up. But yeah, when Gotti's outside and he's moving, and I don't mean on his bicycle, but just you know, staying a little bit out of range, he You know, he he makes ⁓ Ward pay so much that for trying to come in that it's it's clear that he's dominating. But when they're in close literally a ⁓ nose is touching, that's Mickey Ward territory.
speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. Well I'll tell you what, don't worry. It's not there it's not in use yet, but ⁓ but Gotti did bring his bike to the arena, so ⁓ it it will it he'll probably get some use out of it. So so Gotti's corner after round six before round seven is telling him, You can rest tomorrow. Go out there and throw. Well and so and ⁓ and I thought he did. So ⁓ he's sniping outside. He rocks ⁓ ward Back briefly. ⁓ Ward's getting a bit of a a little bit of ⁓ something or other. I it looks like I'm saying ⁓ Waltery, but I don't think that's good. ⁓ that's correct. So ⁓ there's a good Ward right and ⁓ and ⁓ then Gotti replies and then he counters well. Ward's still coming on, ⁓ but Goty's more effective. ⁓ Ward is pounding the body in the clinch. He's still working that body, and I think you're starting to see some of the signs that it's really starting to get to to Gotti. ⁓ but ⁓ you know, I I said Ward has gotten a bit ⁓ outcl getting outclassed in this round a little bit. So I thought ⁓ Gotti won this round pretty easily. Round seven.
speaker-1: Yeah. I wrote this is a clear Gotti round at the end, so I agree with you. Straight right by Ward starts things off. Left hook by Gotti and then Gotti lands about a five punch combination again. ⁓ Ward landed another nice right, ⁓ but then Gotti answered with one. And ⁓ left hook stunned Ward and Gotti threw a nice combination at the two minute mark. ⁓ I put Gotti's busier again, but Ward is having his moments, but I I thought Clearly in this round Gotti's back on track and getting the better of the action. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, for sure. And so ⁓ so now I'll just ⁓ I'll let you t talk about it but before I you do round eight then Ward's corner tells him bang the shit out of him. Not to put too fine a point on it. But we kinda know that's what he's supposed to do. Go out there ⁓ I don't know I I don't know this stuff. Just go out and kill the guy as Polly Woods said to Rocky. So yeah, it's pretty much what they're telling him. So what'd you see in round eight?
speaker-1: Well, ⁓ there was an uppercut by Gotti. He's moving side to side and jabbing. ⁓ he digs ⁓ a couple nice right hooks to the body. I thought Gotti had a strong first minute. Yep. ⁓ Ward halfway through the round lands a right hook and then a big right by Ward at the two minute mark started a rally for him. Yes. And Gotti had ⁓ stop punching. I think because of those body shots you've been talking about. a right hook buckles Gotti, but he fires back and ⁓ as the round comes to an end, Ward is pummeling Gotti on the ropes ⁓ to steal a close round. So I gave the round ten nine cl very close to Ward.
speaker-0: Yeah, I th I that's exactly how I saw it. I gave it to Ward for the last forty five seconds basically. It's about kind of how I had it calculated out. ⁓ because it was you know he's ha he's coming on and again it it took a while, kept banging on the shit out of him, but eventually it Yeah, the shit the shit was banged as it were. And now ⁓ now we ⁓ enter ⁓ round nine.
speaker-1: Yeah, let's check out back. Which is the Ring magazine round of the year.
speaker-0: Yeah, or if you're ⁓ Emmanuel Stewart who was commenting on the on the on the commentary team, round of the century, I believe he said those words. Of course it was two thousand two at the time, so he probably was right. He's probably right. At two thousand two it probably was the round of the century, ⁓ for sure. And it might be a little bit of hyperbole, but ⁓ yeah, so so Ward is on him in you know, like literally it's the bell rang and less than a half a second later Ward is on top or Ward is on top of him. He is swarming him at this point. And then ⁓ and then he ⁓ drops him with a body shot. By the way, how many fights have you seen where both fighters go down from body shots in the fight? That's pretty amazing. But they are both just killing the body. They're yeah, I mean, so th he goes down from a body shot and he looks bad. ⁓ he's in trouble.
speaker-1: Not a lot.
