By Terence Dooley

Micky Ward had more than his fair share of wars during his 51-fight career (38-13 with 27 KOs), the former WBU light-middleweight title-holder signed out of the sport with 30 rounds of gritty boxing against the warrior's warrior, Arturo Gatti.  Both men gave it their all during this trilogy, especially in their first meeting, won by Ward via majority-decision, a fight in which Ward added to a reputation built on pulsating fights against Shea Neary and Emanuel Augustus.

Ward is the subject of a movie, The Fighter, and there is Oscar talk for the Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale-helmed film.  Micky has passed his warrior mantle onto Amir Khan, he told boxingfutures.com that the WBA light-welterweight title-holder earned his spurs during his December points win over Rene Marcos Maidana.

"Khan is a great fighter.  He’s tall, got a good stature and an even better right hand.  He needs to keep his chin down but he’s with the best trainer and if anybody can get him ready for a tough fight, Freddie Roach can.  For someone to get knocked out the way he did and comeback to be as good as he is now, credit to him, people don’t usually do that.  Everybody’s a good fighter when they’re winning but to be stopped like that and come back, that takes a lot of heart," stated Ward.

Please send news and views to neckodeemus@hotmail.co.uk