Arturo Gatti Was An “A” Class Fighter

Just the other day I managed to get myself into a sparring session on a boxing thread, in a very ladylike manner, with a Boxing fan who referred to Arturo Gatti as a “C” Class Fighter. I read on hoping that I had read it wrong and that the person was going to use that comment to segue into a paragraph of praise for the beloved Boxing icon who met his death in July of 2009, stunning the entire boxing world. For me, “Them’s fightin’ words!”

Like many others, I was disheartened hearing the news of his death and immediately set up Google Alerts so that I could follow any updates on the tragedy. Every Gatti fight that I watched and I watched all of them was always an exciting event, even before the Gatti-Ward Trilogy. Gatti didn’t bring tea in a Harrods’s Bone-China teacup to his fights, he brought thunder into the ring. Hence, the nickname that attached itself and stuck. Whether he lost or won, Gatti was a winner one way or another and he never gave up. I am not a boxing analyst, so I will not draw a verbal diagram to elucidate on his jabs, reach, timing, and distance. What I am going to do is discuss, in my own opinion, what makes Arturo, or any Boxer a great fighter. I won’t even waste my time in talking about the Gatti/Ward Trilogy, because the only way that Boxing fans don’t already know about the magic in those 3 battles is if they are from Mars or don’t know how to use YouTube.

Just looking at the stats on BoxRec.com, Arturo had 49 professional bouts, which include 40 wins of which 31 were by way of KO. He lost 9 bouts and was KO’d 5 times. From a stat viewpoint that is hardly a “C” Class Fighter. Secondly, accounts of other professionals in the Boxing industry have not described Arturo as a “C” Class Fighter. So now we have to take a look at Arturo as a whole, to answer this question, and we start by asking what makes any fighter a great Boxer.

Professional Boxing is very demanding, especially in the months before the fight. The pressure is on from rigorous training schedules, time away from loved ones, strict diets, and the regular strategic planning done with managers, trainers, coaches, and corner team. If a fighter doesn’t embrace all of the aspects of this life, his Boxing is going to suffer if he’s planning to make it a career. In other words, he can’t bring his laundry (metaphorically speaking) or his toys to the ring. He’s got to bring everything into that ring that he has worked hard for before he steps up the “Three Steps of Destiny,” that lead into the ring. So part of what makes him a great Boxer doesn’t just happen in the ring.  According to  Ali, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses—behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.” A great fighter is a fighter who embraces all there is about boxing both in and outside the ring.

The Boxing industry is part entertainment, part motivational inspiration, part magic, and part personal connection with an audience that loves a Boxer with heart and life challenges. All of that is entwined into the “Sweet Science” we call Boxing. And Arturo Gatti had buckets of it. Just ask Micky Ward. It’s more than the jabs and footwork. Arturo Gatti was the total package, as his legacy lives on. It was palpable when I was one of the press who attended the forensic conference on Sept. 7, 2011, at Global Boxing Gym, which later was broadcast on television. It was also palpable when I was involved in organizing the award plagues and ribbons  (Arturo’s and all the others) at the Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame in 2017. Arturo Gatti was an “A” Class fighter because of his heart, his chin, and his ability to fight his way into the hearts of people around the world while using what he knew about the art of boxing. Both the wins and the losses prove that. An “A” Class Boxer gets back in the ring or gets up in the ring and fights his way out. That’s what makes him a champion. That’s what made Arturo Gatti.