THE WILL TO WIN, TO BE THE BEST
By Rick Folstad
Inside
Boxing Writer
INSIDEBOXING.COM ( November 6, 2002) - It was a bad run for Mickey Ward. Four
fights, four losses. Tomato-can numbers, retirement time.
They were against tough guys, but so what? They were still heartbreakers, still losses. And that’s all that counts.
Losing always stings. Put four losses back-to-back and you start working overtime on the asphalt paver, stopping by Lenny’s Bar for a cold one on the way home.
You start thinking about career changes and how much fun it would be to put on 20 soft pounds without worrying about spitting it off later.
But most of all, you start asking yourself if you’re really as good as you believe you are. And you’re not sure you want to know the answer.
“When you lose your confidence, you don’t have that will to win,’’ said Ward, whose ‘will to win’ is the best thing he carries into the ring. “And I got sick of getting thrown in (on short notice). I said to myself, ‘I’m not getting used no more.’ So I quit for three years.’’
From 1991 to 1994.
But he couldn’t stay away. It’s hard to turn your back on something you know you’re good at, something you love.
“I knew I was still young enough to come back,’’ Ward said. “It wasn’t like I was fooling myself, that I was too old. I was still young and I didn’t want to be asking myself in a few years, ‘what if?’ The best thing I got going for me is the desire and the will to win.’’
With a little help from his left hook, his will to win has carried him to a top-ten ranking, all the way to his first and now his second fight with Arturo Gatti on Nov. 23 in Atlantic City, a rematch most of us marked on our calendar a month ago.
The thing about Ward-Gatti II is that the winner doesn’t take home a belt. He isn’t promised a title fight and his name won’t be printed in a book of world champions. But it could be the best fight we see this year, or the second best. Ward-Gatti I back in May will be tough to beat, even by Ward and Gatti.
“Irish” Mickey won that fight by a majority decision. It was the kind of fight where you jump to your feet and shake the hand of the stranger next to you when it’s over because you both just witnessed something special.
“A lot of people get big money and they don’t put on the fight we do,’’ Ward said in a moment of big-league understatement. “I’ve been around long enough. There’s a lot of politics involved.’’
He’s right. At 37, he has been around a long time, at least when you start talking fight years. And there’s more politics in the fight game than in a 10-hour marathon of The West Wing. But the thing about politics is, it can’t throw right hand leads or hooks to the belly or slip an overhand right. It disappears at the opening bell and usually is ashamed to show itself again until after the final bell.
Politics has never been friendly to Ward, but it doesn’t make much difference now. This probably won’t be his last fight, but if he peeks over Gatti’s shoulder, he can see the end of the line.
“One or two more fights at the most,’’ Ward said. “Then I’m done. And I’ll be happy.’’
What happens after that?
“I’m still doing construction,’’ Ward said. “I’ll be back on the asphalt paver.’’
This
time, he won’t be asking himself, “what if?’’
Contact Rick Folstad at ringfan108@aol.com