Ward’s knockout portrayal

Remarkable boxer ‘Irish’ Micky Ward says he wouldn’t change a thing about Mark Wahlberg’s portrayal of him in the biopic The Fighter. John Riordan met him in Massachusetts

THERE’S a memorable scene in “The Fighter” which proves that ‘Irish’ Micky Ward and the actor who plays him in the new boxing biopic, Mark Wahlberg, were made for each other.

It’s 1997 and Ward has just beaten Alfonso Sanchez with a sudden left hook to the right kidney. It comes from nowhere in the seventh round of a fight Sanchez had dominated. In the midst of his celebrations, Ward trots over to the announcers at ringside: “You should never give up on me.”