"The Fighter" Trailer - The Micky Ward Story (BADASS)
Wow. This movie looks freakin' awesome. I totally forgot this was coming out. Last time I heard about The Fighter was last summer when my brother told me they were filming scenes in downtown Lowell. I'm glad they went with a Boston area actor in Mark Wahlberg so that the accent was legit. Lowell has a different accent He can also play those gritty characters which was necessary to portray Ward.
A lot of people might not know who Micky Ward is but he is a huge blue collar hero in Massachusetts. He worked his way up through the ranks but was never a big name and was getting ready to retire in his early 30's when he finally got the shot to fight
Boxing has lost it's popularity over the years due to the interest in MMA and UFC so it seems strange that they would sign off on another boxing movie but once you know the story of Micky Ward's life, you realize why it was made. Here's a quick summary of Micky Ward from Wikipedia:
"Irish" Micky Ward (born October 4, 1965) is a retired junior welterweight professional boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts. He is best known for his trilogy of fights with the late Arturo Gatti.
Ward won three New England Golden Gloves titles as an amateur before turning pro in 1985. He was coached by former New England Olympic Champion John Peverada (of Portland Maine). He started off 14-0 in his professional career, but after a stretch of defeats in the early 1990s, Ward hung up the gloves for a period of three years. He returned in 1994 with a vengeance, winning nine straight fights and earning some fights against big name fighters like Gatti.
Ward was known for his devastating left hook to the body and his ability to withstand punishment while waiting to land his trademark shot. A perennial underdog, he has been known to suddenly drop his opponent in the late rounds with a single shot to the body (as he did against Emanuel Augustus, then known as Emanuel Burton).
After a 15-year pro career, the veteran Ward gained widespread fame in his May 18, 2002 fight with Arturo Gatti, broadcast live on HBO. In 2001, Ward's battle with Emanuel Augustus on July 13 had been named the Ring Magazine Fight of the Year, a fight some thought Augustus won, and it served to set up the much-anticipated Ward-Gatti matchup. Ward-Gatti I saw both fighters withstand an amazing amount of punishment through 10 rounds of non-stop action. Ward, who dropped Gatti in the ninth round with a vicious left hook to the body, won the fight by majority decision.
Ward-Gatti I was hailed as the "Fight of the Century" by boxing fans and writers, and Round 9 of that bout was called "The Round of the Century" by Emanuel Steward, who co-hosted the fight live on HBO. Ring Magazine named Ward-Gatti I the Fight of the Year for 2002 and round 9 the Round of the Year.
In their rematch, Ward-Gatti II on November 23, 2002, Gatti neutralized Ward's body punching power by boxing and staying low. In the third round, Gatti knocked Ward to the canvas with a thundering overhand right which landed on Ward's ear. Ward sprawled into the turnbuckle and stayed down for the mandatory 8 count. Nobody, especially Gatti (who after the fight called it "the hardest punch I've ever landed") expected Ward to get up, never mind finish the fight.
Throughout the 90's, and while training for the Gatti trilogy, Ward worked on a paving crew for Newport Construction Corporation. Some of the scenes from the movie 'The Fighter', were actually filmed on location at a Newport paving job in Lowell Mass.
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