K.O.W. - The Manly Art of No Defense

"The manly art of no defense" is how Budd Schulberg famously characterized the style of Arturo "Thunder" Gatti, and it's a style that has given fight fans many a thrill over the years and yet exacted a heavy price from its practitioner. A recent Dan Rafael article on ESPN.com discussed the fact that every borderline contender within 20 pounds of Gatti wants a crack at him right now, and the reason is obvious - he's a treasured fighter with a huge built-in audience, and yet he's well past his prime and clearly vulnerable in the ring. Everybody thinks they can take him now and make easy money in the process.

Myself, I wish Arturo would retire. I worry about him. Doctors often say that the worst damage that can be done to a fighter in the ring comes when he takes punches after a certain phase of pugilistic dementia already has begun, that to get hit in the head at this stage exponentially hastens the demise of brain function. Arturo does not seem at all punchy right now, and clearly he has superhuman powers of recovery, but for all the wars he's been through, one has to imagine that he's incurred some level of brain injury. I feel like now is the time for him to get out and have a chance at a happy healthy life outside the ring before he does himself some irreparable harm.

That said, at this point the guy has had more lives than Rocky himself, and if he's determined to fight again, I wouldn't count him out or count a bout with him to be easy money just yet. He's slow as molasses these days, no doubt, but he can still bang, and, well, what needs to be said about his heart? For a little evidence on that score, in this installment of our No Mas Knockout of the Week, I take you back to the Ring Magazine Fight of 1997, a five-round war between Gatti and Gabriel Ruelas for Thunder's IBF Super Featherweight belt. Many of you I'm sure remember this fight - the video below is a nice highlight reel of what was undoubtedly one of the greatest displays of "the manly art of no defense" of the 90's. And it ends with a murderous KO to boot.