Boxing Legends Arguello and Gatti Answer the Final Bell

Boxing Legends, Alexis Arguello and Arturo Gatti answered the final bell this past month.Both men were known as being champions in the brutal sport of prizefighting .Both fighters met an equal violent death.
Arturo Gatti was a crowd favorite in the east coast for years .Known for his swarming style and guts,Gatti was the fighter that no one had to doubt would put up a good fight.He always showed up and gave us his all. In victories he was exciting and in defeat he was even more exciting.Gatti first won a world title in outpointing Tracy Harris Patterson in 1995.Gatti's claim to fame was his epic trilogy, three wars against Mickey Ward. Four times Gatti participated in the Ring Magazine Fight of the Year. Gatti was found dead in the hotel room he shared with his wife. Strangled to death with his wife's purse. A tragic end to a great fighter.

As a young man, I watched with great interest, the style and grace that Alexis Arguello dispatched his opponents. I remembered how gracefully he knocked out Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini was a crowd favorite at that time.

I was struck that in a time that boxers expressed their macho with Roberto Duran like ferocity ,that Alexis was the quiet opposite. A gentleman that would knock you out and compliment you afterwards. With this demeanor Arguello fought Aaron "Hawk" Pryor in 1982 ,he lost that battle, but he showed in defeat that a was a true champion. In two battles with Pryor he was knocked out in a classic fight that lasted 14 rounds. In a rematch he subsequently lost by a 12 round knockout. Alexis won and lost a fortune several times over his career. In later years he became a political figure in his country of Nicaragua. First taking up arms against the Sandinista government as a contra in the 1980's ,and then in the 2000 decade he was elected the mayor of the capital city of Managua. Alexis died reportedly of a suicide , Arguello died a boxing legend and a national hero.