When Arturo “Thunder” Gatti walked up the ring steps and prepared for battle, boxing fans were given a rare gift – a guarantee.
In a sport rife with unpredictability – whether it took the form of bad decisions, broken contracts, canceled contests, weigh-in screw-ups, foul-fests, riots or other general shenanigans – a Gatti fight gave everyone who chose to watch the peace of mind that comes with confidence. They knew that when “Thunder” was atop the bill they were going to get the action they craved. It didn’t matter who was standing in the other corner, for once the bell sounded his rivals couldn’t avoid being drawn into his tornadic attack.
For more than a decade Gatti was boxing’s drama king, yet when word of his death crossed the news wires it was still a massively shocking plot twist. Shortly after 6 a.m. Saturday, July 11 – less than two weeks after triple world champion Alexis Arguello died of a gunshot wound in his native Nicaragua – Gatti’s body was discovered in an apartment in the seaside resort town of Porto de Galinhas, Brazil.
Gatti had arrived in Brazil with his Brazilian wife Amanda Rodrigues and their 1-year-old son just a day earlier, purportedly for a second honeymoon. But what was supposed to be a time to create happy memories turned into an unspeakable tragedy when Gatti’s life ended after just 37 years. Local authorities suspect foul play, and the following day Rodrigues was brought in for questioning after it appeared that Gatti might have been strangled with a handbag strap.
For boxing fans, Gatti created plenty of happy memories. Born and raised in Montreal, Gatti began fighting at age eight and had considered trying to make the 1992 Canadian Olympic team but instead turned pro at 19 with a third round knockout of Jose Gonzales on June 10, 1991. His explosive fists racked up a 23-1 (20 KO) record that included 14 first round knockouts. The only loss was a six round split decision to the tricky King Soloman at Philadelphia’s Blue Horizon in fight number seven but as his later career would prove it wasn’t whether Gatti won or lost, but how he plied his trade.
On December 15, 1995 at Madison Square Garden Gatti took that record into a fight with WBC super featherweight champion Tracy Harris Patterson on the undercard of Oscar de la Hoya’s two round destruction of Jesse James Leija. The 23-year-old challenger was taking a significant step up in class against the highly skilled 58-fight veteran who had registered five defenses of the WBC belt and was making the first defense of his IBF reign. Instead of brawling Gatti boxed, smartly using his superior height and reach to pile up points. A well-timed lead right uppercut floored the 30-year-old Patterson in the second and Gatti amassed a huge lead over the first six rounds. But in the bout’s second half Gatti slowed a bit, Patterson closed the gap and the Madison Square Garden crowd was treated to the thrilling back-and-forth brawling that would become Gatti’s hallmark. In the end, Gatti survived a badly swollen right eye and a spirited Patterson rally to capture a 116-111, 115-112, 114-113 decision and joined history’s roll call of champions.
While the Patterson fight elevated Gatti’s status as a fighter, the cornerstone of his blood-and-guts reputation was laid four months later in his first defense against obscure Spain-based Dominican Wilson Rodriguez, a 54-fight slickster who had won 27 of his last 28 fights over the past five years. A little more than a minute into the fight Rodriguez’s hard jabs had raised a swelling under Gatti’s left eye and his accurate rights worsened it with astonishing speed. Worried about the injury, Gatti revved up the offense in round two but Rodriguez’s nifty boxing continued to exploit the champion’s frightfully porous defense. Soon, Rodriguez’s sharper punches created a swelling under the other eye that was growing even faster than the first injury.
“I think Gatti is in real trouble unless he can do something dramatic,” HBO’s Larry Merchant declared. He said this a little more than four minutes into the fight, a stark illustration of how quickly Gatti was careening toward the proverbial cliff.
Gatti’s crisis deepened when a short hook to the chin – a punch Gatti never saw coming – floored the champion with 1:14 remaining in the second. With the bubble under the right eye expanding by the second, Gatti tried to save himself with a full-frontal assault but Rodriguez continued to successfully play his sly games for the remainder of the round.
Cutman Joe Souza valiantly tried to tend to Gatti’s multiple injuries but even he conceded that his skills could hold off disaster for only so long. “You ain’t got no time,” Souza said through teeth that clenched a cluster of swabs. “You’ve got to get out there and do it.”
Gatti charged out of the corner and nailed Rodriguez with a right as round three began and he proceeded to swing for the fences to save his championship. The champion’s hooks finally landed with their trademark thunder and caused Rodriguez’s legs to quiver. His crisis – and the heroic way with which he dealt with it – enabled him to pull the MSG crowd into the ring with him and they hoped their chants of his name would compel him to finish the job. Though Gatti clearly won the third, Rodriguez hung in there and stubbornly fired back. Because Rodriguez lasted the round the onus returned to Gatti, whose championship hourglass was quickly running out of sand. As “HBO’s Boxing After Dark” commentator Jim Lampley put it, Gatti was “boxing in the dark.”
