IRISH MICKY WARD

The slugger's slugger

Here he is, a random tribute, the "Irish" hand grenade, one of my favourite fighters of all time. There is not too much to say about Micky Ward. He lost a bunch of times and it has no bearing at all on his legendary status in the fight game. It wasn't really about the titles, it was about having a heart and balls the size of a mammoth, a green mammoth. The best thing is to watch full fights vs Emanuel Augustus, vs Alfonso Sanchez, vs Shea Neary, but most of all the famous trilogy against Arturo "Thunder" Gatti. Here are some highlights from that sublime concerto of slugging in three movements:

for a more interesting back story to Ward's career, his brother Dicky Eklund is one hell of a character too. He ran the streets in Lowell, Mass looking to score after having taken Sugar Ray Leonard the distance in  1978. Watch fantastc HBO documentary "High on Crack Street, Lost Lives in Lowell" then watch the Mark Whalberg biopic "The Fighter"

Got the time. Here is the full HBO doco