Upon further review

I watched the Floyd/Gatti and then the Baldomir/Gatti fights back-to-back on HBO last night and I must say it was an eye-opener. Neither fight was exactly as I remembered it, and the hard evidence has dampened my enthusiasm for Floyd/Baldomir quite a bit.

1. Floyd/Gatti – Jesus. It’s a horse-whipping. It’s a man fighting the heavy bag. It's a man fighting a retarded puppy. I remembered Gatti being utterly humiliated, and in fact, it's worse than that. The fact that after such a beating Arturo ever ventured back into the ring really says something about the man. But I’m not sure what.

2. Baldomir/Gatti – This was nowhere near the whupping I remembered it being. At the time I think was surprised that Baldomir won the fight so convincingly, and in my mind that translated into utter dominance. It was actually a very competitive fight right until the last, with none other than Manny Steward saying early in the ninth, "Arturo can still win this fight." Gatti took a lot of punishment, but then so did Tata. If Arturo had boxed a little more, he could have won and saved himself a lot of pain. It was probably a curse for him that the fight was in A.C.

I wish someone would show the Zab fights back-to-back, because I think Baldomir was actually more impressive over Zab than Floyd was. But still, I doubt it would change my mind at this point. Gatti was the FASTER fighter in his bout with Baldomir. Think about that. I doubt Carlos will lay a clean punch on Floyd all night. Meanwhile, he will eat countless combinations. The only thing Tata has going for him is that head of his, which seems to made of solid granite. Then again, a couple hundred of Floyd’s one-two-uppercut's could probably knock out a Rodin. I say TKO in the 8th, and not much to enjoy before that unless you’re a sadist.