Following the third round, the ring physician made his first visit to the Gatti corner. He forcefully ordered the champion to cover his left eye and tell him the number of fingers he was holding up. He passed the test well enough to buy himself another three minutes of sudden death.
With a laser glare and unshakable resolve, Gatti continued to charge at Rodriguez with his hardest artillery. The challenger was hoping that his slickness would eventually tire out the champion and that time’s inexorable toll on Gatti’s features would reward him with the belt. But the beast that was Gatti would never, ever permit that.
Rodriguez stunned Gatti with a flurry in the closing 30 seconds of the fourth but the champion – accessing reservoirs of energy few fighters could even conceive – ended the round with a firestorm of defiant hooks. His reward for holding off Rodriguez yet again: Another tete-a-tete with the ring physician.
Gatti’s all-or-nothing proposition intensified with a minute remaining in the fifth when referee Wayne Kelly correctly deducted a point for an obvious low blow. Less than 30 seconds later, Gatti produced his first miracle as a wicked hook to the liver caused Rodriguez to sink to the canvas for a seven count. The tigerish Gatti gunned for the finish but Rodriguez bravely sucked it up and responded like the champion he hoped to become by stunning Gatti with an improbable flurry. Just as improbably, Gatti passed the doctor’s impromptu eye exam for a third consecutive round.
Gatti’s symphony of fortitude reached a crescendo with 55 seconds remaining in the sixth when he uncorked a bodacious hook to the jaw that left Rodriguez flat on his back – and down for the count. It was a comeback for the ages that would have defined a lesser fighter’s career. Gatti’s act would turn into an action-adventure film with numerous sequels and over the next eight years Gatti would become boxing’s equivalent of NBA star Dominique Wilkins, also known as “The Human Highlight Film.”
After stopping Feliciano Correa in a non-title fight and retaining his belt against Patterson in more convincing fashion, the Gatti telenovela produced two more memorable scenes. First, he struggled mightily to solve “Silky Smooth” Calvin Grove before an eye injury forced Grove into an eighth-round corner retirement. Then, his pulsating war against Gabriel Ruelas ended in the fifth with a typical Gatti-esque flourish. Moments after tasting plenty of Ruelas’ best bombs – and acquiring a cut under the left eye – Gatti flattened Ruelas for good with a flush hook to the jaw.
“Can you believe Arturo Gatti,” Merchant exclaimed, laughing at the absurdity of Gatti’s comeback capacity as the object of his testimonial kneeled in exhaustion and relief. It would be a scene that would be repeated again and again – to our utter amazement.
Gatti-Ruelas was named Ring Magazine’s 1997 Fight of the Year, the first of four such awards. It is a tribute to Gatti that the next three would take place in non-title engagements, something that had only happened seven times in the previous 51 years and the first time since 1977 (Jimmy Young W 12 George Foreman).
Nineteen ninety-eight was a disastrous year in terms of numbers – Gatti was 0-for-3 – but they were theatrical masterpieces just the same. The first bout took place January 17 against the fiery Angel Manfredy, who knocked Gatti down in the third and opened a horrifically gaping eye cut that led to an eighth-round TKO stoppage. On August 22, Gatti met Philadelphian Ivan Robinson in an unexpected classic that simultaneously produced 1998’s Fight of the Year and Upset of the Year. The rematch was just as dramatic, but a low blow deduction in the eighth converted a potential draw into yet another defeat.
Gatti rebounded with four wins against Reyes Munoz (KO 1), Joey Gamache (KO 2), Eric Jakubowski (KO 2) and Joe Hutchinson (W 10) to regain his footing in the boxing world, though it wasn’t without the usual theatrics and controversy. First, Munoz was carried off on a stretcher following his knockout loss and never fought again. Second, against Gamache, Gatti weighed 141 on the scale but ballooned to 160 by fight time 27 hours later to Gamache’s 146. Gatti dished out heavy punishment before a left hook rendered Gamache unconscious in the second, prompting inquiries about day-before-the-fight weigh-ins and spawning a lawsuit by Gamache that continues to wind through the courts. Finally, Gatti was fortunate to escape the Hutchinson fight with a 10 round decision, for Hutchinson opened a ghastly eye gash that could have been calamitous had the fight not been staged in Gatti’s hometown of Montreal.
Gatti’s next fight was against Oscar de la Hoya at welterweight but “The Golden Boy” proved too big, strong and skillful as he scored a fifth round knockout. That prompted Gatti to undergo a stylistic overhaul under the seasoned eye of new trainer James “Buddy” McGirt and that transformation was unveiled 10 months later when he took on former 140-pound champion Terronn Millett. For the first time since the first Patterson fight, Gatti employed a sharp jab, quick combinations and savvy movement on his way to a fourth round TKO.
