Arturo “Thunder” Gatti (April 15, 1972 – July 11, 2009) was a professional boxer. Born in Cassino, Italy, and raised in Montreal, Canada, Gatti relocated to Jersey City, United States as a teenager. He returned to Montreal after retiring from boxing to work in real estate. Gatti won world championships designated by two different boxing boards in two different weight classes. He also participated in Ring Magazine’s “fight of the year” a total of four times (1997, 1998, 2002 and 2003). He announced his retirement on July 14, 2007.
Arturo Gatti was a member of the Canadian National team, and was training to represent Canada at the 1992 Summer Games, but at age 19 (in 1991), he decided to turn pro instead. He began boxing professionally on the night of November 17, 1992.
His next fight, on March 24, 1993, was his first fight abroad, where he visited Amsterdam, Netherlands and knocked out Plawen Goutchev in round one. In 1994, he beat 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 former world champion Jose Sanabria.
On December 15, 1995, Arturo 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 two fights in 1996, once defending his world title. 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 Rodriguez down 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, Arturo 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.
