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NEW YORK - A former boxer who says he sustained permanent brain damage in a 2000 bout against Arturo Gatti is now suing, saying Gatti weighed too much for the fight.
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Joey Gamache, 39, and his wife filed a lawsuit in federal court Feb. 21 alleging breach of contract over the Feb. 26, 2000 bout at Madison Square Garden. Gatti won the fight.
By contract, both fighters had to weigh 141 pounds by at least eight hours before the bout started, according to the suit filed by lawyer Keith Sullivan. Gatti made weight the day before the fight, but the suit said his weight was "falsely represented" then and that he was actually 160 pounds by the time he got into the ring the next day.
Gatti overwhelmed Gamache in the first round and the fight was stopped 20 seconds into Round Two, but Gamache was hospitalized for two days afterward, the suit said.
"As a result of the devastating punishment inflicted by the severely overweight defendant ... (Gamache) has sustained severe and permanent neurological damages and injuries, which caused him to end his career as a professional boxer," according to the suit.
Gamache, who suffers from migraine headaches he attributes to the beating, now works as a boxing trainer at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn.
"Every day is a battle," Sullivan said Thursday. "He has great difficulty getting past these migraine headaches and he takes a ****tail of medications to get through it."
Gamache has a separate complaint pending before the state Court of Claims against the New York State Athletic Commission over the administration of the weigh-in, Sullivan said.
Donald Tremblay, spokesman for Bloomfield, N.J.-based Main Events, Gatti's promoter, said the company had not been served with the complaint and wouldn't comment on its claims.
A breach-of-contract suit filed by Gamache over the fight was voluntarily withdrawn by him in August 2004, with the endorsement of U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, according to Tremblay.
Tremblay said he didn't know what Gatti's weight was by the time the fight began.
"I don't know how much weight he gained afterward. That was when Arturo was really working hard to make weight. How much he actually gained, I don't know. He worked hard to get down and make the weight. After that, when you replenish with liquids you're going to gain some weight back. Some guys gain more than others."
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Joey Gamache, 39, and his wife filed a lawsuit in federal court Feb. 21 alleging breach of contract over the Feb. 26, 2000 bout at Madison Square Garden. Gatti won the fight.
By contract, both fighters had to weigh 141 pounds by at least eight hours before the bout started, according to the suit filed by lawyer Keith Sullivan. Gatti made weight the day before the fight, but the suit said his weight was "falsely represented" then and that he was actually 160 pounds by the time he got into the ring the next day.
Gatti overwhelmed Gamache in the first round and the fight was stopped 20 seconds into Round Two, but Gamache was hospitalized for two days afterward, the suit said.
"As a result of the devastating punishment inflicted by the severely overweight defendant ... (Gamache) has sustained severe and permanent neurological damages and injuries, which caused him to end his career as a professional boxer," according to the suit.
Gamache, who suffers from migraine headaches he attributes to the beating, now works as a boxing trainer at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn.
"Every day is a battle," Sullivan said Thursday. "He has great difficulty getting past these migraine headaches and he takes a ****tail of medications to get through it."
Gamache has a separate complaint pending before the state Court of Claims against the New York State Athletic Commission over the administration of the weigh-in, Sullivan said.
Donald Tremblay, spokesman for Bloomfield, N.J.-based Main Events, Gatti's promoter, said the company had not been served with the complaint and wouldn't comment on its claims.
A breach-of-contract suit filed by Gamache over the fight was voluntarily withdrawn by him in August 2004, with the endorsement of U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain, according to Tremblay.
Tremblay said he didn't know what Gatti's weight was by the time the fight began.
"I don't know how much weight he gained afterward. That was when Arturo was really working hard to make weight. How much he actually gained, I don't know. He worked hard to get down and make the weight. After that, when you replenish with liquids you're going to gain some weight back. Some guys gain more than others."
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