Thunder: The Arturo Gatti Story

Arturo Gatti was something of an international character. He was born in Italy on April 15, 1972, but raised in French-speaking Montreal. He later moved to New Jersey, where he found his fame and fortune as one of the toughest pugs of the late 20th and early 21st Century.

Gatti took up boxing at the tender age of eight. Although he managed to earn a berth on the Canadian National Team and was set to go to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Gatti instead decided to turn pro in 1991, aged 19. Despite losing an early bout to a Philly fighter named King Solomon, he soon established himself as a passionate boxer-puncher who packed devastating knockout power. He was 16-1 with 14 big knockouts when he challenged 25-2 Pete Taliaferro for the USBA title (a regional U.S. belt), and he beat the seasoned journeyman Taliaferro by TKO in the 1st Round.

The winning ways of Arturo "Thunder" Gatti earned him a December 1995 shot at Tracy Harris Patterson, the adopted son of heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson. Patterson was a 54-3-1 two-division world champion, and current IBF 130lbs beltholder. It was a bout where Gatti stayed on the outside and let the leather fly, while Patterson picked of accurate counter-punches and leads. Gatti put Patterson down in the 2nd with an uppercut, but Patterson was not really hurt. On the other hand, Patterson's precision punching was swelling Gatti's eyes into what would become a familiar visage in later years. In the end, Gatti's furious workrate earned him the win and IBF title.

Gatti Goes Large

Gatti was clearly going places. His all guts and fury style had made him a fan favorite on the USA Network's now defunct Tuesday Night Fights, and the Patterson win brought with it a lucrative contract at HBO. However, Gatti was becoming dangerously enamored with one of the things his fans loved most about him: his thunderous power. Gatti increasingly became easy to lure into turning pure puncher and seeking to settle things with one or two hard punches, and left his sound skills in the gym. It would haunt him through the middle of his career.

Making his first title defense in Madison Square Garden in 1996, he fought Dominican journeyman Wilson Rodriguez. It was a thrilling war that saw Gatti dropped in the 2nd Round, Rodriguez crumpling under a body shot in the 5th, and finally being kayoed by a Gatti left hook in the 6th. It took Rodriguez more than a minute to get up after that. The fight won The Ring's Fight of the Year award, but tellingly Gatti took a lot of punishment that his earlier, yet still-passionate boxer-puncher self would have avoided. Given how limited Rodriguez was, it was a hard win, and Gatti was losing on two scorecards.

1997 saw Gatti fight a spirited rematch with Patterson, which he won handily. He stopped fringe contender Calvin Grove, and then met former WBC champion Gabriel Ruelas. A hard punching Mexican who had tussled with the likes of Azumah Nelson and Jesse James Leija, Ruelas had been left shaken by the death of an opponent in the ring. However, he smashed Gatti with a left hook in the 4th, and seeking to finish him off, fired a dozen and a half hard punches at Gatti. Hanging on for dear life, Gatti survived the round, quickly recovered, and came back to go to war with Ruelas in the 5th. Gatti's power once again decided the issue, as Ruelas the puncher was floored by a left hook and counted out. For the second time, Gatti's drama had won Fight of the Year honors.

Lightweight

Gatti was 5 foot, 7 1/2 inches tall, and he liked to party. He had been finding it hard to make 130 lbs for some time, and was reportedly squeezing as much as 15 pounds of water out of his body before the weigh in. Having established a reputation as a super featherweight champion, Gatti decided to move up to lightweight (135 lbs) in 1998. There he met Angel Manfredy.

Manfredy had been calling out Gatti for more than a year, and to get his date with Gatti had to fight with bruised ribs. Protecting his body as much as he could, Manfredy still found Gatti an easy target. In the 3rd he hit Gatti so hard that "Thunder" twisted over and collapsed to the floor in such a heap that for a moment onlookers thought he might be dead. Yet Gatti got up, and fought back harder than ever. It seemed like Gatti might get back in the fight by going to Manfredy's body (and indeed the body punching hurt Manfredy both visibly and badly), but the Puerto Rican contender brought passionate boxing and punching to a game where Gatti came prepared only to punch. Badly busted and cut up, Gatti was stopped by the doctor in the 8th. The truly awful cut required 20 stitches to close.

Gatti's August comeback from his January Waterloo with Manfredy was against fringe contender Ivan Robinson. A skilled boxer with quick hands, but a light punch, many gave him scant odds against the furious Gatti. Indeed, Gatti did knock Robinson down in the 4th. However, in yet another thrilling slugfest, Gatti found himself matched against a lightweight who might not have hit hard, but he hit with speed, skill, and he did it a helluva lot. Robinson outpointed Gatti in a Split Decision. It was 1998's Fight of the Year (the third consecutive year Gatti had produced such a bout) as well as the Upset of the Year. A rematch was fought in December, but Robinson improved on his performance and beat Gatti by Unanimous Decision in another wild slugfest.

