As the battle continues between Arturo Gatti’s family and his widow over the late boxer’s estate, Global News takes a closer look at the man himself.
For his all-action boxing style, Gatti was nicknamed “Thunder.”
His aggressive exchanges with opponents thrilled fans and earned him a level of popularity enjoyed by few others in the sport. But Gatti fought for years to build his reputation.
He was born in Italy and raised in Montreal with five siblings. When he was seven years old, Gatti started going to the Olympic Boxing Club with his older brother Joe.
He trained to represent Canada at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, but at 19, Gatti changed his plan and followed Joe to New Jersey to start a professional boxing career, one in which he’d eventually win two world titles and draw massive crowds.
He won his first professional title on June 28, 1994, by defeating Pete Taliaferro. The next June, Gatti would record his first world title in a unanimous decision, defeating Tracy Patterson for the IBF junior lightweight title.
He was able to defend the title again in 1996 by beating Wilson Rodriguez. Gatti went on to defeat Gabriel Ruelas in a memorable fifth-round TKO, sealing his victory in a bout dubbed the 1997 ‘fight of the year’ by Ring magazine.
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He was in the fight of the year again in 1998 after giving up his title to move up a weight class, but this time, Gatti suffered a loss to Ivan Robinson.
Despite the loss, Gatti found himself gearing up, not for the fight of the year, but for the fight of his career against Oscar de La Hoya. Although he was defeated, Gatti managed to hold his own against the boxing superstar, earning him the respect of fans and fellow boxers.
He faced Mickey Ward (the boxer portrayed by Mark Whalberg in the feature film The Fighter) in three separate but equally thrilling bouts in 2002 and 2003. Gatti won the series 2-1, after claiming the final fight in another fight of the year.
In 2004, he defeated Gianluca Branco for another world title in front of 10,000 fans in Atlantic City, knocking Branco out in the tenth round.
He was unable to defend the title, getting knocked out by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in June 2005. Another knockout at the hands of Alfonso Gomez in 2007 prompted Gatti to announce his retirement in the dressing room after the fight.
After retirement, he returned to Montreal with wife Amanda Rodrigues, a former exotic dancer from Belo Horizonte in southeast Brazil.
She left Brazil in her teenage years with her mother, settling in New Jersey, where she would later meet Gatti. The couple had one son together, Arturo Jr. Gatti also had a three-year-old daughter, Sofia, from a previous relationship.
The pair reportedly had a tumultuous relationship and separated numerous times. Friends of Gatti claim that he was considering divorcing Rodrigues, and that she wanted to take their son to Brazil.
Rodrigues filed a restraining order against Gatti, and friends claim their relationship was violent at times.
The boxer died at a Brazilian resort in 2009 in an apparent suicide. The Gatti family and Rodrigues have been at odds ever since over a will signed weeks before his death.
The will, the legitimacy of which is denied by Gatti’s family, left the boxer’s $3.4 million fortune to Rodrigues.
The boxer’s family also does not accept the conclusion of Brazilian authorities that he committed suicide.
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With files from The Canadian Press
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