“Irish” Micky Ward Hand Signed Boxing Trunks JSA COA

Description

Up for auction
“Irish” Micky Ward Hand Signed Boxing Trunks.
This item is authenticated By James Spence Authentication (JSA) and comes with their certificate of authenticity and hologram affixed.
ES-3550G, ES-3565G
George Michael Ward Jr.
(born October 4, 1965), often known by his nickname, "
Irish
"
Micky Ward
, is an American former
professional boxer
who competed from 1985 to 2003. He challenged once for the
IBF
light welterweight
title in 1997, and held the
WBU
light welterweight title in 2000. Ward is widely known for his trilogy of fights with
Arturo Gatti
, two of which received
Fight of the Year
awards by
The Ring
magazine
, as well as his relentless
pressure fighting
style. Ward was portrayed by
Mark Wahlberg
in the 2010 film
The Fighter
, which was based on his early career. His maternal great-grandmother Annie Greenhalge (Carroll) was born in Ireland, the daughter of Michael and Mary (Flood) Carroll. His maternal great-great-great grandparents Peter McMahon and Ann Quinn were from County Tyrone, Ireland. They fled Ireland during the 1850s to escape from poverty and oppression and arrived in Boston, Massachusetts. They settled in the Acre neighborhood of Lowell, Massachusetts and worked as laborers and millworkers. Ward was a three-time
New England Golden Gloves
champion boxer who turned pro in 1985, winning his first fourteen fights. However, his career leveled off, and after losing four consecutive fights in 1990/91, Ward took a hiatus from boxing. During Ward's time away from the sport, he used some of the funds from his day job on a road-paving crew to have surgery on his right hand, which had given him problems during several bouts. The surgery used some of the bone from Ward's
pelvis
to strengthen and fuse the bones in his hand. Ward was successful in his return, winning his first nine fights, and won the
WBU
's Intercontinental Light Welterweight Title in a fight against Louis Veader. He defended the belt once, in a rematch against Veader.
In a 1997 match that would come to typify the exceptional power of Ward's left hook to the body, he scored a 7th-round knockout against the then-undefeated Mexican Alfonso Sanchez in a fight that Ward, up to then, was clearly losing on points. Shortly before the punch,
Larry Merchant
said the fight should be stopped (which referee
Mitch Halpern
had threatened to do if Ward didn't "show [him] something"); afterwards Merchant called it one of the most extraordinary things he'd ever seen in boxing.
Ward's left hook to the body later resulted in a first-round knockout of Steve Quinonez, and a nine-count knockdown of
Arturo Gatti
in their first fight. Ward earned a 1997
IBF Light Welterweight Championship
fight against champion
Vince Phillips
, but did not win the championship, as the fight was stopped in the third round due to cuts, and Phillips was awarded the bout via
TKO
. One year later, Ward again would come up short in a title fight, as he lost a 12-round decision against
Zab Judah
. In 2000, Ward traveled to London to take on the WBU Light Welterweight Champion,
Shea Neary
, and earned a TKO in the eighth round to win the WBU title. Ward, however, never defended the title, and split his next four fights. His ten-round decision victory over
Emanuel Augustus
(then known as Emanuel Burton) was voted
The Ring
magazine's
2001 Fight of the Year
.