speaker-0: And there the the whole commenting team, Lampley and the rest are just like, ⁓ this is bad. He's he may not recover from that. ⁓ you know, Ward could swinging with Haymakers body and head, chasing him around the ring. Gaddy is ⁓ game, but he's hurt. He goes he even goes to the body. ⁓ then he goes to the head two, three, two times, three times, four times with one twos. ⁓ and then Gotti goes ⁓ to the body and the head. But then God, I don't even know how to describe They're they're just literally winging at each other and you know, the ward at the end of the round, they're like, you know, just ⁓ they they were saying I he could Cappuccino could have stopped it at any time in that end of that round 'cause Ward is just killing him, basically. Right? It's it's it's yeah, it's it's amazing, ⁓ that it does go because because Ward knocked him out knocked him down early with that body shot was swarming him and then the middle of that round Gotti like is really effective. I mean he's like landing, landing, landing, landing and all of sudden Ward turns it on again and just about has his mana out. Just about did. It was amazing. What did you see? I I said I de I said definitely wrote round of the year and my margin for sure. I can't imagine there was a better
speaker-1: No, it won round of the year. I wrote wow. There was a scoring controversy on this round. Thank you. One one judge had this round scored ⁓ ten seven. The other two had it ten eight. Yeah. Now, ⁓ Lampley speculated that that might have been an error. You're a lot you you can give an additional point, you know, we you can give a ten eight round with no knockdowns, for example. Yeah. And I'm okay with it if that's what the guy was doing. Yeah. Giving an extra point for the
speaker-0: Yes.
speaker-1: The beating. ⁓ I didn't score it that way because I'm with you. I thought there was a full minute where Gotti beat the hell out of Ward in the middle when Ward is punched out. I guess I'll tell you what I wrote. ⁓ Ward jumped all over Gotti. My wife wishes I would jump on her like that. ⁓ it was right out of the gate. ⁓ left hook to the body drop Gotti at about the twenty second mark. So we're talking the very start of the round. And he's You know, as the count's being administered, he's in a visible agony. Yeah. I mean, just like he looks like he's gonna cry. ⁓ and I'm not saying that to not Gotty, I'm just you don't usually usually boxers play off like, ⁓ I'm you know
speaker-0: Yeah, he is visibly distressed. ⁓
speaker-1: Yeah. War there there's no way Ward doesn't know that he
speaker-0: I mean, so yeah, Virgil Hill, the light heavyweight guy from years ago, or was he cruiserweight guy from years ago, got knocked out on a body blow and it was it was literally that. He's just like he lo he's looks like, you know, ⁓ he's crying over there 'cause it's again, your your ribs are broken, you probably can't breathe and stuff like that. I don't know how bad this was, but he looked like that bad when I mean they w the i they were immediately like, ⁓ he's in trouble.
speaker-1: Yeah, and there's two and a half minutes to go in the round. So it's like ⁓ if I was Ward, I would've not have thrown another head punch the rest of the night, honestly. Yep. ⁓ and Ward jumps all over him and it's brutal. ⁓ and Gotti looks shot, ⁓ but he does not quit. And he could have. Yeah. He could've said, you know what, fuck this. Yep. Right? and he fights back and ⁓ has a little bit of a rally and then it it becomes clear that Ward has punched himself out 'cause he was really throwing home run shots trying to and he gassed himself out. And then ⁓ Gotti beats him up for a full minute. A minute. And now ⁓ now Ward is is back on the offensive as as Gotti is kinda punched out and it's amazing. And he definitely was on the Ward was on the verge of knocking out Gotti.
speaker-0: Gotti's hands are at his waist as he's getting hit in the face with le with left and rights. I mean he's like and he's bobbleheading. I mean it's not like a snapping over here, it's like the bobbleheading whenever he gets hit. It's
speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. I told ya we tonight we wa me and Mrs. Madness watched ⁓ Rocky, the original one. And round fifteen, you know, when ⁓ Creed's got his ribs broken and Rocky's all beat up and they can't even raise their arms. Yep. That's it. That's where
speaker-0: Yeah, I mean it's in real life, except it's round nine. I mean they didn't even go to round fifteen to get there. They're already there round nine. ⁓ but thankfully for them this is not a fifteen round fight or even a twelve round fight. They only have one more round to go 'cause that And Well, we'll even see if they both come out for the twelve for the tenth round. ⁓ and there's some controversy on that too, isn't there?
speaker-1: Yeah. There sure is, ⁓ I I I I would have been okay with Cappuccino stopping it. Of course I'm more okay with him not stopping it. But it was r he he had to be close to pulling the trigger.
speaker-0: Yeah. For sure he was close and it's un it's unclear whether ⁓ Gotti's corner was close too because it's like they c they come out and I think it looks ev people in both corners look like they thought the fight was over.
