I'm a huge fan...His wars turned me onto boxing and I thank him for that. I'm relatively new to boxing (became a true fan early in '07). I was wondering what the expectations were for Arturo (by you big time boxing fans/experts after the Gabriel Ruelas fight). At this time he was 29-1 w/ 24 KOs. His only loss was a split decision loss in his 7th fight. He had beaten Wilson Rodriguez and Gabriel Ruelas in dramatic fashion. Did any of you have high expectations for him? Or did you think he was not talented to compete w/ the de la hoya, PBFs of the world (as he later would prove). I mean he was ONLY 25 when he beat Ruelas and seemingly his skills would only be looking up.
Gatti was at the bottom end of world class, all he had going for him was useful weight draining abilities, with reasonable speed.
gatti is probably my fave fighter ever,he changed his style multiple times throughout his career,so you never really knew what to expect in future fights except they'd be exciting,he started his career as a brawler,changed to a boxer to beat tracy harris patterson for the ibf superfeather title then reverted back to brawling up to the robinson defeats,had a small run destroying modest opposition b4 losing to oscar,brawled in his fights with hutchinson,millett etc b4 hooking up with mcgirt for what was probably the most celebrated period of his career(ward trilogy,wbc title,dorin ko),suffered the devasating loss to fm bounced bk in a great fight&win against damgaard(the last win of his career)b4 sadly bein stopped back to back by baldomir&gomez.i think he had a great career,loads of legit classic fights,a true warrior,i never tire of watching his fights,legend imo.
WBO level in certain weight divisions. WBO at super middle weight is several levels higher than pretty much any other world championship in boxing, given the prestige it has gained over the last 11 years.
Legend,a true warrior,my favorite fighter.If you are a hardcore boxing fan you should have in your collection:Gatti vs Rodriguez,Gatti vs Ruelas,Gatti vs Manfredy,Gatti vs Robinson I,II,Gatti vs Ward I,II,III Gatti vs Branco,Gatti vs Damgaard.
Is it true that there is a byelaw within the WBO constitution that automatically places a Sports Network fighter as mandatory challenger when there is a change of champion, regardless of whether there is a rematch clause within the deal?
Whats not to love about the guy? Great to watch. But never bought into the hype when everyone else was loving him. I mean if he is going life and death with a guy like Micky Ward, do people really think he can roll with the elite boys? I actually think his work at 130 were some of his most legitmate and respectable wins, especially over Tracy Patterson. This often gets overlooked.
**** yea,nearly comatosed him&that was seen as a hard fight for arturo goin in,defo 1 of the most devasatating ko's ever.:good
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to answer the OP question...expectations for Gatti were high in that it was believed he was world class, they were right, he won some of those fights and lost some but he competed on the top level.