FanHouse Amanda Rodrigues

HBO did boxing fans a great service this weekend by replaying the three classic fights between Micky Ward and the late Arturo Gatti. Viewing them again was a real pleasure.

I watched all three fights live, but I hadn't seen more than a few seconds of highlights from them in the last five years, so I went into the re-airing with a fresh set of eyes. The first thing that jumped out at me is that these fights really were amazing. Sometimes you go back and watch a classic sporting event from the past and it doesn't feel like it deserves its legendary status. If anything, the Gatti-Ward trilogy has gotten better with age.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- The wife accused of killing former boxing champion Arturo Gatti tells The Associated Press in a jailhouse letter that she is innocent.

Amanda Rodrigues says she could not bear to be interviewed, but gave a letter to the AP written on lined, white paper in red ink, proclaiming her love for Gatti.

"I lost my husband!" she writes. "This is a pain that has become inexplicable and intolerable, this loss and this malicious accusation."

At some point, both women must have figured happiness was tangled up in the bling, the fame and the muscles. When Sahel Kazemi looked at Steve McNair, she probably saw kindness and generosity, toughness and security. Were those the same qualities Amanda Rodrigues detected in Arturo Gatti?

The fine print in the lives of McNair and Gatti are eerily similar: McNair, an All-Pro quarterback, overcame injuries to his calf and ankle to earn NFL co-MVP honors in 2003, retired in 2007, was murdered at the age of 36. Gatti, a champion boxer, fought nearly one-handed for several rounds yet still won an epic match in 2003, retired in 2007, was murdered at the age of 37.