Fighting to Become Something - Ward vs. Gatti - 1
If your a fan of boxing and a fan of movies, most everyone is familiar with The Fighter, a screen depiction made famous by Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale, depicting Lowell, Massacheustes boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward and his brother/trainer Dicky Ekland. The plot of the movie is focused on the rise of Ward, a scrabbling youth and amateur boxer from a blue collar town and a hard family who rose from union gravel paver to World contender. Although the film does a wonderful job of painting the picture of Ward’s rise, it does little to encapsulate Mickey Ward’s stardom and power. Like any good movie, The Fighter begs the audience to ponder the rest of Mickey Ward’s story. What happened next, what did he become?
When we watch a documentary like Free Solo, we yearn to see the rock climber, who digs and scrambles across the mountain face, reach the peak of his mountain. In a moment hardly known by the millions who saw Mickey’s movie, the main character of this particular climb clenched his fists into the dirt, and pulled himself over the edge of his summit on May 18, 2002. In what has now been referenced as the “fight of the century” two simple and somewhat obscure gladiators entered a boxing ring on the floor of a casino in New England, and limped out as Legends.
In one corner stood Mickey Ward, the great grandson of Irish immigrants, in the other stood Arturo Gatti, an immigrant himself. The fight was to determine the Welterweight Champion of the world. Two men, whose combined weight totaled no more than 300 pounds, brawled like two lions pitted against each other in a cage. They bruised and battled for ten rounds. They displayed a masterful combination of both technique and shear tenacity, the likes of which we may never again see between two men in the arena of sport. In a fight that makes one ponder the very nature of the will of human beings, there they stood, blow for blow, proving to themselves that they deserved something better, that they were more than the label that society bestowed on them.
As Americans, the stories of men and women rising from poverty and obscurity to new heights are tales that we connect to deeply. It’s why we love Rocky, and in some strange way it’s why love The Godfather. This tale, however, is not one that was derived from fiction. Their story is real, and we owe it to these heroes to cherish it forever.
“Come On Let’s Fight”