Previous to Micky Ward vs Emanuel Augustus, Combat of the 12 months laurels had been sometimes reserved for larger profile battles than these headlining ESPN’s “Friday Evening Fights” collection. Performing for a twenty-sixth time on the present, veteran “Irish” Micky Ward neared the tail-end of a wildly entertaining profession. Certainly, he and Augustus (then Emanuel Burton) boasted a mixed document of 60-27-4, making the bout a becoming headliner in that it promised fireworks between two well-seasoned warriors, even when the match lacked actual significance or influence on the divisional rankings. However then once more, typically a struggle is so intense and dramatic that the thrill quotient alone interprets to real significance. Such was the case for Ward vs Augustus.
In any case, data not often inform the total story, particularly within the case of those two recreation battlers, who gave boxing way more than mere leisure once they clashed on the On line casino Ballroom in New Hampshire. Whereas it had taken the Lowell, Massachusetts-based Irishman greater than a decade to make a reputation for himself, Ward had confirmed himself and gained legions of followers along with his startling liver shot KO of Alfonso Sanchez in 1997. Since then, Micky had pushed a younger Zab Judah to the brink in what Zab later referred to as his hardest struggle, earlier than scoring spectacular knockouts over Shea Neary and Steve Quinonez.
In the meantime, if Emanuel didn’t have an ideal deal to point out on paper for his 24-17-4 run as a professional, he too knew entertain. A sufferer of neglectful administration and poor matchmaking, Burton had been thrown in with the wolves in the course of the nascent phases of his growth and infrequently made to take fights on extraordinarily brief discover. It wasn’t till he confronted Floyd Mayweather Jr. that Augustus separated himself from the pack, drawing blood from “Fairly Boy” earlier than arising brief in a warfare that Floyd would later name the hardest struggle of his profession.
Ward and Burton met in Hampton Seaside, New Hampshire in a match-up that promised loads of fireworks between two males with nothing to lose and all the things to achieve. And to additional improve the possibilities of one thing action-packed erupting, the referee chosen was none aside from Steve Smoger, who had a strong status for taking a hands-off strategy and letting pugilists freely combine it up.
Nearly instantly, Ward introduced the struggle to Augustus, driving him to the nook and setting himself to unload a fearsome assault in a gap spherical that set the stage for what can be an unforgettable battle. Augustus began the second within the heart of the ring, touchdown the cleaner punches on Micky earlier than Ward as soon as once more pinned his man in opposition to the ropes, smothering him with mean-spirited firepower. If Augustus was touchdown successfully off the ropes, he was additionally clearly combating Micky’s struggle, and regardless of how a lot enjoyable Augustus appeared to be having along with his attribute smiles and showboating, it didn’t seem Ward’s patented left hook to the liver was a lot of a laughing matter.
Emanuel began to get right into a rhythm within the third, dancing and bouncing round Micky in what seemed to be a mildly profitable try to get into Ward’s head. However Micky continued to do what he did finest, and within the fourth it appeared the naturally extra elusive Augustus was completely content material to have interaction in a back-and-forth slugfest that was really lovely to behold.
“Anyone watching this struggle at dwelling, in between rounds name your folks up,” mentioned ESPN commentator Teddy Atlas. “You’re seeing one thing that you simply don’t see too typically.”
The zeal displayed within the seemingly perpetual exchanges simply spoke for the extent of professionalism and aggressive nature of each warriors, who had been producing some staggering CompuBox stats within the course of. Throwing a mixed common of over 2 hundred punches per spherical, the warfare confirmed no indicators of abating within the fifth when Augustus appeared to harm Micky with a collection of pictures thrown along with his again to the ropes.
And whereas Ward rebounded within the sixth, Augustus completely teed off within the seventh, even giving Micky a style of his personal drugs with a left hook to the physique that stopped “Irish” useless in his tracks. Ward fired again within the eighth, however Augustus appeared just like the brisker of the 2 as they fiercely exchanged down the stretch, neither giving an inch in shut quarters.
However close to the top of spherical 9, and simply when the struggle seemed to be slipping out of attain for Ward, the pleasure of Lowell, Massachusetts landed his cash shot, a vicious left hook to the liver. Augustus, who had walked via scores of hellacious blows up to now, was lastly pushed to his knees. Ever the warrior, he beat Smoger’s depend, after which, slightly than attempt to survive for the rest of the spherical, went proper again at Micky, participating in a dramatic if ill-advised slugfest in opposition to an emboldened Irishman who smelled blood.
Going into spherical ten, Ward had thrown over a thousand punches, but when he had fired off extra pictures, Augustus had nonetheless landed 358 blows. The 2 had put up the numbers for a fast-paced twelve spherical warfare, and there was nonetheless yet another stanza to go; naturally, they each emptied their gasoline tanks in a riveting conclusion to an incredible donnybrook, with a cruel barrage of leather-based from either side.
With thirty seconds to go, Micky stepped again after taking a proper upstairs and a left to the physique and Augustus got here after him. “The Drunken Grasp” scored with a strong one-two however Ward fired again with an enormous left. They saved buying and selling as the group roared and the ultimate ten seconds had been a wild scene. And because the bell rang, Smoger didn’t a lot separate the 2 males as embrace them, clearly in awe of what he had simply witnessed.
“Combat of the 12 months!” screamed Atlas. And with Ward throwing 175 punches to Augustus’s 129 in that closing spherical alone, it was exhausting to argue that Atlas was doing something greater than stating the plain. And if the ultimate determination for Ward was well-earned, sadly the official rating playing cards didn’t replicate the true nature of the competition, one among them in Micky’s favour by an absurd eight level margin. Make no mistake, each males had carried out to their utmost skills in a extremely aggressive conflict that was thirty minutes of intense, continuous carnage.
A sixteen 12 months veteran by the point he beat Augustus, it was exhausting to think about Ward having a lot left on his odometer at this stage. However certain sufficient, a 12 months later he commenced his “Combat of the 12 months”-laden trilogy with Arturo Gatti, giving followers thirty extra rounds of thrilling, rough-and-tumble fight. After that he lastly sailed off into the sundown, ending his profession with a stretch of wonderful battles and, thankfully for him, some well-deserved massive paydays.
As for Augustus, his powerful luck continued to comply with him till he lastly hung them up for good in 2011. Retiring with one of the deceiving data ever recognized to the game of boxing at 38-34-6, Emanuel Augustus is simply one other instance of why to not decide a e-book by its cowl, particularly contained in the squared circle. — Alden Chodash
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