Arturo Gatti just landed an overhand right that sent Micky Ward to the canvas. Now Micky is getting back on his -- whoops, he just went face-first into the ringpost (good thing it's padded). Now Micky is on his feet, but barely. His legs are gone and Gatti is winging vicious shots with both hands. In a moment the ref will step in.

Too bad Gatti is a good finisher. Against someone else Micky could survive the round -- maybe. Gatti is missing a lot of these shots, but some of them are landing. Yup. That should just about do it. Matter of moments now.

Sad way for the rematch to end. And hard to believe. Micky Ward knocked out. What a disappointment after his showing in the first fight. But wait...

How is this possible? Ward is throwing back! He's going to survive the round! And every other round for the rest of the fight.

One-sided, yes. But Ward-Gatti II was the best one-sided fight you ever want to see.

Trainer Buddy McGirt had Gatti boxing as consistently well as he has boxed at any point since Gatti's rematch win over Tracy Harris Patterson at 130 pounds. Arturo's disciplined game plan allowed him to exploit his superior talent to dominate nearly every -- if not every -- round of the fight.

And yet, the fight was special. No, not as good as their first go-round, but special nonetheless. Ward had no business surviving -- especially the third round -- and yet he never stopped pressing forward into the storm. Fights like this are the reason boxing fans are overjoyed that Micky finally got his million-dollar payday, and why he's earned the opportunity for another one if they do it again.

A rubber match? Gatti's dominance may have made a third fight moot, but should they opt to go for the tie-breaker (Ward got the decision in Part I in May, a fight Gatti appeared to have won close), it will be good to see Micky get that big payday one more time. Of course, it will be bad to see him take all those punches for a third consecutive fight. True boxing fans will be conflicted over this one.

Arturo might now set his sights on champion Kostya Tszyu, but it makes more sense to take Micky for another million something, than a beating for perhaps less.

***

Last week I wrote about how there is less buzz than there should be concerning the Dec. 14th Evander Holyfield-Chris Byrd matchup. I got ahead of myself. Before Holyfield squares off with Byrd, we will have lightweight champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. rematch against the man from whom he barely won the title, Jose Luis Castillo.

Many feel that Floyd underperformed against Castillo the first time around, and will be better when they go at it again. I'm with them. But I also remember Castillo's career breakout performance against Stevie Johnston, from whom he lifted the 135-pound title.

Castillo beat Johnston in a close fight, and many assumed the rematch would be drastically different. Cesar Bazan, after all, had beaten Johnston close in their first fight, and then was thoroughly outboxed in their rematch. The feeling going into the Castillo rematch was that a better prepared Johnston would be just be too good.

But the rematch was a carbon copy of the first fight, and Castillo retained the title. Whomever wins Mayweather-Castillo, if this rematch is like their first fight, a pound-for-pound readjustment might be in order. And it may not be a matter of dropping Mayweather so much as questioning where to place Castillo. He really is no joke. As for Pretty Boy Floyd, a big win over Castillo would be a big win indeed.

Max Kellerman is a studio analyst for ESPN2's Friday Night Fights and the host of the new show Around The Horn.