JAMES ‘Buddy’ McGirt has a theory about what happened at the end of one of the greatest rounds in boxing history.
McGirt was in Arturo Gatti’s corner for his unforgettable trilogy with Micky Ward – and was unsure if their first fight should go past the ninth.
Ward even raised his arms in celebration, thinking Gatti couldn’t go on – and then had to fight for another three minutes.
“The referee [Frank Capuccino] and doctor were in the corner talking in Italian after the ninth round,” says McGirt, a former world champion at 140lbs and 147lbs.
“I thought: ‘What the f*** is going on ?’ I didn’t speak Italian.
“I think the referee and doctor did it to buy some time. I think it was such a good fight they wanted it to carry on!
“They wanted to see them do another round so found a way to buy some time for Arturo to recover and they did that by talking Italian so I couldn’t pull him out.”
The fight went on for three more minutes, with Ward winning a majority decision. The rematch and rubber match both went Gatti’s way by unanimous decisions.
“Arturo won the rematch by throwing combinations and getting out,” says McGirt.
“He fractured his [right] hand in the third fight [in the third round] and kept throwing triple jabs and triple left hooks.”
McGirt also found a way to beat Roy Jones Jr – twice.
Antonio Tarver overturned a majority points loss in their first fight, in November 2003, by chinning him in the second round of their rematch, and then unanimously outpointed him in their third set-to.
“Roy is one of the greatest,” says McGirt. “I put him above Floyd. I remember being in a dressing room with him and I couldn’t believe how fast he was.
“But I knew Tarver had Roy’s number. Tarver told me: ‘I beat Roy at basketball one time’ and after he said that I said: ‘We’re going to win this fight.’ If Roy plays a two-year-old at darts, he isn’t losing. Roy doesn’t like losing.”
McGirt borrowed a philosophy from a training legend to help Tarver beat Jones in the boxing ring as well.
“George Benton said: ‘When you box someone who’s fast, they can’t punch and block at the same time, so you punch when they punch,’” remembers McGirt.
“Roy would throw wide shots, and when he missed he would get away with it because of his athleticism. I told Tarver: ‘When he goes wide, go straight down the middle.’”
Midway through the second, Jones launched a wide punch when Tarver threw a straight left – and Jones landed flat on the back.
That was followed by what McGirt describes as “the longest count ever. I never thought he [referee Jay Nady] was going to reach ’10.’
“That was a massive win.”
Tarver won the rubber match after reversing a points loss to Glen Johnson.
“We beat him [Johnson] at his own game in the rematch,” says McGirt, who also steered Callum Smith to victory over Joshua Buatsi in Saudi Arabia in February.
“I said to Tarver: ‘Motherf***ers who go the body don’t like it when you go to their body.’”
McGirt learned that during his own 80-fight pro career.
“I turned pro at 18,” he says. “My father had just passed, Mark Breland was going to the Olympics and I thought I would make money overnight if I turned pro. It didn’t happen!”
McGirt drew his pro debut, won his next 28 fights – and then ran into Frankie Warren.
Warren beat him unanimously in July 1986 and when they fought again, the vacant IBF super-lightweight championship was on the line.
“My hardest fight was against Frankie Warren when I won my first world title,” says McGirt.
“Even though I beat him, I still have nightmares about him – and the fight was in 1988.
“He was tough and he was busy. He wouldn’t let you breathe. He kept his head on my chest. I was thinking: ‘Get off me!’.
“In the second fight, I set the tone early. I hurt him early and kept moving. What saved me was body shots. I thought: ‘You don’t like it down there.’
“I sparred a guy who was shorter than me and I thought body shots couldn’t hurt him, but they did.
“He told me afterwards: ‘I’m short and people don’t usually hit me to the body.’
“He said I was the first to hit him in the body and he didn’t like it. I remembered that going into the second fight with Warren.
