It brought me great sadness to realize the kind of warrior boxing had lost...especially as of late when boxers are all too quick to quit, give up, run away--all to avoid punishment.
After the Ortiz-Maidana fight, Max Kellerman went on to say that "more is required in the sport of boxing than any other, maybe more than what is reasonable." Gatti knew what the fans required. And he sacrificed happily.
There is a hard price to pay in boxing: he paid it gladly. A true warrior. A throwback.
Boxing will be hard-pressed to find a fighter like Arturo Gatti.
"To me, you can find Arturo's whole life in one round—the ninth round of the first fight with Micky Ward. Everything that Arturo was is in that round. He's overly brave. He's almost willingly sacrificial. He's unbelievably, blindingly courageous to the point of being foolhardy. He responds to the roar of the crowd. He's bleeding and obviously badly hurt. He's at death's door and he survives it. It's all there." -Jim Lampley
"When we mention the word 'warrior'— he is the epitome of a warrior. What made Gatti so special was that he would actually fight with his body busted up, his hands broken, his jaw hurt, his ribs hurt, everything. And then just out of nowhere he would put all the pain aside and come back with his one hand dangling and fight like a wild man. That's what made him different than any other prizefighter I have ever seen in my life." -Emmanuel Steward
No comments:
Post a Comment