Arturo Gatti found dead

[Tickle Fiend]

Canadian boxer Arturo Gatti found dead in Brazil
Last Updated: Saturday, July 11, 2009 | 4:40 PM ET Comments1Recommend38CBC News
Former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti, who was raised in Montreal, has been found dead in northeastern Brazil.

On a second honeymoon with his wife and 10-month-old baby, Gatti's blood-stained body was found in an apartment in Porto de Galinhas, Brazilian police say.

A police investigation is underway, but few details are being released. Foul play is suspected in the death.

Gatti's body was found at around 6 a.m. Saturday morning. He was found in his underwear, with blood stains on his neck and the back of his head.

Nicknamed "Thunder," Gatti was one of the most successful Canadian boxers in history. Beginning his professional career in 1991 at age 19, he scored a third-round knockout in his first bout.

Three years later he captured the United States Boxing Association junior lightweight title and successfully defended it twice. He earned the International Boxing Federation's world junior lightweight title the following year.

Born in Italy but raised in Montreal, the 37-year-old Gatti retired two years ago.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/07/11/gatt-dead.html

 

[Rich P]

Holy shit....

I was a big fan of Gatti....talk about a warrior....anyone who watched the series against Mickey Ward will vouch for that...peace be with him and his family.

 

[Big_Dogg85]

That has to be extraordinarily tough for his wife and son who were with Gatti in Brazil on the couple's second honeymoon. Luckily they were not injured but to be within the vicinity of Gatti's death, which police officials are now ruling as involving foul play, will undoubtedly change them forever. I too pray that they will be able to weather what is to come because it's one thing to be far away when the person you love most dies, it would be a completely different beast entirely to be, potentially based on the reports, in the same room or vicinity.

A tragedy to say the least... I pray for Gatti's wife and son above all else.

 

[thundergatti]

RIP Arturo "thunder" Gatti. A true ring legend.
My all time favourite fighter, co-winner of numerous Ring magazine fight of the year awards and nailed on future Hall of Fame inductee.

Anyone who has any interest in boxing should definitley make the effort to see not just the Ward trilogy but also the Wilson Rodriguez, Calvin Grove, Ivan Robinson and Gabriel Ruelas fights. All great fights.

Sad, sad day.

 

[TMF Jeff]

I can't believe he's dead, that was a tough son of a bitch.

I remember in one of the Ward fights he punched to Ward's body and Ward twisted at the wrong moment, so Gatti hit his knuckles right on the other guys hipbone, breaking his hand.

He must have been in agony, and when he was in the corner he said to his trainer, "I think my hand is broken." And the guy just said, "So what do you want to do, quit?" Gatti shook his head, because A) if you're the kind of guy who quits, you don't get to where he was, and B) there was probably a 2 million dollar difference between the winning purse and the losing purse, and kept fighting.

At first he was being really careful with the broken hand, only using it for light jabs, and even that I think was only to keep Ward from figuring out that it was broken. But after a couple of rounds it must have gotten numb, because he was throwing full-power punches with it. It was an amazing feat of endurance and determination. Not only did he keep fighting, but he fucking won. I was in awe.

I'm not sure if this is from the broken hand fight, but look at this guy get up from literally being beat to his knees and not only keep fighting, but find it in himself to keep throwing full-body punches that have everything behind them, for a full minute-and-a-half which is a very long time in a fight.

(at around 2:57, when he gets pummelled against the ropes, tell me if I'm wrong, but doesn't he kind of smile for a second?)

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[Rich P]

Gatti was one of those fighters who you had to drive a stake through his heart to beat him, but you had better have made sure he was dead, beacuse he would have gotten up and started swinging again.

I could watch every fight in the Gatti-Ward trilogy over again because it had two guys who left it all out there. One thing I will always remember was that how the two of them became friends, and Ward was in Gatti's corner for his next championship fight (I can't remember who it was right now).

Sad, sad day indeed.

 

[thundergatti]

Glad to see he has some fans on here, most of my stand out memories as a boxing fan have involved this guy.

The footage that Jeff provided was from the first gatti ward fight, the tenth round was also a war and ended with both guys just collapsing into each others arms in an embrace of mutual respect, great ambassadors for the sport.

Think it was the third fight against ward in which gatti broke his hand and still went on to win in convincing points victory, he also broke his hand against daumgaard, which was probably his last great fight, and ended up ko'ong the buy with his broken hand.

The amount of times this guy has come back from the brink to snatch a win is astounding, like a Rocky movie come to life, i implore everyone who likes the ward fights to watch the wilson rodriguez fight. Only a kid comparatively, he has been dropped and his eye is completey shut after only the 2nd round, has to con the ref between rounds that he can still see and makes the fight a war.

I would be a bit cautios about offering sympathies to the wife at this point, the police have detained her and are preparing to formally charge. Preliminary reports suggest he was hit on the head and strangled with a purse strap. There is allegedely serious inconsistencies in her statement that imply she would have had yo have been in the same room as gattis body for 10 hours without realising anything was wrong?

 

[Tickle Fiend]

It looks like his wife may have had something to do with this. I read that he was found to have strangulation marks on his neck and they found a purse strap that had blood on it. And she wasn't too convincing in interrogations.

 

[TheTickleMonster]

that sucks.. i'm not a big boxing fan and i didn't really know him but that really sucks though.. yet another celebrity lost.. and he had a family.. gotta be tough on them, i hope they're doing okay.
and of course it's foul play, what else would it be?

 

[gilmourwaters]

RIP Arturo Gatti .............probably the toughest SOB in boxing! A real loss to the sport

 

[obama666]

He had a lot of heart but was basically a punching bag!

 

[deadlywiffeathr]

Terrible loss. I've never been a fan of boxing, but watching the mickey ward fight on a boxing legends show last saturday made me realise how tough these guys really are. He was an inspirational individual. So sad it had to end like this 🙁

 

[thundergatti]

He had a lot of heart but was basically a punching bag!

There's always one idiot.

 

[drnkntklr]

He had a lot of heart but was basically a punching bag!

Arturo Gatti was the ultimate blood and guts warrior. He had not only one but arguably 2 great career comebacks. This guy was Rocky Balboa come to life. He may not have been an elite fighter but Arturo Gatti was quite possibly the most exciting fighter of the past 15 years, and he never gave up in a fight. The first fight of his I saw was his third vs. Ward, around the time that I began to get into boxing. After watching him fight and win the most exciting fight i had ever seen up to that point with a broken hand, imagine my surprise when the following weekend they re-aired the WHOLE trilogy. Gatti gave me and the world of boxing some of the most exciting fights, so for you to call him a punching bag (whether or not you know boxing) shows pure ignorance.

 

[obama666]

Please, I forgot more about boxing then you idiots know!...Yeah, ok, he was one of the best of the punching bags, I will give you that!... When he fought Mayweather did he land one fucking punch?... In the Baldomir fight he looked like a 13 year-old getting beat up by someone's father! and when he tried to slug it out with Oscar D his corner threw in the towell! Right after he tagged Oscar with one good punch, Oscar knocked him on his ass a few seconds latter.... In any division he fought in, could you rank him in the top 10, 15 or even 20 0f all-timegreats ... PLEASE!!! New Guys following boxing!!!

 

[obama666]

OH my God!!! I forgot about the 3 fights with Mickey Ward !!! Two cunning defensive legends going head to head!