Time in the Wilderness

Gatti was a fan favorite, but the fact is that he had lost all three of his last big fights. A fighter can only go on as an exciting, but well-paid loser for so long. For the time being, Gatti was much-loved at HBO, but that wouldn't last if he could not make a viable comeback.

That comeback was inauspicious. First, in a widely criticized move, Gatti moved up to 140 lbs. Few thought he would carry his power to super lightweight. Then in his second comeback bout, Gatti fought 55-3 Joey Gamache on HBO. Gatti, despite fighting at 140 lbs, was still sweating off an enormous amount of water for weigh-ins. He gained a staggering 19 pounds between the weigh-in and fight night, and was visibly much bigger than Gamache. The brutal 2nd Round knockout was more chilling than thrilling, and drew enormous negative publicity as well as a civil lawsuit from Gamache.

After a four fight winning streak, Gatti challenged Oscar de la Hoya at 147 lbs. This time Gatti was the little guy. De la Hoya, who was coming back from his first defeat at the hands of Shane Mosley, dropped him in the 1st, beat him from pillar to post, and finally forced Gatti's corner to throw in the towel.

The Ward Trilogy

Most thought Gatti was washed up after the 2001 encounter with de la Hoya. However, it was only after that loss that Gatti's career started to rebound. He took a year off, during which time he hired a new trainer in the form of former champion James "Buddy" McGirt, and began intensive retraining under his tutelage. He started a comeback in 2002 by knocking out former beltholder Terron Millett in four.

Then Gatti met Massachusetts tough guy and journeyman Mickey Ward. Ward had established a reputation as a tough, durable Irish fighter with a wicked liver punch and a lot of grit. Starting out by boxing the limited Ward, Gatti was sucked into a fight that was a throwback to the classics of the 1950s. Waging war with Ward, he fought Ward's fight and lost a narrow Majority Decision. It was yet another Gatti Fight of the Year performance.

However, Ward vs. Gatti I had generated such enormous popular response that HBO set up a rematch for November 2002. Although it couldn't live up to the furious war of the first bout (mostly because Gatti boxed and punched), it was still an exciting and classic fight. Gatti won by a solid Unanimous Decision. A rubber match in June 2003 confirmed that verdict, despite Gatti breaking his hand and being knocked down in the 6th. Gatti walked away from one of the most exciting trilogies in recent memory with a 2-1 record. He was back on top.

Champion Again

The Gatti vs. Ward Trilogy got Gatti a shot at the vacant WBC 140 lbs title with fringe contender Gianluca Branco, a fellow Italian. He clinched a solid points win with a patented "Thunder" left hook that knocked Branco down in the 10th. At 31, Gatti once again wore gold around his waist.

Gatti's first defense was against Romanian contender and former lightweight champion, the undefeated Leonard Dorin. A left hook to the body crushed Dorin, knocking him down and out in the 2nd Round. He followed that up by stopping Jesse James Leija in the 5th, a defeat that sent the veteran "Texas Tornado" into retirement.

In June 2005, Gatti had to defend his title against the rising phenom, Floyd Mayweather. Mayweather proved that Gatti's fire and power was no match for his speed and skill. He repeatedly beat Gatti to the punch, and was putting serious hurt him when McGirt threw in the towel in the 6th. It was a resounding defeat that saw Mayweather land four times the number of punches that Gatti did.

Gatti began another comeback by moving to welterweight (147 lbs) and meeting Danish contender Thomas Damgaard in January 2006. Gatti had the edge in speed and experience, but Damgaard was always game and in the fight, and landed a succession of good punches. Gatti hurt his hand in the 4th, but ignored the pain and kept on slugging. The lopsided scorecards reflect Gatti winning most rounds by a slim margin. In the end, the "Thunder" told out, and Gatti punched Damgaard to take a knee in the 11th. That led to the fight being stopped.

The win got him a fight with the tough WBC champion, Argentine Carlos Baldomir. Baldomir was the bigger man, and he used his size, durability, strength, and power to overwhelm Gatti. He tried to stand his ground and trade, but didn't have the stuff to stop Baldomir. Just as with his fight with Oscar de La Hoya, welterweight showed Gatti to be too small to fight at the top level. Plus, by then he was 34 years old and had an enormous amount of wear and tear on his body. Baldomir hurt him in the 9th, pinned him on the ropes, and knocked him down with a left hook. Gatti rose, only to be knocked down again. The referee stopped the fight.

Gatti made one more attempt at a comeback. In July 2007, he fought journeyman Alfonso Gomez. Truly spent, Gatti was stopped by Gomez in the 7th. He immediately announced his retirement.

After Boxing

Gatti was a two-time world champion who retired with a record of 40-9 with 31 KOs. He moved from New Jersey back to Montreal to pursue a career in real estate. On July 11th, 2009 he was found dead in his hotel room in Ipojuca, Brazil. He had been stabbed or beaten behind the head, and strangled with a purse cord. The leading suspect was his wife, a Brazilian ex-stripper named Amanda Rodrigues.

Sources: boxrec.com; http://www.boxingscene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=199446; The Ring; live fight footage; HBO.com; http://www.arturogatti.com/.