Boxing has been hit with tragedy again. Arturo Gatti Jr., the teenage son of Canadian fight legend Arturo “Thunder” Gatti, has died at just 17. He was found hanged in an apartment in Mexico, where he’d been staying with his mother, Amanda Rodrigues.
For those who loved the Gatti name, it’s a gut punch that lands right on an old wound. Sixteen years ago the sport lost Arturo Sr. under a cloud of unanswered questions. Now the son he left behind — the boy cradled in his arms during that fateful Brazil trip — is gone before he could even start his own life.
The news surfaced when longtime friend and former Gatti bodyguard Chuck Zito posted on Instagram:
“It’s with a heavy heart that I have to say… R.I.P. to 17-year-old ARTURO GATTI JR. who was found hanging in an apartment in Mexico yesterday. The same way they found his Father dead in an apartment in Brazil 16 years ago.”
The family hasn’t released an official statement yet. Authorities in Mexico have not confirmed details beyond the initial reports.
A kid who wanted to fight for his father’s name
Arturo Jr. grew up in gyms. He’d been boxing since he was six, learning the craft the hard way — sparring, bag work, early mornings. Those close to him say he wanted to honor his father’s name, maybe even go beyond it.
Trainer Mo Latif, who’d been guiding him for years, was reportedly heading to Mexico this week to train with him. Friends say he studied his dad’s wars with Micky Ward and had connected with legends like Mike Tyson. He wasn’t just a kid playing at boxing; he was serious.
That dream — to one day walk to the ring with “Gatti” stitched on his trunks — is over before it began.
Still no peace for the Gatti story
Arturo Sr.’s death in 2009 still doesn’t sit right with many in boxing. Found dead in a Brazil condo, bruised and with a ligature mark on his neck, his passing was ruled a suicide after authorities released Rodrigues, who’d been arrested at first.
But friends never accepted it. Pat Lynch, Gatti’s longtime manager, hired investigators and forensic experts who believed the great fighter may have been knocked out and strangled. A Quebec coroner later called the Brazilian investigation so mishandled that no one could say for sure what happened. The official file remains a “violent death by neck constriction,” but the truth feels lost.
Now the boy who lived through that mystery as an infant is gone too.
The pain behind the gloves
Those who followed Arturo Sr. know what he gave to boxing — blood, toughness, and every ounce of heart a fighter can have. Fans still talk about the wars with Micky Ward as if they happened yesterday.
This loss cuts deeper because Gatti Jr. was trying to carve his own path while carrying a name heavy with glory and grief. For the Gatti family, and for boxing people who knew the kid, it’s another funeral when there should have been a fight.
Funeral arrangements haven’t been shared yet. For now, all anyone can do is send love to a family that’s given this sport so much.
