This past month boxing has lost three great people in and out of the ring. It’s been a rough year for famous people on the whole but most boxing fans can’t wait for the month of July to end.

    At the beginning of the month, on July 1st, former three-division world champion Alexis Arguello, one of the sport's greatest gentlemen as well as one the most tactical fighters ever, died in Nicaragua. Arguello will be best remembered for his first fight with Aaron Pryor; a fight that will no doubt stand the test of time as one of the sports greatest. The only black mark on the fight was the infamous water bottle that trainer Panama Lewis was giving to Pryor in between a couple of early rounds and before the start of the 14^th round. The judges had Arguello well ahead of Pryor at the time of the stoppage which again would have been wrong.  Arguello was a knock-you-cold puncher that was also a tremendous tactical fighter who truly showed fans what the sweet science of the sport of boxing was about. He was 82-8 with 65 knockouts when he retired. I had the pleasure of meeting Arguello on two different occasions and both times he was very nice and treated me with nothing but class and respect. In fact, everyone who met Alexis Arguello knew him as a very humble and very kind human being. He was a truly great ambassador of the sport and the sport is not the same without him.

    On July 11^th Arturo Gatti was found dead in his hotel room in Brazil. He was hit on the head with a blunt object and then strangled to death allegedly by his wife, who remains the only suspect in the situation. No fighter other than maybe Diego Corrales was more exciting to see fight. Gatti jumped onto the boxing scene by winning a unanimous decision over Tracy Harris Patterson back in December of 1995.  He gained even more fans after battling through cuts and knocking out Gabriel Ruelas. Win, lose or draw the fans always left a Gatti fight holding their breath. Gatti lost his next three fights, one to Angel Manfredy and then two in a row to Ivan Robinson. Their first fight was The Ring magazine Fight of the Year for 1998, and at no point not matter who you were rooting for did you feel the other guy was out of it. Gatti then fought some tough but not mainstream fighters but still all the fights ever very exciting.  I was ringside for his unfair beat down of Joey Gamache where it looked like Gatti was a super middleweight but he was fighting at junior welterweight. Even in the fight versus Oscar de la Hoya Gatti was competitive before talent took over and Gatti was smoked in 5 rounds. Fast forward after his win vs. Terron Millett, where he showed how he had learned to box more and not block so many punches with his face, to this classic trilogy with Micky Ward. These fights will be remembered as great wars that will go down in history as some of the greatest fights of all time. Gatti-Ward 1 as well as Corrales-Castillo 1, will go down as the two great fights in this decade, apologies to Barrera vs. Morales 1.

      There are two things that come to mind for me when it comes to Arturo Gatti. First thing is he was a man without a true division. He was great at 140 pounds but couldn’t make weight and at 147 pounds he wasn’t even close to the same fighter. Secondly, is that he was in every fight in his prime, except for one and that was against Floyd Mayweather Jr. That fight shouldn’t have ever been made, and when you logically look at it, it may have ended his career. Gatti went 1-2 after that loss and got knocked out by two guys that couldn’t break eggs. He lived hard and fought even harder, and he will be remembered as the ultimate blood and guts warrior.

    On July 25^th Vernon Forrest was shot by two men outside a gas station in Atlanta, Georgia. Vernon Forrest was a two division champion and is most famous for having beaten Shane Mosley two times, though it is still a heated debate weather he really did win the rematch, and then losing to Ricardo Mayorga two times even though the second fight was a garbage decision. As highly skilled as he was, his career reminds me of a famous song by Albert King called “Born on a Bad Sign.”  There is a verse in the song that says, “born under a bad sign, been down since I began to crawl and if it wasn’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.” Forrest had bad luck throughout his career. He made the 1992 Olympic team by upsetting Shane Mosley in the trials, he went on to the Games, c got food poisoning and lost his first and only fight. He turned pro after that but several injuries to his hand, shoulder and elbow took away much of what could have been a very exciting start to a career.

    He was a great fighter that used his jab to keep opponents at bay. He had an eraser in his right hand and he used it to send many fighters packing. The right hand he hit Shane Mosley with in their first fight after a clash of heads changed Mosley for a couple of years until he got his confidence back. The thing with Forrest is though he battled injuries throughout his career but you didn’t really hear him complain much about it. To me he had everything you wanted in a fighter. Vernon Forrest had great naturally ability, with the mental fortitude to put in a game plan and use it to his success. He used all these skills to make it to 1992 Olympics.

    His work with disabled children outside of the ring was under the radar but it was outstanding, as he contributed a lot to society as a whole. This is truly a huge loss for the sport of boxing as well as the city of Atlanta.

    Personally, I can’t wait for the month to end. It’s been three big losses in the sport of boxing in July and the sport needs some good news to happen soon. I do think there will be some good fights towards the end of the year but the summer of 2009 for me will always be remembered for all the wrong things.