I Saw God Today

The first of the three Gatti - Ward fights was the best. The other two were simply money makers for HBO. The first was an honest all out brawl that lived up to the pre-fight hype. The 9th round represents everything good about boxing and the human spirit. (Click on highlighted segments for videos.)

The look on Gatti's face after the left hook to the liver early on in the 9th round says it's over. The spirit in his heart says it isn't. He got up at the count of 9 and a half.

Gatti up to this point in his career was noted for having the shit beaten out of him, fighting with both eyes swollen shut and coming back to score a knock out. His handlers, most likely for pecuniary reasons, took control of him and changed his style. It prolonged his career and earned him a lot of money. This is representative of turning boxing into a politically correct sport where the human spirit takes a back seat. Promoters have different agendas.

Boxing has from its inception, at least in the fighters heart, been about the human spirit. Men fighting with their ears almost torn off and dangling, men climbing back into the ring, men not giving up. If you are a real human, man or woman, you're a 9 and a half count human and you get up.

God is manifested in the human face.



I saw God today.
Both of him in an 18
square foot ring.

Gatti - Ward 1.
He died and was

resurrected in
Round 9. Both
of him.

I knelt.
and worshiped.

Text © David H. Roche 2009