The Ugly Truth About Arturo Gatti's Career (??)

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

OK, but don't pick on Gatti who has retired. Pick on Roy Jones, Tito Trinidad, Evander Holyfield (there are a dozen young Euros who actually deserve the shot he's getting), James Toney, and Antonio Tarver.

Those are the guys who should step out the ****ing way.

Roy and Vander have not seen any parts of an HBO WCB card in awhile.

I MEGA agree with your point, though. Those guys you listed (Tito aside, I love him) are clogging up the sport.

But Tito-Jones is harmless. Neither guy is taking a young contender's spot. That is just a retro sideshow.

[Kayo]

I don't hate Gatti. But I think he gets stuff (respect, praise, purses, HBO dates, HoF consideration) that he doesn't deserve.

Vernon Forrest signed a big HBO contract after beating Shane. VF loses to Rico and HBO opts out. Vivian Harris lost a fight (on the same card) and was banished to obscurity. And Viv would come in a weight class lower and dust Arturo off!!

That's the disparity. Now, I know that Gatti's shiny tracksuit-wearing, Camaro-driving fans will say that Gatti has given us so many exciting fights yadda yadda. Really? When was the last one? When was Gatti's last entertaining, pull-victory-from-the-jaws-of-defeat-against-a-journeyman showing?

He was destroyed in 2 of the 3 fights coming in, yet PizzaBoy got another big date with Gomez.

I can't speak for anyone else, but Gatti-Ward can't compare to Barrera-Morales. Juan Manuel Marquez has provided me with more excitement than Gatti has. And this is not just a "latino thing". HBO has a budget. And an allocation for fight dates. PizzaBoy is undeservedly being given too much of both.

So what your saying is you bash him because hes been successful in life

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

So what your saying is you bash him because hes been successful in life

What I'm saying is that I want to speak the TRUTH about his legacy because there is a contingent who tends to overstate his credentials....And I do not like the fraudulence.

In much the same way that I will talk UP the fighters who do NOT get the recognition they deserve.

Think of me as the Captain America of boxing.

[Lazy Liberal]

Gatti's appeal was that he was a throwback to the 40's and 50's type fighters, the kind of contenders or pretenders that were tough as **** but were limited in their fight game. He could absorb ****loads of punishment but make it look exciting and dramatic. He was ok at 130 beating Patterson 2x and made some great comebacks by beating W.Rodriguez and Ruelas but he was a very limited fighter that never was able to beat a good boxer with movement. Bottom line-He is loved i guess for not backing down from an assbeating and once in a while being able to pull one out of his ass.

[jamesbrown]

Arturo Gatti tried to fight decent opposition early in his career, and lost to nearly all of them.

In the second-half of Gatti's career, he and his management team decided to just go for the money, and to make fights up in the Northeast where his fanbase is situated. Their strategy was to find predominantly white fights with good records that Gatti can beat. Examples follow.

Joey Gamache - white fighter with excellent 55-3 record. Gatti outweighed him by a rumoured 18 lbs on fight night. And ended Gamache's career.

Micky Ward - Micky had a journeyman's record, but their first fight was one of the most brutal ever, and the trilogy is the stuff of boxing lore.

Gianluca Branco - Excellent record of 32-0. Had never fought outside of Italy before. Who had heard of this guy pre-Gatti?

Leonard Dorin - Excellent undefeated record, although he had a controversial draw with Spaddy. Gatti stopped him on a bodyshot, and ended Dorin's career (noticing a trend yet?)

Thomas Damgaard - Excellent record of 37-0. had never fought outside of Denmark (really, how does Gatti find these guys?). Had you ever heard of Damgaard pre-Gatti? Gave Arturo a good tussle, and Gatti showed that he had mostly recovered from the PBF fight.


A friend brought this up to me when he noticed the pattern. The fanbase of Gatti's fights (despite being between NYC and Philly) is almost exclusively white. So Gatti stacked his cards with (mostly crappy) white fighters with overblown records. The other opponents were hispanics with white complexions.

QUESTION: Is it purely coincidental that the only black fighter that Gatti faced in nearly seven years was the big-money Mayweather PPV fight? ...Or is there something else at play here?

( NOTE: IF YOU CAN'T TALK ABOUT RACE WITHOUT BEING RACIST, IGNORE THIS THREAD AND MOVE ALONG).

your are suppose to milk cash cows you know that right... gatti team did the right thing finding soft fights for him... the only reason all of those mention where white is because they where seen as fights gatti should win... if Gatti was a better fighter they would have put him in with the fighters you mentioned, but u milk cash cows not slaughter them. And by the way he fought the p4p no. 1 so they slaughtered the cash cow so PBF could get more attention... race card that... Vick is innocent

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

your are suppose to milk cash cows you know that right... gatti team did the right thing finding soft fights for him... the only reason all of those mention where white is because they where seen as fights gatti should win... if Gatti was a better fighter they would have put him in with the fighters you mentioned, but u milk cash cows not slaughter them. And by the way he fought the p4p no. 1 so they slaughtered the cash cow so PBF could get more attention... race card that... Vick is innocent

OK...

First, they put Gatti in with PBF so that Gatti can get the biggest payday, and the only PPV, of Arturo's career. Not to get PBF more attention. Be real.

So, If PBF's next three fights are against guys you never heard of, then you are cool with that. Right? We could just milk the PBF cash cow now that he is a big name.

[Kayo]

OK...

First, they put Gatti in with PBF so that Gatti can get the biggest payday, and the only PPV, of Arturo's career. Not to get PBF more attention. Be real.

So, If PBF's next three fights are against guys you never heard of, then you are cool with that. Right? We could just milk the PBF cash cow now that he is a big name.

Gatti's biggest pay day was against DLH wasnt it?

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

Gatti's biggest pay day was against DLH wasnt it?

I read that Gatti's biggest payday was the $4.2 mil he made for PBF.

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

Gatti's biggest pay day was against DLH wasnt it?

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk1NzEmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY2NjQ5MjAmeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk5

Gatti (39-6, 30 KOs) will nevertheless be an underdog against the unbeaten Mayweather (33-0, 22 KOs), who has long claimed that the re-energized Gatti will be "easy work" for him. The enigmatic Mayweather maintained that Gatti was ducking him in the days after Gatti announced he would start seeking an alternate opponent. Arum also planned to request that the WBC strip Gatti of his title because Mayweather became the Mexican sanctioning organization's No. 1 contender at 140 pounds by beating former champ DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley (29-4-1, 16 KOs) on May 22 in Atlantic City.

But the gutsy Gatti wanted to test himself against Mayweather as much as the Montreal-bred boxer wanted a career-high purse that could eclipse his combined compensation for all three of his famed fights against Micky Ward.

"This is the fight that everyone wanted from the beginning," said Carl Moretti, Main Events' vice president of boxing operations. "Arturo really, really wanted it. He wanted it so bad he came to us and asked if there was any way we could get the Mayweather fight a little later so he would get the amount of time he needs to train for it."


WAS ODLH-GATTI A PPV EVENT?

[DIOS DOMINICANO]

Gatti's biggest pay day was against DLH wasnt it?

An odd statistic is that several guys made their best purses fighting Floyd.

Oscar
Gatti
Baldomir
Judah
Hatton
etc

Previously, guys would have to go to Oscar for the big check. And PBF still had to fight Oscar to get to that "next level".