Gatti's Career Over

[swerb]

Just caught an absolute ass whooping from Alfonso Gomez from The Contender.

The Micky Ward trilogy will forever live in boxing lore, but Gatti just hasn't been the same since then. While never a great fighter, Gatti has been fun to watch.

This beating ends his relevance though. That's three ass whoopins in a row ... Mayweather, Baldomir, and now Gomez.

[peeker643]

Thank god for Larry Hazzard smartly stepping in and doing what Mickey Ward and the referee didn't do: Stop that beating.

If you're old and slow boxing will expose you. Gatti was exposed for that entire fight and that 7th round was brutal.

The guy has now lost double figure fights yet he's still a draw. Hopefully, someone is able to keep him out of the ring because he'll be lucky to not to feel the effects of this fight when he's 65, much less adding to the abuse he's taking by fighting again.

I agree Swerb. The Gatti-Ward trilogy, despite being between two of the more pedestrian fighters you can find, was sheer gold and some of the most captivating competition I've ever watched. If anyone has a link to where you can buy the trilogy I'd buy it tonight.



For that reason alone I'd hope Gatti hangs up the gloves. Seeing him getting beaten like that again would be pathetic.


By the way, possibly the only guy more incoherent than Gatti right now is Larry Merchant. How does the guy retain a job? I can make a sandwich in between words of his sentences. I love Lampley, I love Max Kellerman, I love Steward doing color. But Larry Merchant fancies himself a boxing poet and his act is as bad as it gets in sports commentary. The post fight interview should be a sitcom. Larry mumbling 1 word per minute while the guy being interviewed thanks Jesus
in between each of Merchant's words as the boxer's bloodied and battered opponent lies unconscious at their feet with Don King waving a miniature flag behind them.

I fall off the couch every time I see it.

[Guest]

The ref let the fight go on way too long, horrible job by that old fat slob.
Larry Merchant has lost his mind I think, he used to be pretty good, and that was not that long ago.

[swerb]

They had to let that fight keep going. In Gatti's hometown, and hes fought back from beatings like that before. Granted, we all knew he wasn't going to come back from that last night ... but I can see how the ref let it keep going. To Gatti's credit, he was still throwing bombs through that ass whoopin.

Gatti put it best himself in his post fight presser.

"Im not strong enough at 147. I can't make weight at 140. So basically that means Hasta La Vista baby."

Merchant was once great, he still asks great questions in the post fight interviews. But hes going the way of Pat Summerall. Senility is setting in, tarnishing a great career as a boxing commentator.

[peeker643]

I agree he was once very good and I agree he still asks the tough questions. It's just that I could bust out the laptop, fire off the questions via email to the fighters themselves, and get a similar response, all in the time it takes Larry to form a sentence.

He's becoming a caricature of himself.

For what it's worth, I thought the Williams/Margarito fight was extremely entertaining. Not having seen Williams fight I thought I was watching Mark Breland walking into the ring. Nearly the same height, both welterweights, neither capable of knocking anyone out with one punch and they actually look similar.

But then I heard Williams talk afterward. No 'Lords of Discipline' roles for him. Probably won't hear him doing books on tape either. Hopefully his fight career goes well.

Williams won that fight despite Margarito's thoughts otherwise. But it was active and fun to watch.

And the other thing on HBO I still listen for and get a kick out of every time is when Lampley asks Harold Lederman about his scorecard. Lederman, every single time, laughs before going into his score.

"Oh-o-o-kay Jim..ha -ha-ha.....I have it 58-54 in favor of...."

Man. I love HBO. Deadwood, Sopranos, Oz, CYE and HBO Boxing all have entertaining characters.

[Guest]

Lederman is pretty bad also.
He screams JIM
It drives me crazy.

[swerb]

Williams was impressive, but I don't know he if ultimately has the punching power to hang with a Cotto or a Mayweather.

However, if he can stay away from them, continue to throw 100 punches a round, and get it to the judges ... I think he is talented enough to make it interesting.

First time I saw Williams last night. I was impressed. A young American with a big smile and seemingly pleasant demeanor. Hes quick, crisp, and has alot of natural ablity. Still seems weird seeing someone his height fight at that weight class though. As Lampley said, it evokes memories of Tommy Hearns.

IMO, outside of the heavyweight mess, boxing bashing has no merit to me right now. The middle weight classes are loaded with good talent right now. The big fights have been happening for the most part. And 80% of them have been free on HBO or Showtime.

[peeker643]

Williams was impressive, but I don't know he if ultimately has the punching power to hang with a Cotto or a Mayweather.

However, if he can stay away from them, continue to throw 100 punches a round, and get it to the judges ... I think he is talented enough to make it interesting.

First time I saw Williams last night. I was impressed. A young American with a big smile and seemingly pleasant demeanor. Hes quick, crisp, and has alot of natural ablity. Still seems weird seeing someone his height fight at that weight class though. As Lampley said, it evokes memories of Tommy Hearns.

IMO, outside of the heavyweight mess, boxing bashing has no merit to me right now. The middle weight classes are loaded with good talent right now. The big fights have been happening for the most part. And 80% of them have been free on HBO or Showtime.

I agree. There's talent and entertainment value, especially the HBO fights and even on Boxing after Dark. I still refuse to watch the fights on ESPN since they seemingly televise them makeshift rings set up in taverns but the HBO and Showtime fights I look forward to.

As to the heavyweights, you're starting to see the Russians assert themselves again. That may spur some attention to the division on the American side and you could start to see some heavyweights develop over the next few years.

But I honestly don't care at which weight I watch a good fight. That seems to be a cyclical situation.

[Guest]

The only bashing going on is the fact that the best fights aren't made when they should be.
Oh yeah, and the fact that there is garbage fights on pay per view A LOT

Vargas vs Mayorga?
Wright vs Hopkins? I'm still trying to figure out the point of this fight.

There is a ton of talent out there and they need to start setting up tournament type fights to eliminate guys from contention.