Arturo Gatti's death remains a mystery

[Wheelchair]

In July last year, former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti was found dead while on holiday in Brazil. But was it murder or suicide? And why are his wife and family still at loggerheads over his $6m will?

 

One of Gatti's best qualities as a boxer was his refusal to accept defeat, epitomised by his performance in the third of his brutal fights with arch rival Micky Ward in June 2003.

 

Gatti broke his hand in the fourth round and was knocked down in the sixth but soldiered on to grind out a victory on points.

 

"That went down in the history of boxing as one of the greatest trilogies, right behind Ali-Frazier," Pat Lynch, Gatti's long-time manager, told BBC Sport.

 

Consequently, the idea the 37-year-old quit on life and committed suicide on 11 July last year was met with disbelief by his fans, trainers and family. Gatti was found dead at an apartment in the Brazilian holiday resort of Porto Galinhas after a drunken row with his wife, the mother of his 10-month-old son, Arturo Jr.

 

Gatti's wife, Brazilian-born former exotic dancer Amanda Rodrigues Barbosa, 23, was initially arrested on suspicion of murder.

 

But an autopsy on the Canadian fighter concluded he had committed suicide by hanging himself with the strap of his wife's handbag, looped over the banister.

 

She was released and is now contesting Gatti's $6m inheritance with his family.

 

BBC Sport tracked down Rodrigues Barbosa, who said: "It is normal that the fans don't believe in what happened because they only knew Arturo as a champion and warrior, and a true warrior never quits. It is the same thing as telling a seven-year-old that Superman or Spiderman committed suicide."

 

But Lynch responded: "Knowing his character, there is no way he is going to hang himself with a handbag strap with his baby son in the room."

 

Brazilian police said there was no sign of forced entry or of a third party being in the apartment. The Gatti family was not satisfied and nor was Lynch, who launched his own investigation into Gatti's death, hiring eminent pathologist Dr Michael Baden to conduct a second autopsy.

 

The results have not been published but Lynch told the BBC: "The second autopsy discovered that, among other things, his Adam's apple was fractured, which is consistent with strangling and not hanging."

 

He said there were also signs he had been beaten with a blunt instrument on the left side of his body and the back of his head. "The handbag strap doesn't match the ligature mark on his neck," said Lynch. "There are so many unanswered questions."

 

Rodrigues Barbosa has painted a very different picture of Gatti to the one adored by his fans, claiming he hit the bottle after he quit the ring. "Unfortunately my husband had an alcohol problem, and it took his life away," she said. "I believe that if his family and manager cared about him as I did, my husband would still be here. If someone killed my husband, it was the people that feed him alcohol and drugs and NOT me," she said in an e-mail.

 

"I tried everything from rehab, AA meetings and church to save his life. And I did. I did for the three years that we were together. My pain is for missing him, and NOT for feeling guilty."

 

But Gatti's brother Fabrizio said: "She's totally exaggerating. Who doesn't like to have a good time? She makes him sound like an alcoholic, which he wasn't. I know my brother better than his wife and there is no way he would have done that. He wasn't depressed. He was planning to open two boxing gyms and he loved his son."

 

Gatti was born in Italy and brought up in Montreal, Canada, but moved to New Jersey and turned pro in 1991. His rugged, all-guns blazing style made him immensely popular with boxing fans, with Lynch calling him "the ultimate warrior" and a "blue-collar hero" who "would rather die in the ring than give up".

 

Gatti finally hung up his gloves in 2007, after lucrative fights against many of the top fighters, including American greats Floyd Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya.

 

Gatti had met Amanda, who was working at a lapdancing club in New Jersey, in 2006 and they married after signing a pre-nuptual agreement which excluded her from claiming his money if they split up. They had a child, known as Junior and moved back to Montreal, where Gatti had a property development business. But the marriage was tempestuous with frequent rows.

 

The couple were on the verge of breaking up in May last year but reconciled and had gone to Brazil on a "second honeymoon". Rodrigues Barbosa recalled the moment she found him: "When I saw his face and his mouth I knew something was wrong. I started to cry, yell and call for help. I didn't want to believe what was happening. I even started to tell Arturo that I forgave him and that I wanted him to stop playing."

 

Gatti was buried in Montreal and Ward, who had become a good friend, was among those who were there for the funeral.

 

Since his death, Gatti's family have been locking horns with his widow in various courts in Canada and the United States. Earlier this month, she was awarded $100,000 towards legal costs she had been forced to pay.

 

Her lawyer, Pierre-Hughes Fortin, said she was penniless and had been locked out of the condominium near Montreal which she bought with Gatti.

 

Lynch said Gatti changed his will on 15 June last year, after reconciling with his wife and instead of leaving money to his mother Ida and daughter Sofia from a previous relationship, she would now become the sole beneficiary. Three weeks later he was dead.

 

But Rodrigues Barbosa countered: "Why is it so strange that Arturo left a will naming his wife and son? Isn't that normal? Isn't that what all husbands do?

"Arturo left a £250,000 downpayment for his mother's house, £100,000 in a college fund and $1m in a trust for his daughter, Sofia Bella Gatti. It is hard for me to watch Junior growing without his father enjoying it with me. Junior is more than a plan, he is a dream coming true for both Arturo and I. He is just like Arturo."

 

Next month, lawyers for the Gatti family will seek to prove Rodrigues Barbosa is an "unsuitable" person to inherit the money. She says she never had any crossed words with the Gatti family before he died, and added: "All their accusations towards me have happened after his death, which makes me believe that all they want is money... How come they hate me so much now?"

 

But Fabrizio Gatti said: "If he had died in a car accident or of a heart attack, I wouldn't have bothered about the will but I don't buy the idea that he committed suicide."

 

While the legal wrangles go on, Gatti joins a long list of former boxers - including Freddie Mills, Sonny Liston and Alexis Arguello - whose violent deaths remain a mystery.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8632360.stm?

[davemurphy]

By the time the Lawyers are through, I'm sure they'll have eaten up most of the money. It's kind of funny that she's locked out of the Condo in Montreal that "She and Arturo bought"........I'm sure a lot of her Lap Dancing Money went into that purchase :)

[Storm25]

Saw the piece on recent boxing deaths. Don't know what to make of it all. Sounds very fishy indeed.