No return for Gatti

Everyone settle down. Arturo Gatti is (thankfully) not planning a comeback, despite what you might have heard this week. The chatter was set off by an article a few days ago on the Canadian Press wire service, which suggested that Gatti (40-9, 31 KOs), a former junior welterweight and junior lightweight titleholder, was planning to return to the ring more than a year after he retired. In the article, Canadian promoter Yvon Michel was quoted as saying, "He hasn't said he will fight and will make a comeback. He's training, but not in a boxing gym. He hasn't made up his mind completely. If he ever decided to go that route, we'd be thrilled to work with him." The article also suggested, although without quoting anyone, that Gatti "is considering a comeback against Montreal welterweight Antonin Decarie" perhaps in early 2009 and that he "is believed to covet a Canadian title, which he never held while spending his entire professional career in New Jersey." Gatti was not quoted in the story. It so just so happens that Michel promotes Decarie, who has a bout coming up on Oct. 4. What better way to try stoke interest in his fight and bump up tickets sales than by suggesting that perhaps he could fight Gatti, a Montreal native, with a victory? Gatti, of course, had a legendary career, engaging in some of the fiercest, most violent slugfests of our generation. But that career came to an end July 14, 2007, when he took a hellacious beating from Alfonso Gomez in Atlantic City, N.J. Gatti was busted up, had been stopped for the third time in four fights and announced his retirement after a bloody, 16-year professional career. Gatti, 36, will never be forgotten after his epic battles with Micky Ward (three of them), Ivan Robinson (two), Angel Manfredy, Gabriel Ruelas, Calvin Grove, Tracy Harris Patterson (two) and Wilson Rodriguez. Gatti also tangled with the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr. , James Leija and Carlos Baldomir. So it stands to reason that someone out there wouldn't mind shoveling him back in the ring to squeeze the last drop of blood out of him. When I read the article about a supposed comeback, I was concerned. I have never shied from the fact that I am an unabashed Gatti lover. His fights in the mid-1990s helped revive my lifelong love of boxing, which had waned, and it was a pleasure to get to know him while covering the last seven years of his career, including 12 fights from ringside. I even named one of my cats Thunder, after his nickname. So when I read the Canadian Press story and began to receive questions from boxing fans about the supposed comeback, I called Pat Lynch, Gatti's loyal longtime manager and friend, and one of the best guys in the business. Lynch quickly put my concerns to rest. He said that Gatti, who has moved from New Jersey back to Montreal, where he is involved in real estate, has been working out in a gym (not a boxing gym) simply to stay in shape. "I asked him about the comeback rumors, because I heard them too, and he said it wasn't true," Lynch said. "Someone asked him about coming back and he said something like if he did, he would want to fight for the Canadian title. And I guess Yvon Michel was told about that and he ran with it. But there is no plan for Gatti to make a comeback. He's not coming back." Lynch explained that Gatti and his girlfriend just had their second child, two-week-old Arturo Gatti Jr. , and that he's busy with his real estate development business. "He living up in Montreal. He's been working with real estate up there. He's extremely happy," Lynch said. "I was very surprised to hear the rumors. He said to me, 'Did you read all this stuff on the Internet?' He said his words were taken totally out of context. I've told him I don't ever want to see him in the ring again. But we've talked about him promoting. That's something he mentioned to me. If that is something he wants to do with boxing, I'd love to help him and I told him I'd go there and help him with it if it's something he really wants to do." Lynch, who took great care of Gatti during his fighting days, still does worry that somebody will pressure Gatti and ultimately convince him to fight again. "But there's no reason for it," Lynch said. "Financially, he's OK. He has his business and family. He said things are going in the right direction for him. Do I feel in my heart the door is 100 percent closed? No, because people are always asking him about coming back. But I hope not. I have too much love and respect for him for that. I don't know anybody who wants to see him come back." Im glad he used whats left of his head and not return to boxing. hell end up getting killed.