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Arturo Gatti was found dead of an apparently violent death at just 37 years old in the early morning hours of Saturday in a hotel in Brazil, where he reportedly was celebrating his second honeymoon.
It was needless and tragic, as is the death of any young person.
Gatti’s loss, though, will hit boxing particularly hard. Here presented one of the last remaining links to the sport’s past, a fearless and feared man who was a fighter in every sense of the word.
If he was attacked, he died as he made his name in the ring,fighting to the bitter finish.Gatti was a modern day Jake La Motta, the legendary “Raging Bull.”Gatti wasn’t nearly as talented as La Motta, but he was every bit astough and fearless and produced scores of memorable fights.
Each bout was more astonishing and hard to believe than the previousone. His 1996 come-from-behind victory over Wilson Rodriguez could havebeen the crowning point of his career, but he eclipsed that pulsatingbout at least five times. Bouts with Gabe Ruelas and Ivan Robinsonestablished him forever as one of the sport’s greatest action stars.
But Gatti will be forever linked with Micky Ward, the New Englandtough guy with whom he put on a sizzling series of fights. They rankalongside the matchups of Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, Erik Moralesand Marco Antonio Barrera and Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez as thefinest trilogies in the last 50 years.
“You fight a guy, you go to war with them, and there is a respectthere. But with me and Arturo, it was greater,” Ward told RingTV.com.“There was a real bond between us. It’s why hearing this, hearing whathappened to Arturo is like a piece of you is gone, because we shared somuch of everything in the ring. We were friends, close friends.”
Gatti literally kept boxing alive in Atlantic City, N.J., earlierthis decade, where he would routinely sell out venerable BoardwalkHall. Atlantic City’s heyday as a boxing mecca was in the mid-to-late1980s, when Mike Tyson headlined.
Tyson moved his act to Las Vegas and fought most of his biggestfights there in the 1990s and Atlantic City struggled, boxing-wise, inthe 1990s. But Gatti reinvigorated the sport in the casino town, repeatedly putting on Fighter of the Year-type shows from 1997-2005.
Gatti’s downfall as a fighter came in the latter years, when he wasthrashed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. Gatti was not nearly fast enough orskilled enough to deal with a guy like Mayweather, who is among themost gifted men in the sport in the last three decades.Mayweather put a merciless beating on Gatti, rarely getting hit andraking him with flush shots to the face.
It was clear by the second round that this would not be Gatti’s night. It ended when Larry Hazard, the head of the New Jersey Athletic Control Board, walked to Gatti’s corner and “suggested” they stop the fight at the end of the sixth.
Mayweather’s reputation as a fighter and as a pay-per-viewattraction were enhanced with that win and he sadly recalled Gatti onSaturday.
“He was a terrific champion and a very exciting fighter,” Mayweather said. “It’s terrible to hear this news and I offer my prayers and sympathies to his family.”
The Boxing Writers Association of America in 1998 named its Fight of the Year Award after Harry Markson, the one-time director of boxing at Madison Square Garden.
If the organization were wise, it would find another way to honor Markson, who made numerous contributions to the sport, and rename it after Gatti.
There would be no more appropriate or prestigious honor a boxing organization could bestow on a pair of fighters than to give them the Arturo Gatti Award for Fight of the Year.
He was one of a kind and his senseless death won’t do anything todull the memory of the rare boxer who was the epitome of anever-say-die warrior.
SAO PAULO (AP)—The wife of former boxing champion Arturo Gatti was detained asa suspect by Brazilian authorities Sunday following his death at a posh sea side resort.
Police said 23-year-old Amanda Rodrigues was taken into custody after contradictions in her interrogation. Gatti’s body was found early Saturday in a hotel room at the Porto de Galinhas resort in northeastern Brazil.
The former junior welterweight champion was apparently strangled with the strap of a purse, which was found at the scene with blood stains, said Milena Saraiva, a spokeswoman for the Pernambuco state civil police. She told The Associated Press that the Canadian also had a head injury.
The investigation was not complete, but Saraiva said authorities werepreparing to present a formal accusation against Rodrigues, who denied beinginvolved in her husband’s death.
Police said Rodrigues, a Brazilian, could not explain how she spent nearly10 hours in the room without noticing that Gatti was already dead.
Police detain wife of former boxing champion Gatti
Police were investigating witness reports that the couple fought and Gattiwas drunk when he returned to his room Friday night, Saraiva said, adding that police were told the pair were extremely jealous of each other and that he constantly complained of her clothing when she traveled to Brazil.
Acelino “Popo” Freitas, a four-time world champion Brazilian boxer, told Globo TV’s Web site on Saturday that he was a close friend of Gatti and his wife and that he “knew they were having some sort of problem and were about to separate.”
The couple’s 1-year-old son, who was unhurt, was with Rodrigues’ sister,Saraiva said.
The 37-year-old Gatti, whose epic trilogy with Micky Ward branded him one ofthe most exciting fighters of his generation, retired in 2007 with a careerrecord of 40-9 and 31 knockouts.
Known for his straightforward punching and granite-like chin, Gatti capturedthe junior welterweight title in 1995, when he defeated Tracy Harris Pattersonin Atlantic City.
