Arturo "Thunder" Gatti died he was 37

Arturo "Thunder" Gatti died he was 37, Gatti was a Canadian professional boxer.^[1][2] Gatti was born in Italy and raised in Montreal, Quebec. Upon turning pro in 1991, Gatti relocated to Jersey City, New Jersey, but after retiring from boxing he moved back to Montreal where he worked in real estate.^[3][4]

He participated in Ring Magazine's "fight of the year" a total of four times (1997, 1998, 2002, and 2003). His brother, Joe Gatti, is also a professional boxer. Arturo announced his retirement on July 14, 2007. On July 11, 2009, Arturo was found dead in a hotel in Brazil.^[5]

(April 15, 1972 – July 11, 2009)

Arturo Gatti was a member of the Canadian National Team, and was training to represent Canada at the 1992 Summer Olympics, but at age 19 (in 1991), he decided to turn pro instead.^[6][7] He began boxing professionally on the night of June 10, 1991, with a third round knockout of Jose Gonzalez in Secaucus. 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 23, 1993, was his first fight abroad, where he visited Amsterdam and knocked out Plawen Goutchev in round one.

1994 was a year when Gatti stepped up his quality of opposition. He started by beating Leon Bostic, and followed through with a win over Pete Taliaferro to win the USBA super featherweight title, by a knockout in round one. He retained the title against Richard Salazar and Jose Sanabria.

On December 15, 1995, Gatti challenged the IBF's world super featherweight champion, Floyd Patterson's adoptive son Tracy Harris Patterson. Gatti became world champion when he narrowly 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 2 fights in 1996, once defending his world title. But 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 Ring Magazine. Dropped in round two and with his right eye closing fast, Gatti knocked down Rodriguez in round five with a left hook to the body, before finishing him off in round six to retain the title.

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 round seven of a non-title affair. Then came his defense against former world champion Gabriel Ruelas, which was also named "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine. Rocked by a left uppercut in the fourth, Gatti absorbed more than 15 consecutive punches before being saved by the bell. In the fifth, he connected on a left hook to knock Ruelas out.

After that fight, Gatti chose to relinquish the world title, going up in weight to the lightweight division. However, 1998 was a bad year for Gatti, 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 decisions in 10 rounds to Ivan Robinson. Gatti-Robinson I was chosen "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine, 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.

His first fight of 2000 proved to be controversial. Faced with former world champion Joey Gamache, Gatti won by a knockout in round two. When Gamache went into a coma for a day and it was discovered that Gatti had gained 19 pounds since the weigh-in the day before and thus had a large advantage in size over Gamache, boxing legislators pushed for a new law requiring boxers not to exceed a certain amount of extra weight from the weight accorded on the day of the fight. Gatti was also accused by Gamache's handlers of not having actually made the contracted weight of 141 pounds. After Gatti-Gamache, boxing commissions started weighing the boxers a second time, on the day of the fight.

Gatti then won his two other fights that year, over lesser quality name opponents.

In 2001, Gatti only had one fight, going up in weight to meet welterweight Oscar de la Hoya, who beat him by a technical knockout in five rounds. In 2002, Gatti returned to the junior welterweight division and defeated former world champion Terronn Millett by a knockout in round four.

He then split two ten round decisions with "Irish" Micky Ward, losing their first bout, but winning their second. Gatti-Ward I also garnered "fight of the year" honors by Ring Magazine.

On June 7, 2003, he and Ward had a rubber match. Gatti broke his twice-repaired right hand on an uppercut to the hip in the fourth, and he dropped his arm, wincing in pain. He fought nearly one-handed for several rounds afterward, using his right sparingly. In the sixth, Gatti dominated the round but got caught with an overhand right to the top of the head a second before the bell rang and went down. Gatti then recovered again and was never in trouble after that. The final scorecards read, 96–93 (twice), and 97–92, in favor of Gatti. The third fight between the two was again named "fight of the year" by Ring Magazine.

On January 24, 2004, Gatti also recovered from a broken hand, scored a tenth round knock-down and defeated Gianluca Branco of Italy by a twelve round unanimous decision to win the vacant WBC junior welterweight title.

On July 24, 2004, he knocked out the previously unbeaten former world champion Leonard Dorin in two rounds at Atlantic City, to retain his title. It should be noted that Dorin was dropped with one single body shot.

Gatti's second defense of his WBC title came against former world junior lightweight champion Jesse James Leija on January 29, 2005. Gatti beat Leija by a fifth round knockout.

In his next fight, Gatti was dominated by former Super Featherweight and Lightweight world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. on June 25. He took several punches to the gut thus slowing him down to react. Gatti's corner threw in the towel after taking a strong body shot, thus ending his title reign via sixth-round technical knockout, in what is regarded as Gatti's worst defeat.

After the loss to Mayweather, Gatti moved up to the welterweight division. He beat Thomas Damgaard on January 28, 2006, by an eleventh round technical knockout.

On July 22, 2006, Gatti was knocked out by Carlos Baldomir vying for the world welterweight Championship. He then broke off his relationship with Buddy McGirt and had a new trainer in Micky Ward.

Gatti attempted a comeback on July 14, 2007 against Alfonso Gomez, only to get KO'd in seven rounds. After the fight Gatti announced his retirement in the dressing room, reportedly quipping: "I'll be back—as a spectator."

Gatti retired with a record of 40 wins and 9 losses, with 31 wins by knockout. On September 24, 2008 reports had surfaced that Gatti was considering a comeback against Montreal welterweight Antonin Decarie (19–0), the Canadian and North American Boxing Organization champion. In March 2009, Gatti was charged with assaulting his then girlfriend Amanda Rodrigues, but failed to appear in court. When he appeared April 17, he was released on bail and was ordered to stay 200 meters from Rodrigues.^[8]

On July 11, 2009, Gatti was found dead in Brazil, in a hotel named Dorisol. The hotel is located on Porto de Galinhas beach (municipality of Ipojuca, Pernambuco). Gatti and his wife were on a second honeymoon with their 1 year-old son.^[9][10][11]

Foul play is suspected and Gatti's wife, Amanda Rodrigues, is one of the main suspects. Authorities in Brazil are somewhat confused by Amanda's changing story as well as the recovery of a bloody purse strap which one investigator believes was used to strangle the unconscious fighter. Former boxing champion Acelino Freitas, who was a close friend of Gatti, claims Gatti and his wife were having problems and were about to split up.^[12]