by David P. Greisman
Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com

These are the closing credits of “the Human Highlight Reel.”

Forty-nine fights. Forty wins. Thirty-one knockouts. Titles in two weight classes. Nearly two dozen appearances on HBO. Four fights-of-the-year.

Countless excitement.

Arturo Gatti built his reputation on giving everything he had and never giving up, on taking punishment and then digging into his huge reservoir of heart to return fire in an attempt to pull out a miracle.

There was Gatti, twice convincing the ringside physician that he could see well enough for the fight to continue, then rising from the stool to drop Wilson Rodriguez with a body shot in the fifth and finally putting him down for the count in the sixth. There was Gatti, his head bobbing up and down from Gabe Ruelas’ uppercuts, blood coming from below his left eye, ending the fight with a left hook that seemed to come out of left field. Fans flocked to his fights, where they became accustomed to seeing Gatti take far too many shots, to seeing his face swollen and the odds lengthened.

But not like this.

Not like how Gatti looked wobbling drunkenly toward his corner after six rounds of being surgically dismantled by Floyd Mayweather Jr. When then-trainer Buddy McGirt told Gatti that he was stopping the fight, Gatti protested out of pride, asking for one more round, but he ultimately stayed on his stool, his head cradled within McGirt’s arms.

Not like how Gatti looked in the ninth round against Carlos Baldomir, a left hook sending Gatti crumbling forward onto the canvas, from where he needed the ropes to lift himself up. The second knockdown saw Gatti fall flat on his back, and that was where he stayed, tired, trounced.

And not like how Gatti looked Saturday against Alfonso Gomez, when Gatti’s feet worked but not his fists, when there would be few of those desperate bombs thrown in hopes of a comeback, when New Jersey State Athletic Control Board chief Larry Hazzard Sr. had to step up into the ring to stop the bloodletting himself. Hazzard’s actions also ended the career of a local favorite, a fighter who had appeared nine straight times at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall and 30 times in the state.

This is the opening scene of “the Human Highlight Reel.”

May 18, 2002. The Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. It is the ninth round of Arturo Gatti’s first war with Micky Ward. The momentum has repeatedly shifted over the course of the previous eight stanzas. This round would prove no different.

Ward came out fast, dropping Gatti in the opening seconds with his trademark combination of a left hook upstairs followed by a left hook to the liver. Gatti, wincing, rose from his right knee at the count of nine, only to get chased around the ring by a Ward looking to close things out.

Ward punched himself out, however, and Gatti came back with thudding body shots, vicious left hooks and stiff right crosses. This time, it was Gatti who expended too much energy, and Ward had recovered enough to leave Gatti reeling and essentially defenseless on the ropes.

HBO blow-by-blow announcer Jim Lampley called for referee Frank Cappuccino to step in and stop things, but the third man in the ring let the other two continue. Gatti, arms at his sides, stayed on his feet to finish off one of the sport’s best rounds in one of the sport’s best fights.

Flash back to previous years. Gatti’s career is a mix of highs and lows. A rise toward junior lightweight contention and a two-year title run. Three straight losses, one to Angel Manfredy and two to Ivan Robinson. Four straight wins that led him into a fight with Oscar De La Hoya, who made Gatti’s corner throw in the towel. Ten months off, followed by a stoppage of Terron Millett that began Gatti’s rebirth.

The great trilogy of fights with Ward not only cemented Gatti as a true entertainer, but it also launched the final phase of his career in which he would seek to show the boxing world that he could be a legitimate contender, too.

Gatti captured a vacant belt at junior welterweight, successfully defending it twice before losing to Mayweather, a defeat that marked the beginning of the end. For years, Gatti had struggled to make weight, ballooning in size by fight night but simultaneously increasing his tendency to swell up when punched in the face. The Mayweather loss was the last that Gatti would see of 140, a jump to welterweight giving him seven pounds of relief.

Gatti’s first bout in his new division came against Thomas Damgaard, an undefeated 34-year-old who had probably squandered his prime fighting pastries in front of a faithful Danish crowd. Gatti stopped Damgaard, and he still had enough drawing power that Carlos Baldomir chose him for the first defense of the Argentine’s welterweight championship.

Gatti would never win again.

At 140 and below, Gatti was often able to use advantages, either in speed or in size and strength, to overcome his other limitations. Moving up one division, though, brought him to a weight class populated by natural welterweights whose unimpressive knockout ratios didn’t necessarily indicate that they would have heavier hands than expected and chins battle-tested against bigger fighters.

