I voted for Mayorga - he was obviously as crude a fighter as you'll ever see but he could be very effective. He performed pretty well against a higher quality of opposition than Gatti. I loved watching Arturo fight (he's one of my 10 favourite fighters ever) but as others have said, he never achieved anything comparable to Mayorga's two victories over Forrest.
My judgment is based on overrall performances, resume and ability. While Gatti was able to show that against Patterson he failed against other opponents. Mayorga applied his one and only style against all and seemed to be more successful. It's just in general not based on one fight.
That's DLH we're talking about, a fighter with ATG abilities, one year off and you put him against anyone and he gives them trouble. He was one year off going in against Mayweather too and you saw how he fought there.
I've got to take Mayorga here also. Love Gatti to death, but let's face it, when he stepped in with the caliber of fighters that Mayorga did (sometimes losing, sometimes winning) he got completely demolished. With the exception of the Oscar and Tito beatdowns, Mayorga was pretty damned competitive against elite competition. The people who voted Gatti also need to think what a Mayorga who wasn't always being tabbed as a punching bag for current or former P4P entrants would have done with a string of fighters equivalent weight-wise to Damgaard, Branco, and an over the hill Leija. But still, an interesting comparison. Nice to see some variety from you asero.
Mayorga was just tough as a mother****er. I've never seen anyone literally leave their chin out to be hit, let alone by someone who nearly knocked Mosley out: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-BFScdlnvQ[/youtube] Gatti could actually box though.
Except Mosley which he lost which elite competition are you talking about? the version of Vargas he fought,Picirillo and Lewis were all good but NOT ELITE.
This thread shows just how underrated Mayorga is and how overrated Gatti is. Mayorga is clearly the better, overall more effective fighter. It's not close and saying anything else is just silly.
Mayorga may have had one of the greatest cjins in Boxing history. I don't think that anyone else could ever let Trinidad land three flush left hooks to the chin and survive.
Gatti was in my mind just all around more memorable. Mayorga lost to everyone. Gatti was pretty competitive at 130 and later was more of a risk but he never beat the top guys at 140. Boxing overrated Mayorga and gave Oscar and Shane easy fights.
mayorga was never easy for mosley...that why he is 4-1 underdog against margarito..people thought he was done and would lose via KO