America at Large:Between May of 2002 and June of the following year they engaged in three savage, 10-round battles, two of which were named "fight of the year". In the course of those 30 rounds both men reported near-death experiences, and once the trilogy was complete one of the blood-and-guts warriors announced his retirement.
The other said he would think about it.
If they ever renewed their rivalry, both men promised, it would be on the golf course.
Micky Ward remained true to his word. His third fight against Arturo Gatti was the last of his career. He had planned to spend this summer getting ready for his role as hands-on host for his August charity event, the Irish Micky Ward Celebrity Golf Tournament, which benefits the Retired Boxers Foundation.
Gatti, perhaps unwisely, fought on. In 2004, he won the vacant WBC light welterweight title by defeating the Italian Gianluca Branco, but when he lost it to Floyd Mayweather Jr a year later he hadn't won a single round on any of the three scorecards when the fight was stopped after six.
A similar result obtained last summer when he challenged Carlos Baldomir for the WBC and WBA welterweight titles. Gatti had been down twice and his face was a mess by the time trainer Buddy McGirt implored referee Wayne Hedgepeth to halt the carnage in the ninth round.
McGirt had counselled retirement, and when Gatti announced that he was going back into battle one more time, it was clear he would need a new trainer.
So he phoned Micky Ward.
"We kicked around a few names, but Micky was the guy I wanted," recalled Gatti.
"I was kind of surprised," said Ward, "but I said 'sure'."
Few outside the boxing fraternity can understand how two fellows who have beaten one another's brains out can emerge friends the next morning, but Gatti and Ward are hardly unique in having forged a bonding relationship through their battles. Sugar Ray Robinson and Jake LaMotta had six blood-spattered fights, but when Jake got married, Sugar Ray was his best man.
Since hanging up his gloves four years ago, Ward had trained a few New England boxers, including reality television show Contender alumnus Jeff Fraza, which if nothing else ought to give him a leg up in preparing Gatti for his July 14th foe, Alfonso Gomez, a boxer whose familiarity to the public rests almost entirely on his participation in the series.
A Canadian citizen, Gatti is an adopted New Jerseyite, and the Gomez fight will represent the ninth straight time he has been featured in a main event at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, where his exciting style (promoter Kathy Duva describes him as a "human highlight film") and never-say-die credo have earned him a faithful following.
On paper, at least, you'd have to say that Gomez seems unlikely to hurt Gatti, but as Ward conceded on Tuesday, "at this stage of his career, you have to consider every opponent dangerous".
When the bout was officially announced in New York two days ago, the question came up: was the notion of Micky Ward training his old foe a cheap publicity stunt, or could he actually help? Ward seemed to feel that he could be most beneficial by teaching an old dog old tricks.
"Nobody needs to teach Arturo anything," said Ward. "He knows how to fight. He's a three-time world champion, and there's nothing you can really tell a guy who's been in this game as long as he has.
"What I have to do is get his mind positive, get his legs in shape, and get him back to doing what he does best - and that's boxing."
For the past two weeks the old rivals have worked out together three times a day at Gatti's training camp in Florida.
"I run with him every day," said Ward. "We run early in the morning, and then we go to the boxing gym together at 11. Then at night we go back to the gym and work again."
Thus far Ward has only worked the mitts with Gatti. That will change next week when the sparring partners arrive. At least initially, Gatti will prep for Gomez by sparring with Fraza and with Dennis Sharpe, a New Jersey middleweight who went the distance with Andy Lee, Buddy McGirt's son James McGirt Jr, and Thomas Hearns' son Ronald in his last three losses.
"We may bring in a couple of other guys later," said Ward, but Micky vows he won't be one of them.
"He already hit me enough," said Ward.
Gatti may be only 35, but in boxing years he's much older. He's never had an easy fight, and many of them - including all three against Ward - were absolute wars.
Nor has he always taken the best care of himself. Between fights, Gatti can be an absolute party animal.
(After an all-night piss-up in Miami several years ago, Gatti was charged with assaulting a local lounge lizard who had apparently been overzealous in propositioning his girlfriend. Arturo initially protested his innocence, but his alibi unravelled because the staples securing the fellow's hair implants had left telltale marks on his fists.)
Given that one former trainer of the year, McGirt, has already severed his ties with Gatti on humanitarian grounds, we wondered if Ward was prepared to do the same in his new role as trainer.
Is Micky prepared to look Gatti in the eye and say, "Sorry, Arturo, you just don't have it any more?"
"Absolutely," said Ward. "If I saw signs of that, I'd be the first to tell him - even if it's before this fight. But so far I haven't."
Gatti's training camp may turn out to be the first in boxing history where the trainer and the fighter duck out to play golf together between sparring sessions.
"That will be our fight," said Ward. "On the golf course."