The boxing world was shocked at how good Gatti looked against Millett and went a long way toward establishing McGirt as boxing’s hottest trainer. Gatti had hoped to use those tactics against Micky Ward but instead the world was treated to a trilogy for the record books – and one that would give Gatti his final two Fight of the Year awards.
The titanic first encounter in May 2002 was a spectacle that transcended the limits of the term “violent.” Many observers have praised it as a throwback to the 1950s but in reality it was a throwback to the caveman era.
The punishing ebb-and-flow of full-shouldered power shots culminated with a ninth round that is universally ranked among the most sensational in ring history. With Gatti on the edge of unconsciousness, and still recovering from the effects of a vicious liver hook that caused him to crumble to the canvas seconds into the round, Gatti refused to give in when McGirt asked him if he wanted to continue. As if saying “yes” wasn’t incredible enough, Gatti actually won the 10th round by not only throwing 99 punches but also landing 50 of them. All this from a man who had to have been in extraordinary pain and just minutes removed from the stresses of the unbelievable ninth. Still, it wasn’t enough as Ward captured a majority decision but though Gatti lost boxing as a whole won as Ward-Gatti I received preciously rare attention from mainstream media outlets.
The brutality of the first encounter persuaded Gatti to box in the rematch staged just six months later and he secured his revenge by scoring a third round knockdown with a right that ruptured Ward’s eardrum en route to a comprehensive decision. In the rubber match in June 2003, Gatti merged his boxing and brawling as he overcame a broken right hand to earn a slightly closer decision and notched his fourth and final Fight of the Year honor. Additionally, Gatti was part of three Rounds of the Year (Gatti-Ruelas round five, Robinson-Gatti II round three and Ward-Gatti I, round nine), a statistic that surely enhanced his historical impact.
Through the years Gatti was closely associated with HBO and his capacity for thrills was such that he effectively put an end to the network’s “one loss and you’re done” policy. He proved that as long as a fighter provides money for action that he would continue to perform on the brightest stages for the biggest money on the most prestigious platforms. For all of the thrills and chills he gave us, this may be his greatest legacy.
All the beatings he absorbed against consistently high level opposition would eventually take their toll. From 2001 to 2006 he fought the following – Oscar de la Hoya, Terronn Millett, Micky Ward three times, the undefeated Gianluca Branco, Leonard Dorin, Jesse James Leija and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Seldom did Gatti engage in an easy fight even in victory and the Mayweather massacre was particularly gruesome. The bounce-back 11th round TKO over the 37-0 Thomas Damgaard only delayed the inevitable, for he suffered upset stoppages to WBC welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir and “Contender” alum Alfonso Gomez before hanging up his gloves at age 35.
Gatti’s final nine fights – from the second Ward fight to the Gomez swan song – was staged at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. If the old Yankee Stadium was “The House that Ruth Built,” Gatti did much the same for Boardwalk Hall as his fight nights became an unquestioned must-see for boxing fans. The rollicking crowds fed off Gatti’s electrifying energy and Gatti, in turn, drew strength from them. The relationship was much more than fighter/spectator as Mr. Comeback became Mr. Sellout in a most positive way.
Gatti’s life outside the ring during his career had been equally chaotic but in retirement he appeared to settle down as he got married and became a father. Then came the stunning closing act that unfolded on Saturday, one that exploded those myths of tranquility.
Gatti is scheduled to become eligible for the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2013, and the question of his inclusion was to have been one of the year’s greatest debates. His supporters will point out that Gatti earned four Fight of the Year honors against three separate fighters and that he is one of a handful of fighters who captured belts at 130 and 140. His detractors will say that he went 11-8 in his most high-profile contests and was stopped in five of them. But no matter which side one takes one fact is beyond dispute: Arturo Gatti always gave everything he had every time he pulled on the gloves, and more often than not he came out on top.
Jimmy Cannon once wrote that the highest compliment he could give a boxer is to call him a “prizefighter.” One needs not be a soothsayer to predict that had Mr. Cannon lived he would have bestowed that precious title to the man known as “Thunder” because no one desired victory more or dug deeper to get it.
Gatti left this world an old fighter but a painfully young man. It was our privilege to watch him do what he was born to do and his fighting heart will forever be the standard by which all others will be compared. Though he left this earth far too soon, his immortality in the memories of those fortunate enough to watch him is secure. He will join a most select group of fighters who not only won championships but also won the hearts of the fans. That will be his legacy and unlike life on this earth, that mantle will be his for all time.
Guaranteed.