Gatti was too small against Baldomir, and against Gomez he would again be too small – and too scarred by a lifetime of wars inside and out of the squared circle. With 356 days off since the Baldomir loss, Gatti’s mind may have felt rejuvenated, but his body failed to agree.

Gomez countered with right hands over Gatti’s jab, led with left hooks and limited Gatti’s offense to 74 total punches landed out of 358 thrown, including a pitiful power punch output of 113 launched and 29 on target. In the final minute of the seventh round, Gomez sent his right paw crashing into Gatti’s maw, knocking him down, splitting his lip and tearing out his heart.

Referee Randy Neumann, who had probably shown far too much respect for the battered warrior while Gomez beat Gatti from pillar to post, issued a count, but New Jersey’s Hazzard stepped in, doing what so many fans and observers would unfortunately admit was far too necessary.

Gatti’s long and storied career was over, the end for a fighter who was, through the years, a cult figure, a rock star, a blood-and-guts warrior, a man who represented so much of what people adore about the Sweet Science. He was neither a virtuoso boxer nor a menacing bruiser, but he was nonetheless deservingly on television screens, in feature articles, in the spotlight. He was a Rocky, an Italian Stallion, an everyman who had achieved his full potential and thereby received our approval.

This, then, is the scene leading into the closing credits of “the Human Highlight Reel.”

July 14, 2007. Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. Gatti, bleeding through a bandage over his lip, gives one last post-fight interview to HBO.

“He was just stronger than I was,” Gatti told interviewer Max Kellerman. “He’s a hungry fighter, a young fighter. I did my best. I came in thinking I could outbox him, but, you know, the ring was getting smaller and smaller with a bigger man. And it just sucks that from ‘40 to ‘47, it’s just a different me. I wish I could make 140 but it’s impossible. So, I don’t see myself continuing at 147. I want to retire. And I can’t be taking this abuse no more.”

Earlier in the night, Kellerman had compared Gatti to Bruce Willis’ John McClane, the protagonist of the Die Hard movies. In the post-fight interview, Gatti turned to the camera and waved, clearly with another action hero in mind.

“Hasta la vista, baby.”

The 10 Count

1.  In the HBO broadcast’s main event, Paul Williams captured the World Boxing Organization welterweight title by outpointing Antonio Margarito. Williams relied on his activity to pile up points, throwing more than 100 punches per three minutes and, at first, putting rounds in the bank while keeping Margarito at bay.

Margarito later adjusted to Williams’ difficult style and lengthy frame, coming back on the cards and carrying momentum into the final round. But Margarito’s corner told their charge to play the role of counterpuncher in that final stanza, perhaps the wrong advice when the other guy never stops sending out shots. Williams took the 12th, earning a crucial 10 points that proved the difference between the unanimous decision that made Williams a titlist and a majority draw that would’ve seen Margarito retain.

2.  The show’s opener pitted International Boxing Federation welterweight beltholder Kermit Cintron against Walter Matthysse, guys whose last losses had come, respectively, against Margarito and Williams. Cintron, who since the Margarito fight has improved tremendously under the tutelage of Emanuel Steward, destroyed Matthysse, flooring him in the opening heat and sending him out in the second with a first-class ticket to La-La Land.

Although the night’s most impressive performance was relegated to jerking the curtains, Cintron should see himself back in the buzz two years after fizzling out so spectacularly against Margarito. Cintron called out Shane Mosley after this win, hoping to bring back a bout that had been proposed for this past February but had reportedly failed to occur due to Cintron’s squabbles with then-promoter Bobby Bostick.

Cintron is now with Main Events, but, unfortunately, Margarito’s loss may not be Cintron’s gain. Margarito had been slated to face Miguel Cotto had he gotten by Williams. Now, with Williams’ win and with Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank on speaking terms again, Cotto could be matched up with Mosley.

3.  Meanwhile, former HBO staple Roy Jones Jr. was headlining a minor pay-per-view, a card that saw the aging 175-pound superstar triumph over prospect Anthony Hanshaw via unanimous decision.

Since losing three out of four bouts against the duo of Antonio Tarver and Glencoffe Johnson, Jones’ appearances have been few and seen by fewer. Last year, Jones took on lower-tier light heavyweight Prince Badi Ajamu on a pay-per-view broadcast from that boxing Mecca of Boise, Idaho. A December pay-per-view against Manny Siaca fell through, so Saturday was Jones’ first bout in nearly 12 months.

Jones may no longer feed from the HBO gravy train, but, amusingly, that could easily change should Felix Trinidad once again come out of retirement. And odds are that Jones would nevertheless show up late for those press conferences, too.