speaker-1: I thought the fight was over. I I went so so we're going to round ten now. Right. So I give that round ten eight. Yep, two ⁓ the round of the year lived up to that and more. They come out it it looks like ⁓ Gotti's saying, No, I don't wanna come out. Yeah. We're not the fight's over. And and wards starts celebrating and there's a there's quite a few people in the ring, about three from each corner in the ring. Yeah. It sure looks like everybody I think Gotti's corner was quitting and Cappuccino's like, What are you doing? The fight ain't over.
speaker-0: Yes, exactly. Made him go back out there.
speaker-1: Not only that, the timekeeper has started the round and does not stop it and thirty seconds has run off before they catch him up.
speaker-0: Yes. Everybody out. So two and a half minutes left in that round. And I wonder if that made any difference in how
speaker-1: So I think Gotti got a one minute rest when they finally said, Okay, I guess we're fighting, he was rested. ⁓ and it's just a terrible job of the timekeeper and probably by the ref. ⁓ but Gotti ⁓ controlled the tenth, I thought, and Ward was getting rocked by the end of it. Yeah. ⁓ and I think it's all because I think it was a KO that was waiting to happen and through Incompetence is the only word I can think of for the timekeeper and possibly Cappuccino, who I have a ton of respect for. ⁓ the fight was allowed to continue continue. Gotti took advantage and I thought clearly won the tenth. How'd you see it?
speaker-0: ⁓ agreed. ⁓ I do I think ⁓ I don't know if the extra thirty seconds ⁓ at the end of the round would have helped Gaudy finish off Ward or not. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure that if that round had started right away, ⁓ in in the in the tenth as it should have instead of starting late that that probably would have definitely given Ward a chance to get in there and just swarm him and kill him and be d scrape him off his shoe is what I think.
speaker-1: Gaudiwa intended for that round to happen because his corner people were in the ring with
speaker-0: It's weird. ⁓ it's weird, but you're right. Cappuccino's basically saying, What are you doing? The fight's still on. He's literally like got one guy's neck over here and the other guy's neck over here. He's like putting him come on, you guys are supposed to fight here. It's like, you know, ⁓ dad, we don't want to fight anymore. Well, you're gonna fight anyway, because it's a tenth round and I get paid to be on camera and I'm yeah. So it but you're exactly right. I at some point ⁓ I also wrote that ⁓ it sure felt like Ward was giving Gotti the round. And then and then I said and then a re and then a Rocky Two remake happens where literally the two of them are just standing there kind of waggling like this and occasionally going, WHAP You know, they're not even they don't even put their hands up to you know, and their heads are just like on s shock absorbers. It's like you can almost hear the pinball sound when they get hit. Ding ding ding ding ding, you know, when they get hit and stuff like that.
speaker-1: And it's crazy too 'cause this could be a pivotal round on the scorecard. In fact it almost certainly has
speaker-0: You may say it's pivotal, so at the end of the round I gave it ten nine to Gaudy. So let's go to the scorecards. ⁓ Harold Letterman's gonna score this fight ninety four ninety four a draw.
speaker-1: Which I am okay with. How'd you score?
speaker-0: I scored at ninety-four ninety-four a draw. I had I had ward up one after the end of nine and he gave the fight away, it felt like. Yeah, if he just goes out there and like puts in he had to have been the guy with more in the tank left at this point, right? He had to be. After the ninth round, he had to be. If he got flummoxed or what happened to him, but man, he just gave it away. But I I say that no one for well.
speaker-1: Had to be. Gotti. Yeah. I had it ninety five, ninety three for Gotti. That being said, it's one of those fights where you're probably gonna be okay with ⁓ anything that's not an Adelaide Bird scorecard.
speaker-0: Yeah. And we're not gonna get that because ⁓ the two ⁓ the three ⁓ judges are gonna score at Lombardi's gonna score at ninety four, ninety four, even just like me. ⁓ Weisfeld is gonna score at ninety-five ninety three, which is what you had it, right? Mm-hmm. And then Flaherty's gonna go ninety four ninety three for Ward. So Ward wins two of the three with the third one being even. Majority decision for Mickey Ward.
