Sports Articles: Boxing Legends Part 2 - Arturo Gatti page 3
Image from: boxingdvds.myshopify
Article page 3 of 7
His other fight in 1996 was bit more straightforward as he beat Feliciano Correa by third round knockout, but, away from the ring, things were starting to slip away from Gatti. He was losing control, partying too hard and slacking off in training as the fame and fortune went to his head. His friend Mike Skowronski said he would show up at 3 or 4am banging on the door and "when we played golf he would be drunk by the 8th hole." Gatti would spend all night out clubbing in Manhattan. Despite the lifestyle, he was able to come through a rematch with Patterson to win another unanimous decision over him and retain the belt in February.
He may have got away with it in the ring, but Gatti was not able to get away with everything outside and he was arrested in Union County, NJ, on a litany of charges that included drunken driving, eluding the police, resisting arrest, making terroristic threats and aggravated assault. The charges were later reduced to misdemeanours, but the cracks were beginning to appear in what had seemed, up until then, an ideal ambassador for the sport with his film star looks and polite, humble manner and willingness to always take time to speak to journalists.
A non-title fight in May saw him fight a former world champion in Calvin Groves as Gatti once again showed why the crowds loved him so much that Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall became known as the 'House of Gatti'. Pat Lynch recounted the story: "I remember when he was fighting Calvin Grove on CBS in 1997. Grove's moving a lot and for the first three rounds Arturo's boxing, he looks beautiful. But, from the fourth round on, it's balls to the wall. I mean he just engaged in a war. He got stitched up after that fight and he's sitting in the doctor's office and I'm like, 'Arturo, I don't understand. You could have won an easy decision.' And he looks up at me, he says, 'you think I wanted to be patient and chase him for ten rounds? I'd rather get punched in the face.' That's what he said to me. How do you answer that?" That one quote pretty much sums up Gatti. He just wanted to brawl.
His next fight was another humdinger of a title defence as Gatti faced another former world champion in Gabriel Ruelas. Once more it was all about heart and desire as Gatti was rocked by a left uppercut in the fourth, absorbing at least 15 punches in a row before being saved by the bell. Then Gatti came out and knocked Ruelas out with a left hook in the fifth in a fight which was voted Fight of the Year.
His lifestyle was catching up with him badly and his partying saw him pile on the pounds between fights and it was becoming a struggle to make the weight. 1998 saw Gatti relinquish his super featherweight title and step up to lightweight, though it was a bad year in the ring as well as out of it for him. He lost his driving license after being convicted on drink driving charges in 3 different states. He was banned from driving for 10 years. Worse was to come in Miami, where a fight over a woman left one man with brain damage, Gatti stabbed in the back and, to compound matters, he threatened the police officer who tried to arrest him for assault in the incident, one of a number of fights he had with police officers at this time.
Skowronski said: "At that time, you'd get three or four weeks of training out of him before a fight. The rest of the time he'd be out drinking. He was depressed and he was just going through the motions." He was depressed and that affected his training, which affected his performance in the ring, so he lost and then he got more depressed and would drink even more. His life was in a vicious downward spiral but the fans still loved him for his all action performances and willingness to stand and trade with anyone.
His first fight at lightweight in January 1998 saw him lose by TKO in the 8th after being badly cut the referee stopped the fight, though Gatti was rallying. He became heavily depressed by the result. In August he faced Ivan Robinson and lost again, a split decision giving the fight to Robinson, a fight that saw Gatti awarded his second Fight of the Year award. A rematch was quickly agreed between the two, set for December.
Gatti had a chat with the press in the days leading up to the fight, sipping a drink the journalists assumed was soda from a paper cup. He was drinking wine. Pat Lynch admits it was a difficult time and Arturo himself said he would never have done the things he was doing if his dad was alive. He admitted to being ashamed of his actions. A vice-president at HBO at the time, Lou DiBella, said in 1999: "Arturo has always scared me, because Arturo is reckless. He's into having a good time. But sometimes he doesn't think. I don't think Arturo will hurt anyone but himself." Prophetic words maybe?
The rematch saw Gatti deducted a point in the 8th round for repeated low blows, which saw him lose again, as that point cost him the draw he would have otherwise had. The following August saw him finally get a win at lightweight as he got a TKO win in the first round against Reyes Munoz, but it did not sort out his problems. In fact it just led him into more problems as Gatti took on yet another former world champion in Joey Gamache in February 2000. It was a fight that was mired in controversy even before it started.
The weigh in started it all as the Gamache camp claimed Gatti never actually made the 141 pound weight limit. If he had made the limit, Gatti managed to put on a staggering 19 pounds by the time of the fight, to see him start the bout with a 15 pound weight advantage (160 to 145). Gatti won the fight with a second round KO but Gamache had to be rushed to hospital and almost died. He was left with permanent brain damage and suffered from intense migraines and severe depression, found it difficult to hold down a job and had to take numerous medications. Gamache's camp filed a lawsuit against Gatti afterwards.
It did spark conversations over changes in the sport, with some commissions weighing boxers a second time before the fight. Regulators also pushed for a limit to the amount of weight a fighter could legally gain between the weigh in and the fight itself. Little actually changed though in reality.
Boxing Legends Part 2 - Arturo Gatti page 4
Written by Tris Burke - June 25 2018 19:55:06
