Farewell to Boxing’s Truest Warrior

‘Warrior’ is the most overused term in boxing today. Arturo Gatti was a warrior. For 16 years, there was no truer fighter, no man more willing to go where most of us simply couldn’t imagine. Simply put, if you weren’t an Arturo Gatti fan, you weren’t a boxing fan.

“Gatti was my hero and one of those guys who always came to fight,” said renowned trainer Don House, who, like the rest of the world, was stunned by Saturday’s announcement that Gatti was found dead at the age of 37 in a hotel in Porto de Galinhas in Brazil. “We didn’t care if he won or lost the fight or who he was gonna fight, we knew Gatti was gonna give us all that he had, one hundred percent.”

That disregard for his own personal safety in the ring made Gatti a staple on HBO from the mid-90s until his retirement in 2007 after a seventh round TKO loss to Alfonso Gomez, and led to him being dubbed boxing’s ‘Human Highlight Film.’ And though he won world titles in the junior lightweight and junior welterweight divisions over the course of his storied career, he will most likely be best remembered for his non-title trilogy with Micky Ward, a series in 2002-2003 that thrilled fans with its intensity and drama, something that had nothing to do with title belts, sanctioning bodies, or hype. It was fighting, pure and simple, a trademark of the Montreal native’s career.

“Ward and Gatti, those were the fights,” said House, smiling at the memory. “To me, those were concerts. They could have done those concerts every weekend in any city in America and they would have sold out.”

You can’t say that for too many fighters these days.

“There’s probably a little six year old kid maybe (who will be the next one),” said House, “but right now, we don’t have another Arturo Gatti. This guy gave us everything.”

For that, we thank him, and will always remember him.