Everyone who has seen David O. Russell’s The Fighter knows by now the life and travails of not just Mickey Ward but that of his half-brother Dick Eklund. The film showed Ward at his lowest and struggles to get another chance to succeed and make a name for himself in the annals of boxing lore. The climactic bout between Ward and Neary to finish off the film was well choreographed and looked quite realistic (compared to the one’s for the Rocky series).

I am one of the film’s fans who would’ve picked another fight to truly make that impact to Ward finally making it big after all the drama and familial issues Mickey Ward had to maneuver to finally get his chance to shine. As great a fight as the Neary-Ward fight was in the end the one that should’ve been picked and re-enacted was the first of what would be called one of the greatest trilogy of fights between two fighters in boxing history: Gatti-Ward I.

The fight would earn Ring magazine’s 2002 fight of the year and the 9th round would go down as one of the greatest boxing rounds ever as both Arturo Gatti and Mickey Ward would not give an inch to each other. To be able to see this re-enacted would’ve been a dream of any boxing fan. It’s a good thing we have HBO to keep a visual record of the round so we can continue to watch and marvel at two fighters who actually deserve the label of having “heart and soul”.

(The Fighter review by Lisa Marie)