ATLANTIC CITY -- Arturo Gatti won a unanimous decision over Micky Ward on Saturday at the Boardwalk Hall Convention Center in a junior welterweight bout Gatti said was tougher than their first clash, the 2002 Ring Fight of the Year. The rubber match, which sent both fighters to the hospital with potentially broken hands, all but validated that the trilogy will go down in history as one of boxing's greatest.

"Definitely this one," Gatti said when asked which of his fights with Ward was the toughest. "You guys (reporters) speak of the first fight being the best fight in the last 10 years, but I don't know about that. Tonight was a battle."

Although Ward knocked Gatti down in the sixth round and he had Gatti on the verge of going down on other occasions, the judges saw Gatti landing more clean punches and, consequently, gave him more rounds. The scores read: 96-93, 96-93 and 97-92, all for Gatti. According to Compubox, Gatti landed 349 punches to Ward's 128.

After a cautious start for both fighters, the action heated up during the second half of the second round as both fighters landed their share of shots. Late in the round, Ward landed a low blow for which he was warned. To add insult to injury, a cut had also began to develop over Ward's left eye by the end of round two.

In the third round the fight started to become a carbon copy of the second bout between the two fighters, as Gatti -- who later said he injured his right hand in this round -- put together a combination and then backed Ward into the ropes with shots to the body. Ward, meanwhile, stalked Gatti around the ring and whiffed a lot.

But like the first fight, Ward came storming back in the fourth and early in the round he hurt Gatti with a flurry to the head and body. He backed Gatti against the ropes on multiple occasions and seemed to be able to land the uppercut at will. Once Gatti was in trouble Ward was able to go back to his patented body attack.

But Gatti (36-6) fought back near the end of the round and suddenly it was the 2002 fight of the year all over again.

Gatti came back to take the fifth round, boxing Ward around the ring. The cut over Ward's left eye became more serious and his face bloodier. Ward dabbed at the cut, but kept coming forward. The sixth round was relatively uneventful -- at least for these two guys -- until Ward knocked Gatti down at the bell with a left hook followed by a right that landed on top of the head as Gatti was on the way down.

"I did feel it because I did go down," Gatti admitted afterward. "But it was kind of a flash knockdown and, when I was down, I looked over to my corner with a little grin to say I was all right."

As it turned out, the knockdown was like a cup of coffee for Gatti, as he came back to take the brutal seventh round. After Ward hurt him again early in the round with a big punch that caused Gatti to bend over and Ward to pause to admire his work, Gatti dominated the rest of the round, staggering Ward twice.

Rounds eight and nine were relatively uneventful -- at least for these two guys -- as they continued to hammer away at each other and even gave the false impression that they were having a good time as both fighters laughed when they got spun around at one point.

In the 10th and final round, Gatti came out firing and seemed the fresher of the two fighters. Midway through the round, however, Ward landed a short left hook that backed Gatti into the ropes. Ward let loose and Gatti again seemed on the verge of going down. But again, Gatti fought off the ropes and began battering Ward around the ring. Like the first two fights, the two fighters went toe to toe for the final thirty seconds.

Although Ward (38-13), who left for the hospital before the post-fight press conference, questioned the margin of victory, he agreed with the decision.

"Yeah," he said immediately after the fight, "he hit me with some shots early and took the steam out of me."

Ward's publicist said that, despite the loss, his fighter took great pride in the fact that his last fight was a great one. Ward won the first meeting last year with Gatti in a 10-round decision; in the Nov. 23 rematch, Gatti won a unanimous decision.

For their final meeting Gatti earned $1.7 million to Ward's $750,000.

In the co-feature, heavyweight Dominick Guinn, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, put a road block in front of Michael Grant's comeback by knocking him down four times before the fight was stopped after the last of those knockdowns in the seventh round.

Grant (38-3, 29 KOs) fought very tentatively and looked lethargic during the first two rounds, as his smaller opponent continuously charged him, tied him up and managed to land the best punches, including a few which stunned Grant in the first round.

The fight labored on into the third until Guinn knocked Grant down to a knee with a thunderous left hook with thirty seconds left. Grant rose quickly and Guinn was unable to finish the job.

But thirty seconds into round four, Guinn (22-0, 17 KOs) connected again with a left-right combination that put Grant on his back. Soon after Grant rose, he went down again from the same combination. But Grant survived the round, despite being rocked again near the end of the round.

In round five, Guinn was unable to duplicate the damage he caused in the prior two rounds, as he looked fatigued, but Grant didn't do anything either.

Grant became busier in the sixth round and finally landed some clean shots. Still, the pace of the fight remained slow with the two fighters leaning against each other the majority of the round. As evidence of Grant's ineffectiveness in the fight, he landed only 10 of 59 jabs through the seven rounds that he was in the ring.

Guinn came out of his slumber in the seventh, as he backed Grant up against the ropes with two big left hooks and then went to work landing consecutive unanswered blows. Another huge left hook sent Grant on his way to the canvas, and Guinn landed one more right for good measure as Grant was falling. Grant once again rose, but the referee decided he was unable to continue at 1:21.

On the undercard, Rasheem Brown, a junior middleweight from Philadelphia, knocked out Josh Onyango at 2:11 of the first round to remain undefeated. Brown (10-0, 9 KOs) landed a big right hand as Onyango was firing his own and the connect put Onyango on his back staring up at the bottom rope. Onyango failed to beat the count and left the ring with an 11-5 record with 10 knockouts.

Undefeated heavyweight Calvin Brock scored a crowd-pleasing first-round knockout over Jim Strohl in the first of six rounds. After using a number of different punches from his arsenal to hurt Strohl, Brock (15-0, 13 KOs) landed a jab followed by a perfect right hand on the chin that dropped Strohl to his knees as if he'd been shot. Then, Strohl's upper torso unnaturally sank until both the fighter's knees and back were touching the canvas. Needless to say, the count was waved off at 1:56. Strohl's record dropped to 24-4.

Using a dominating jab and ring generalship, Philadelphian heavyweight Malik Scott outclassed Otis Tisdale en route to an eight-round unanimous decision. Scott knocked down Tisdale in the second round with a left-right combination, and then coasted to an easy victory against the over-matched opponent from Charlotte. Scott, who improved his undefeated record to 17-0 with nine knockouts, looked as bored as the audience during the latter stages of the fight, as he circled Tisdale and popped him with his jab. The judges all scored the fight 80-71.

Junior Welterweight Scott Depompe fought through a cut over his right eye to dominate Arthur Medina in the first fight of the evening, a six-rounder. Depompe was awarded a unanimous decision victory for his efforts, as the judges scored the fight 60-52, 60-52, and 60-53. Depompe (24-4, 10 KOs) sandwiched his victory with knockdowns in the first and last rounds. He knocked Medina down in the first round with a right and Medina was overcome by a fight-long body assault in the sixth.