4.  Elsewhere, Vassiliy Jirov won his second fight since returning to cruiserweight, stopping designated opponent Kenny Craven in the second round of their bout.

Jirov nearly made a decent splash in his March 2004 heavyweight debut, a loss that saw him knock down undefeated prospect Joe Mesi thrice, inflicting the brain injuries that kept Mesi out of the sport for two years.

In his next fight, Jirov was ahead on the cards after eight rounds against Michael Moorer when the former heavyweight champion landed a single left hand stopped Jirov. That proved to be a reality check for the former cruiserweight titlist, and after three bouts against mostly nondescript competition he returned to the next-lowest division.

Prior to beating Craven, Jirov had been on the shelf for 15 months. The cruiserweight division has moved on without him – the question will be whether Jirov can fit back within.

5.  Over in Germany, prospect Tony Thompson raised himself to contender by scoring a fifth-round technical knockout over Luan Krasniqi.

Krasniqi had been a mostly forgotten name, a fighter who seemed to have disappeared from contention following Lamon Brewster’s coming from behind to stop him. But decisions over David Bostice and Brian Minto meant enough to the WBO for the sanctioning body to include Krasniqi in an eliminator for the right to challenge the winner of October’s Ruslan Chagaev-Sultan Ibragimov unification bout.

Thompson’s quick ascent came on the heels of distance wins against Dominick Guinn and Timur Ibragimov. At 35, he is a late bloomer in a division that is finally seeing a slight youth movement among its titlists. But one hesitates to argue that Thompson’s time must be now when his weight class is still full of names whose best times were in the previous decade.

6.  Wladimir Klitschko’s stoppage of Lamon Brewster in their July 7 rematch will count as a mandatory title defense, freeing up the IBF heavyweight beltholder for potential unification bouts or a voluntary defense against a list of names that includes Evander Holyfield.

Word was that the IBF was to call for an eliminator between Klitschko kayo victims Chris Byrd and Calvin Brock – a fight that could still be made by the sanctioning body – but Brewster outranked the other two, allowing the mandatory label in a decision that actually makes sense.

Klitschko-Holyfield, amazingly, sounds better than a match between Klitschko and Hasim Rahman.

7.  Wait, did I just write that a sanctioning body’s decision made sense? I suddenly have as much credibility as a boxer who starts a post-fight interview with “No excuses, but…”

8.  First-season “Contender” contestant Alfonso Gomez was able to score a big win over Arturo Gatti, but second-season star Cornelius Bundrage couldn’t follow suit, losing via eighth-round stoppage to former welterweight prospect Joel Julio on last week’s edition of ESPN2’s “Wednesday Night Fights.”

Bundrage, once infamous for a freakish May 2005 first-round loss to Sechew Powell that saw a double knockdown in the opening seconds before the next Powell power shot dropped Bundrage to the canvas three more times, has since found a comfortable home within the “Contender” fold. That didn’t help him out against Julio, however.

After being humbled last year by Carlos Quintana, Julio has rebuilt his confidence with a series of wins against mid- and lower-level opposition. He and his handlers now have an important choice to make – Julio can return to the welterweight division in hopes of cashing in on boxing’s most packed weight class, or he can compete at 154, where the big-name fights are fewer and, perhaps, the opportunity greater.

9.  Two days later, Allan Green made quick work of Darrell Woods on ESPN2’s “Friday Night Fights,” a first-round technical knockout fulfilling Green’s part in winning prior to a prospective showdown with fellow super middleweight Peter Manfredo Jr.

Whereas Manfredo returned from his controversial April early stoppage loss to Joe Calzaghe by fighting again in May and in June, this was Green’s first appearance since dropping a March decision to Edison Miranda. Green has cited health problems as a legitimate concern – hopefully he can get close enough to 100 percent so that the Manfredo bout will occur.

10.  Boxers Behaving Badly: Former junior middleweight and middleweight titlist Harry Simon was sentenced last week to two years in prison for an accident in which a car that Simon was driving in Namibia collided head-on with another vehicle, killing two Belgian tourists and their 22-month-old child, according to The Free Press of Namibia (by way of BoxingScene’s own Mark Vester).

The jail time cuts short the recent comeback attempted by the 34-year-old Simon, who left boxing undefeated more than five years ago. Simon returned in March, taking an eight-round decision over an inexperienced Stephen Nzuemba.

David P. Greisman’s weekly column, “Fighting Words,” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. He may be reached for questions and comments at fightingwords1@gmail.com