Fantasy Boxing Matchup: Gatti vs Corrales
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Two of the great warriors in boxing history make for today’s fantasy matchup.
It’s time for another fantasy boxing matchup! We’re doing this Monday through Friday for the time being, and there’s a page where you can follow along and look back on anything you missed. All votes are open for one week from the day they were posted, so if you missed anything within that last week you can still vote on those, too.
Today! Two of the greatest action fighters ever, let alone just the modern era. Two genuine warriors whose careers overlapped but paths did not cross. 130 pounds, 12 rounds, put it in Vegas or AC, it won’t matter. Blood’s gonna flow: Thunder Gatti vs Chico Corrales.
Arturo Gatti vs Diego Corrales
I don’t think there’s much to really dig deep with here. This is a matchup we’re doing not because it’s a dream fight crossing generations with all-time elite fighters, not because we’re trying to debate who the best to ever do it might have been.
This is one that anyone who’s seen these two fight should salivate over as a fantasy matchup. Since the scenario is they’re both coming in in top shape with no weight issues or anything of that sort, no mental distractions outside the ring or whatever, there is just no fucking way this isn’t an absolute war.
Both Gatti (career record of 40-9, 31 KO) and Corrales (career record of 40-5, 33 KO) just did not have the temperament in the ring for it to be anything less. Both did have some boxing skill, they weren’t entirely crude, but when the adrenaline started going and the punches started landing, these were guys that punched back. They weren’t looking to avoid the fight, they were looking to make and end the fight.
Both fighters did have some success north of 130, but were probably at their best at 130. Corrales’ relevant run at the weight started in 1999, when he stopped Roberto Garcia to win the IBF title, which he defended four times. He would vacate that with the intention of going to 135, but then instead took a fight with WBC 130-pound titleholder Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather dominated Corrales, but Chico would go on to split a pair of fights with Joel Casamayor in 2003-04 at the weight, before moving up to 135 for real.
Gatti started getting his serious career going a bit before, but his first big fight at 130 came in 1995 when he took the IBF title from Tracy Harris Patterson. He defended it successfully on three occasions before moving to 135 in 1998.
But the real reason to consider this, again, is the action. Gatti was in four Ring Magazine Fight of the Year contests, in 1997, 1998, 2002, and 2003. Corrales was in the 2005 Ring Magazine Fight of the Year, but that was more than just the fight of the year. It wound up being voted Fight of the Decade, and has been called by some the greatest fight ever, his legendary comeback win over Jose Luis Castillo.
Corrales, at 5’10½”, was three inches taller than Gatti, but they had the same 70-inch reach, and really, as much as styles do make fights, and in theory Corrales could try to use his height — c’mon. Who wants to imagine that? This is a dream, make it what you know it should be.
So who wins the matchup? Who wins the blood-and-guts war between these two fearless warriors?