Irish Micky Ward, Underestimated King of Lethal Body Shots And Left Hooks
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
In the history of professional boxing in the modern era, one name stands out as being king of the devastating pinpoint body shots and left hooks, Irish Micky Ward, a fighter who made his indelible mark in the super lightweight and welterweight weight classes.
Fighting out of Lowell, Massachusetts, between 1985 and 2005, Micky fought in 51 pro bouts, compiling a record of 38 wins and 13 losses, with 37 knockouts. Micky fought his entire career between 136 and 142 pounds. His last three bruising brutal bouts, fought against the late Arturo Gatti in a 12 months stretch between 2002 and 2003, remain three of the most brutal 10 round bouts ever fought, with 30 rounds of non-stop action and excitement still being talked about to this day on YouTube and in boxing circles.
Micky opened his career winning 19 of his first 22 bouts, losing only disputed 10round decisions to Edwin Curet, Mike Munguin, and losing a 12 round decision to Frankie Warren in Atlantic City for the USA Super Lightweight title. A hot and cold fighter, Ward then won two bouts, lost four bouts, then won nine bouts and wound up in Boston in August 1997 in an International Boxing Federation World Super Lightweight bout with Vince Phillips, who stopped Ward on cuts within three rounds. Ward then won eight of his next eleven bouts. Losing a brutally hard fought 12 round decision to Zab Judah for the USBA Super Lightweight title, losing a decision to Antonio Diaz, and losing to fex-world champion Jesse James Leija on a technical decision in five rounds due to an accidental head butt sustained by Lejia. Ironically, Lijia’s career ended with a KO loss to Gatti.
No career went faster than Ward’s career went, in streaks against the best. Going into the Warren fight, 14 of Ward’s early opponents were knocked out by Ward in rounds one, two, three and four on body punches. 14 of Ward’s subsequent opponents were knocked out between rounds one and 10 on body punches. Ward stopped Reggie Green in the tenth round of a 10 rounder, stopped 22-0 Shea Neary to win the WBU version of the World Super Lightweight title, knocked out contender Steve Quinonez in the first round, and decisioned Emmanuel Augustus and Arturo Gatti in his last four wins. The rubber matches with Gatti are Ward’s legacy. Ward dropped Quiniones and Gatti with body shots. The Gatti bouts feature unparalleled body punch brutality yet unequaled. Ward still stands today, a survivor of the bouts which made him famous. True, 13 fighters did beat him and live to tell the tale. As ex-world champion Zab Judah, who sustained a number of broken ribs in his bout with Ward, so vividly remembered in later years about the encounter, fighting Irish Micky Ward for 12 rounds meant surviving a trip through boxing hell.
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