Men who inspired “The Fighter” visit Pitt

When Micky Ward was a kid, he used to play pretend. He’d walk downstairs to the basement and… When Micky Ward was a kid, he used to play pretend. He’d walk downstairs to the basement and go three rounds with the entire Olympic boxing team, coming upstairs afterward exhausted and drenched in sweat.

That was the beginning of a successful career for Ward, who started boxing when he was 7 years old. A former World Boxing Union champion, Ward, along with his brother Dicky Eklund, eventually became the focus of the Oscar-nominated movie “The Fighter.”

Last night, the Pitt Program Council brought both Ward and Eklund to the William Pitt Union and the two former boxers answered questions from Richard Farrell, a friend who consulted on the screenplay for “The Fighter,” about their careers, relationship and experience with the movie.

“I was always going to the gym with [Dicky],” Ward said from a seat on stage. “I started fighting because of Dicky. I thought I would do it just to stay in shape. I never thought I’d do it as a profession.”

Eklund once had a promising career of his own as a three-time Golden Gloves Champion. In 1978, he faced Sugar Ray Leonard in a fight shown on HBO. After watching a clip of the fight on a projector screen, Eklund said he never let the idea of going against Leonard get to him.

“He has two hands, I have two hands,” he said.

But Eklund’s struggle with drugs ended his career in 1985 and a clip of an HBO special that documented his addiction to crack cocaine showed the drastic change in Eklund from his days as a fighter.

He said he didn’t know how good he was until it was too late.

“I should’ve kept training hard,” he said. “But everything was so easy to get. I knew [Micky] couldn’t make the same mistakes I made.”

Ward said he thought about walking away during Eklund’s battle with drugs and crime, but that he never went through with the idea.

“It’s family, you just can’t give up on somebody because they have a problem,” Ward said. “He was a great trainer.”

After Eklund’s career ended, he became Ward’s full-time trainer. Eklund spent time in prison during Ward’s career and said that his goal for after he got out was for Ward to become champion of the world — a title he eventually claimed in 2000.

“I always knew he was going to be something,” Eklund said.

After viewing a clip of Ward’s fight against Alfonso Sanchez, the brothers demonstrated Ward’s signature punches, in which Ward gives his opponent a tap to the head so his hand will go up and then hits him in the liver to stop the blood flow.

Asked if Ward ever got the best of him when they were sparring, Eklund replied that Ward knocked him out on one occasion. Ward added that the knock-out blow was retribution for when he was younger and Eklund was faster and stronger.

“When did you wake up?” Farrell asked about Ward’s knock-out punch.

“Today,” Eklund joked.

Both Eklund and Ward said they enjoyed the experience of “The Fighter.” Ward said the movie had been in the works for years, often starting and then getting postponed. But Mark Wahlberg, who portrayed Ward in the movie, kept pushing for the movie to be made.

“He’s a good guy. He always wanted to play a fighter,” Ward said. “He did a hell of a job.”

Ward added that Wahlberg took a trainer with him to every movie he worked on so he could stay in shape for when “The Fighter” went into production.

“He could do very well at fighting if he wanted to, guaranteed,” Ward said of Wahlberg.

Christian Bale, who earned the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Eklund, still keeps in touch with the man he portrayed.

“[Bale] is one of the most loyal guys I have ever met,” Eklund said. “He stays in character all the time. It’s hard to play me. I have my own language, it’s called ‘Dickenese.’”

Farrell ended the interview portion of the evening by showing the entire ninth round of Ward’s fight against Arturo Gatti, which is widely regarded as one of the greatest boxing rounds of all time.

The ninth-round knockdown provided Ward with the majority decision and the fight was voted the 2002 Ring Magazine Fight of the Year.

It was the kind of fight Ward undoubtedly imagined in his basement.