Legendary Nights II
by William Dettloff - hbo.com/boxing
June 11, 2003

If there's anything negative that can be said of HBO's excellent "Legendary Nights" series, which formally concluded on May 21st with Lennox Lewis' kayo of Mike Tyson, it's that it was limited to just 12 fights. With the dozens of wonderful prizefights HBO has aired over the last 30 years, there's material enough for, at the least, a Legendary Nights II. And if anyone in home office is listening, here are a few suggestions to get the ball rolling.

Arturo Gatti KO 6 Wilson Rodriguez
When: March 23, 1996
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York City

Why It Was Great: We knew Gatti could box. We saw him do it against Tracy Harris Patterson. But against Rodriguez, we saw Gatti get hurt early and cut and fight through it. We saw him strain against logic and through bloody, swollen eyes and refuse to give up and we saw him climb off the canvas and charge headlong into the storm. We saw him wear down Rodriguez with booming body blows and then answer the roaring crowd with a crunching left hook that knocked Rodriguez out to end a fight as dramatic and thrilling as any you'll ever see. On this night, we saw Gatti become a star.

Marco Antonio Barrera KO 12 Kennedy McKinney
When: February 3, 1996
Where: Great Western Forum, Inglewood, California

Why It Was Great: This was before Barrera knew how to counter and jab and move, or at least before he was willing to. It was before he lost to Junior Jones and was still reckless in the ring. It also was just before McKinney's body gave out, before it all caught up with him. In 1996 McKinney was still a heck of a junior featherweight puncher and he brought it to Barrera for 11 1/2 rounds. They went back and forth, McKinney landing one straight right after another, while resolutely Barrera walked through it all and raked his body and head with left hooks until finally it was McKinney who had to give out. It had to be. But what a fight he put up along the way.

Micky Ward W 10 Arturo Gatti
When: May 18, 2002
Where: Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Connecticut

Why It Was Great:We all knew going into it that it would be a great fight and so it would have been natural for us to be disappointed by the end. But that rarest thing happened: it turned out better even than we had hoped. Gatti started fast by boxing of all things, then Ward's hook started landing and Gatti had to come down off his toes and fight him, just like we knew he would. First Gatti then Ward, then Ward then Gatti and you couldn't have blamed Frank Cappuccino for stopping it but we celebrated when he didn't. At the end it reminded us why we are fight fans and why we put up with all the nonsense: to get to fights like this.

Erik Morales W 12 Marco Antonio Barrera
When: February 19, 2000
Where: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada

Why It Was Great: It wasn't only that Barrera and Morales were the two best junior featherweights in the world, or that they struggled against one another to be recognized as Mexico's next great prizefighter. It was also their styles: Morales the long-armed, classy, right-hand puncher; Barrera the hard-driving left-hook specialist and dedicated body puncher. They meshed well and when they started winging hell at one another in the first round we knew it was going to be special. It was a beautiful kind of mayhem and even if you thought Barrera got robbed at the end, it was okay because you knew you'd seen the best of what could take place in a prize ring.

Ivan Robinson W 10 Arturo Gatti I & II
When: August 22 and December 12, 1998
Where: Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey

Why They Were Great: You couldn't ask for a better styles matchup: there was only one way Gatti could fight Robinson: charging in. And there was only one way Robinson could fight anyone: on his toes, jabbing and countering and violating all those Philadelphia traditions that say a fighter from that part of the world has to sit down and hook and get hit and like it. So they each did what they did best and even if both times Robinson's best was better, Gatti did nothing to damage his reputation as the world's most exciting fighter.

Wilfredo Gomez KO 14 Lupe Pintor
When: December 3, 1982
Where: Superdome, New Orleans Louisiana

Why It Was Great: On paper it didn't look like much. Yes Pintor had made eight bantamweight title defenses and scrabbled together some grudging respect since dethroning the great Carlos Zarate. But Gomez was a pound-for-pound entrant and probably the best junior featherweight ever. It had to be a mismatch, right? Wrong. Gomez' heavier, faster hands got him in front early and made him a winner at the end, but Pintor's stoic toughness and stubborn refusal to submit made Gomez fight for it every step of the way.

Oscar De La Hoya KO 12 Fernando Vargas
When: September 14, 2002
Where: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada

Why It Was Great: Maybe you thought it was silly of Vargas to carry around all that hatred for De La Hoya for all those years and to carry it into the ring with him. But a lot of smart guys thought that hatred and his naturally bigger body would overcome De La Hoya's greater talent and experience. They were almost right. They went back and forth, one round for Vargas the next for De La Hoya and late in the fight both still had it within their grasp. But De La Hoya's class finally won out and the hate hadn't been wasted after all; it helped produce one hell of a prizefight.

Thomas Hearns D 12 Ray Leonard
When: June 12, 1989
Where: Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada

Why It Was Great: It didn't feature the hype or importance of the first match and they both were older and slower but great rivalries are great forever and this was no exception. Hearns troubled Leonard for the same reasons he did the first time and then he floored him twice in the middle rounds with long right hands. But just like the first fight, when Leonard landed, Hearns wilted and in the last round Hearns had to hang on for his life as Leonard chased the knockout. The draw wasn't the revenge Hearns had hoped for, but you had to figure it was good enough - he'd made his point.

Arturo Gatti W 10 Micky Ward
When: June 7, 2003
Where: Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey

Why It was Great: Not as good as the first one - how could it be? - but better than the second, the final fight in what will forever be remembered fondly as The Gatti-Ward Trilogy didn't disappoint anyone, save for the Ward backers and even they couldn't complain. Sure Gatti controlled it but at the end he was bleeding just like had the first time and when Ward floored him in the sixth and battered him in the seventh, it was just like old times. In the end the better fighter won the series but to us that's far less important than what we witnessed along the way.

Felix Trinidad KO 12 Fernando Vargas
When: December 2, 2000
Where: Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada

Why It Was Great: You'd have bet anything there was no way Vargas was getting out of the first round after Trinidad nearly beheaded him with the hook. But Vargas did. He fought against the fog and against Trinidad's expert menace and willed himself back into it, staying alive and even dropping Trinidad with a hook of his own, validating his own worth as a world class junior middleweight. But against Trinidad world-class wasn't enough and Vargas had to know, as we all did, that sooner or later the hook would land again. It did and from a great struggle Trinidad's legend grew.

Arturo Gatti KO 5 Gabe Ruelas
When: October 4, 1997
Where: Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey

Why It Was Great: How could you root against either guy? You had to root for Gatti for being, well, Gatti. And you had to root for Ruelas for getting it together again. It went bad for him after he killed Jimmy Garcia in 1995. He wasn't the same guy after that or half the fighter but he put together a couple of wins and got back to the big time against Gatti and almost got it done. In a back and forth slugfest he had Gatti reeling early on and was handling Gatti's power when he walked into a hook that ended it. Until then it was a mesmerizing slugfest and the best fight of the year.

Naseem Hamed KO 4 Kevin Kelley
When: December 19, 1997
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York City

Why It Was Great: This was supposed to be two fighters going in opposite directions: Hamed's star clearly rising, Kelley's burning out. You also could have seen it as a potential passing of the guard, from one featherweight star to another. Or maybe you just saw it as a fight. That worked too because that's what it was. Kelley struck first, sending Hamed wobbling all over the ring and then Hamed's heavier hands and younger legs told. They traded knockdowns and roundhouse blows until Kelley couldn't get up anymore, turning a great fight into just what it was supposed to be.