By Eric Hernandez: I woke up this Sunday morning like I always do, walked the dog, put the coffee on the stove and reached for the laptop as I allowed myself some serenity before church. Today, there would be no serenity, there it was in bold headlines with a picture of Arturo Gatti raising his hands “GATTI FOUND DEAD.”
I was stunned. How much more disbelief can we grasp in such a short time. In the last couple of months, we have lost David Carridine, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays, Farrah Fawcett, Micheal Jackson, Steve Mcnair and now Arturo Gatti. To the average person, the name Arturo Gatti means little but to the boxing fan the name Gatti is synonymous with bravado, guts and heart it’s who he was.
Gatti wasn’t the best boxer of his generation and on many levels I thought he might be overrated due to the fact that people tend to confuse guts with skills but there was no denying his charm and his ability to produce a good show.
Who could forget His fight with Wilson Rodriquez. After being knocked down in the 2nd and with his eye nearly closed, Gatti came back to KO Rodriquez in the 6th round. How about the thrilling fight which ranks in my top 10 against Ruelas, where Gatti was taking a beating and was almost out before being saved by the bell in the 5th, only to see Gatti come back to stop Ruelas with his thundering left hook.
Unfortunately there were the loses to Angel Manfredy and Ivan Robinson, which in my opinion were nothing to be ashamed of. Regardless of his ups and downs, Gatti will always be remembered for his trilogy fights against Micky Ward. It was this trilogy that put Gatti into the mainstream. I remember people who hardly ever watched boxing asking me when was the next installment of the Gatti vs. Ward fight.
All three fights were the kind of fights that may you proud to be a boxing fan. The first two were split, Ward having one the first. Gatti came back and won the second, and just when you thought there was no way they could duplicate the efforts of the first two fights, they came back for yet another thriller that was given the honor of “fight of the year.”
Gatti won the fight in typical Gatti fashion. After suffering a knock down and hurting is right hand yet again, a problem that plague Gatti throughout his career, he would compose himself and gut out an unanimous decision. History will show his ugly loses to Oscar Dela Hoya and a brutal beat down at the hands of Floyd Mayweather but I prefer to remember this warrior as a guy who gave you everything he had. Gatti is the reason that people were in an uproar at the thought of Victor Ortiz quitting in the ring because we have been spoiled by the likes of Arturo Gatti.
It’s still too early into the investigation of Gatti’s death to make insinuations but the evidence points to the wife, which would be ironic that a warrior like Gatti who spend his whole life defending himself against people who try to hurt him inside the ring would die at the hands of a love one outside of it. May you R.I.P and may heaven make room for yet another warrior. God Bless.
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