Arturo Gatti

Arturo Gatti (April 15, 1972 – July 11, 2009) was an Italian-Canadian professional boxer, son of Italians (his parents were from San Pietro Infine, Caserta, Italy) and born in Cassino, Italy who competed from 1991 to 2007.

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He began boxing professionally on the night of June 10, 1991, with a third-round knockout of Jose Gonzalez in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Arturo Gatti was a member of the Canadian National team, and was training to represent Canada at the 1992 Summer Games, but in 1991, at age 19, he decided to turn pro instead.

He went undefeated for six bouts before losing to King Solomon by split decision in six rounds on November 17, 1992.

His next fight, on March 24, 1993, was his first fight abroad, where he visited Amsterdam, Netherlands and knocked out Plawen Goutchev in round one.

In 1994, he beat Leon Bostic, and followed through with a Round 1 knockout over Pete Taliaferro to win the USBA super featherweight title.

He retained the title against Richard Salazar and former world champion Jose Sanabria.

A world champion in two weight classes, Gatti held the IBF junior lightweight title from 1995 to 1998, and the WBC super lightweight title from 2004 to 2005.

On December 15, 1995, Gatti challenged the IBF super featherweight Champion Tracy Harris Patterson, Floyd Patterson's adoptive son.

Gatti became world champion when he outpointed Patterson (scoring: 116–111, 115–112, 114–113) and signed a multi-fight deal with HBO to fight on HBO Boxing.

He only had two fights in 1996, once defending his world title.

His title defense, at Madison Square Garden against Dominican Wilson Rodriguez was the first of three Gatti fights in a row to be named a candidate for "Fight of the Year" by The Ring.

Dropped in round two and with his right eye closing fast, Gatti knocked Rodriguez down in round five with a left hook to the body, before finishing him off in round six to retain the title.

He also participated in The Ring magazine's Fight of the Year a total of four times (1997, 1998, 2002, and 2003).

In 1997, he again won a points victory over Patterson, but this time by a larger margin (118–108, 117–109, 116–110).

He then scored a technical knockout over former world champion Calvin Grove in the seventh round of a non-title affair.

Then came his defense against former world champion Gabriel Ruelas, which was also named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring.

Rocked by a left uppercut in the fourth, Gatti absorbed more than 15 consecutive punches before being saved by the bell.

In the fifth, with Ruelas again the aggressor and looking close to victory, Gatti connected with a left hook that lifted Ruelas off the canvas and resulted in the knock out.

After that fight, Gatti relinquished the world title, going up in weight to the lightweight division.

However, 1998 was a bad year for him, as he lost all three of his fights that year.

He lost by a technical knockout in round eight to Angel Manfredy, and then lost a pair of close 10-round decisions to Ivan Robinson, the first by split decision, the second by unanimous.

In Gatti–Robinson II, Gatti had a point deducted in the eighth round for low blows.

Had the point not been deducted, the fight would have been a draw, as Robinson was ahead by only one point on two scorecards.

Gatti–Robinson I was chosen "Fight of the Year" by The Ring, thus marking the second year in a row that a Gatti fight was given that award and the third year in a row a Gatti fight was nominated.

He only had one fight in 1999, knocking out Reyes Munoz in round one.

Gatti's first fight of 2000 proved to be controversial.

Faced with former world champion Joey Gamache, Gatti won by a knockout in round two.

A subsequent lawsuit by Gamache's handlers claimed Gatti had gained 19 pounds since the weigh-in the day before and thus had a large advantage over Gamache.

In the wake of the fight, boxing regulators pushed for a new law limiting the amount of weight a competitor can gain between the weigh-in and time of the fight.

Gatti was also accused by Gamache's handlers of not having actually made the contracted weight of 141 pounds.

He announced his retirement on July 14, 2007.

He died under mysterious circumstances in 2009.

His Brazilian wife was arrested for his homicide, then released after an autopsy done in Brazil ruled his death was a suicide.

Subsequent American and Quebecois investigations could not agree on Gatti's cause of death, and discovered a history of suicidal ideation.

After his death in 2009, Gatti was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on December 10, 2012, in his first year of eligibility, becoming the tenth Canadian boxer to be so inducted.

Gatti was raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Gatti eventually relocated to Jersey City, New Jersey, as a teenager where he found a manager he trusted and decided to turn pro.

He returned to Montreal after retiring from boxing to work in real estate.