“The loss to Warren and the win over [former WBC champion Saoul] Mamby made me a better fighter,” he says. “I knew if I could outbox, outsmart Mamby, I could outsmart anyone.”
Including Simon Brown.
The Jamaican had been an outstanding champion at 147lbs, making eight successful defences of the IBF championship before adding the WBC title by outpointing Maurice Blocker.
He put the latter belt on the line against McGirt in Las Vegas in November 1991 and was well beaten by the stylish New Yorker.
One of the judges gave Brown – beaten only on a split by Marlon Starling in 35 previous fights – just a single round.
“I kept him going in circles,” is how McGirt remembers the best night of his 73-6-1 career.
“I hit him with one body shot and got moving. By rounds five and six I was putting two body shots in there. Body punching is a lost art. You have to go to the breadbasket to see what they ate.”
McGirt lost the belt to the late Pernell ‘Sweet Pea’ Whitaker after going into the fight one-handed.
“It happened during the Genaro Leon fight [a title defence around seven weeks earlier] and they told me my arm was fine, it was just tendonitis,” says McGirt.
“The truth came out after the fight.
“I went to a doctor, showed him my MRIs and he said I should retire. He said: ‘The other doctors lied to you. Your s*** is bad.’
“I know I would have beaten him. George Benton [Whitaker’s trainer] came in the changing room after the fight and said: ‘You almost ruined my masterpiece. If you had your left arm, you would have beaten us.’
“After the first fight the doctors said I wouldn’t box again. I had surgery in March 1993 and in November I had my comeback fight.”
That was the first of five wins in nine months that led to the Whitaker rematch.
“After the Pat Coleman fight [a 10-round points win in August 1994], I was in the dressing room and my manager came in and said: ‘We’ve got the rematch with Pernell Whitaker.’ I broke down crying. My wife asked what was wrong. The desire to fight just left me.
“I had done what they said I couldn’t do and the fire left me. In the second fight I went through the motions for the money. I didn’t have the enthusiasm.
“I retired and came back and it wasn’t the same. I was running in Colorado Springs before a fight and stopped and said to my friend: ‘This s*** is over.’
“I went back to the apartment, rang my wife and said I was coming home. I rang my manager and said: ‘I’m done.’
“It was the longest plane ride of my life. I’m flying home to my family and I’m thinking: ‘How am I going to save my house and look after my family ?’ I had $200 in my pocket and $2,000 in the bank. What the f*** was I going to do?
“I had a bunch of cars, so I rented them out, and I had a motorbike, so I drove that around.
“I got a phone call from [promoter] Murad Muhammad one day asking if I wanted to make $2,500 I should go to Atlantic City.
“I got on my motorbike, but I had a bad battery, so I put jumper cables around my neck in case I got stuck. I got paid $2,500 for working two corners and went home.”
McGirt got his first world champion as a trainer in March 2001.
“Carl King [Don’s son] rang me to say: ‘You need to meet Bryron Mitchell. I said: ‘Who’s Byron Mitchell?’
“He told me: ‘Your next fighter.’”
McGirt trained with Mitchell for a week “at a health club in Mandalay Bay” ahead of his clash with Manny Siaca for the vacant WBA super-middleweight title.
“He was getting his ass kicked and then threw a combination and dropped him in the ninth round,” says McGirt. “He came back to the corner and I said: ‘You need to do that the next two rounds.’ The next round he didn’t do s*** and the next he didn’t do s***.
“I said before the 12th: ‘I’ve got to go to the changing room because I’ve got the next fighter, so I won’t be here when you get back.’ He wasn’t doing s*** anyway. He was blowing it.
“I was walking past the commissioner and I turned back to look at the fight. They were in a clinch and he [Mitchell] looked at me and I froze.
“Two punches later, he was a world champion. I ran into the ring. I had my first world champion.
“He got a new trainer for the rematch and lost.*”
* Mitchell actually won the rematch by split decision over Siaca.