speaker-1: I had it ninety five, ninety three for Gotti though. Yeah.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, ⁓ yeah, that's right. You had a ninety-five ninety three for Gotti. That's right. So ⁓ yeah, so but yeah, I thought ⁓ I thought this was ⁓ incredibly impressive fight in terms of both of these guys really, you know, showed they were dominant at one aspect of it. Ward when they were brawling, ⁓ the the the sloppier it looked the better Ward was and the sharper they looked the better Gotti was. ⁓ Gotti fell too much into the trap of fighting Ward's fight. or let Ward kind of ⁓ dictate the terms and that's what lost in the fight, which makes it completely okay in my book that that's how it ended.
speaker-1: I'm okay with it too. I it ⁓ there was a clear punch stat advantage for Gotti, so I'm a little surprised by the decision. Yeah. But also in a close fight that's a war where one guy has a point deducted and gets knocked down, yeah. ⁓ you know, that makes up a lot of ground. So I'm okay with it.
speaker-0: It's tremendous. It a tremendous fight. And a tr fight so tremendous that they will fight twice more.
speaker-1: Yeah. And they're not gonna wait years and years to do it. They're
speaker-0: Both of those fights are gonna be in the next year, right? So both those fights will take place in two thousand three, I think, and one of them, spoiler alert, we will be talking about at some point later because it will also be fight of the year for two thousand three, whereas it was for two thousand two. So that's pretty amazing. ⁓ well by by the way, not be the last time we see that because you are correct that ⁓ Israel Vasquez and Roel Marquez will have two fight of the years in a row as well. So they did twice it they did two of their three fights ended up as fights of the year as well. So that's very exciting. and we've of course watched those already. This was new for me and ⁓ yeah, ⁓ Mickey Ward is quite a quite a fighter, really ⁓ really is ex exemplifying the ⁓ Irish schlugger kind of aspect of boxing.
speaker-1: Yeah, he reminds me of kind of Jake Lamata and Raging Bull. Yeah. Just ⁓ I'm coming in, I'm gonna take w pay whatever price it takes to impose my will on you.
speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ man. Yeah. Listen, I thought Canelo in the last fight we did was just tremendous going to the body and these guys are both like that. I mean these guys can really I mean they they they look like they're when they're punching the head it's a completely different thing than when they're going to the body. They go to the body, it's like you know, it's like the difference between hammering a nail in the wall for a picture and swinging a sledgehammer trying to drive, you know, a spike in the ground. It's amazing how just ⁓ how much a power they put in those body shots is amazing.
speaker-1: The other the other thing about these two is is that ⁓ defense is just a rumor. They neither one of these guys is a great defensive ⁓ fighter.
speaker-0: Defensive fighting, I don't think it exists. Yeah, bang, bang, bang. Yeah, so ⁓ so if we're gonna put this in the spin master then and say, okay, we if we're we have two fights in front of us that we've done we did Canelo Alvarez, Kennedy Galovkin two, which was fight of the year in twenty eighteen. This is our second one. ⁓ Ward Gotti one. ⁓ where do you rank these two relative to each other?
speaker-1: Well, it's not close. I have Ward Gotti One which is a definite war and legit fight of the year. And then I have ⁓ Alvarez and Galavkin, which was a good very good fight and an excellent fight, but not a great fight, in my opinion.
speaker-0: Be you speak ⁓ truth. So ⁓ so that takes us through our second of our fifty fight ⁓ cavalcade. ⁓ up next ⁓ when next we meet we will be spinning the wheel and the wheel landed on ⁓ nineteen seventy eight, which means that we will be taking up Muhammad Ali defending his title against one Leon Spinks aka Kid Quick. So that's very exciting. Can't wait. ⁓ w one of the f earliest boxing memories I have is this fight, I think, unless it's a fake memory, which I'm perfectly ⁓ willing to admit is a possibility, but I do remember watching this fight, I believe, with my dad. My dad really, really, really, really, really wanted somebody to beat Muhammad Ali, and we'll see if it happens in the fight of the year nineteen seventy-eight with when Leon Spinks at six ⁓ and one challenges for the heavyweight championship with
speaker-1: Are we doing that Thursday? I can't.
speaker-0: Can't remember. I think so. It's not gonna be very long, ladies and gentlemen. So if you're hanging on every word, ⁓ waiting for that next episode to drop, you won't have to wait very long.
speaker-1: And I believe this fight will feature the greatest disparity in size between ref and combatants in the history of boxing. So I'm looking forward to it.
speaker-0: That is gonna be awesome to behold. All right. So thanks again for joining us here on Saturday Night to Fight Cinema Cully, and we'll see you next time.
