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Arturo "Thunder" Gatti (born April 15, 1972) is a
native of Canada who is a professional
Boxing|boxer. Gatti is considered by many boxing
experts (including former world Heavyweight
champion George Foreman) and fans alike to be one
of the most exciting boxers nowadays. He
participated in Ring Magazine's fight of the year
three years in a row, from 1996 to 1998. His
brother, Joe Gatti, is also a professional boxer
who recently tried unsuccessfully to become a
world Middleweight champion, losing to Sven Ottke
by a knockout in round nine in Germany.

Arturo Gatti began boxing professionally on the
night of June 10, 1991, with a third round
knockout of Jose Gonzalez in Secaucus, New
Jersey|Secaucus. He went undefeated for seven
bouts before losing to King Solomon (boxer)|King
Solomon by a decision in six on November 17 of
1992.

His next fight, on March 23, 1993, was his first
fight abroad, when he visited Amsterdam,
Netherlands|Amsterdam, where he knocked out Plawen
Goutchev in round one. A couple of fights later,
he beat Cliff Hicks, a guy who also lost to Oscar
De La Hoya, by a knockout in round three. 

1994 was a year when Gatti stepped up his quality
of opposition a notch: He started by beating Leon
Bostic, and followed through with a win over Pete
Taliaferro to win the USBA Jr. Lightweight title,
by a knockout in round one.
He retained the title against Richard Salazar and
Jose Sanabria.

Then, on December 15 of 1995, Gatti challenged the
International Boxing Federation|IBF's world Jr.
Lightweight champion, Floyd Patterson's adoptive
son Tracy Harris Patterson. Gatti became world
champion when he narrowly outpointed Patterson,
and signed a multi-fight deal with Home Box
Office|HBO, to fight on the HBO Boxing show.

He only had 2 fights in 1996, once defending his
world title. But his title defense, at the Madison
Square Garden against  Dominican
Republic|Dominican Wilson Rodriguez was the first
of three Gatti fights in a row to be named fight
of the year by Ring Magazine. Dropped in round
three and with his right eye closing fast, Gatti
knocked out Rodriguez in round six to retain the
title. 

In 1997, he repeated his points victory over
Patterson, then scored a technical knockout over
former world champion Calvin Grove in round seven
of a non-title affair. Then came his defense
against former world champion Gabriel Ruelas,
which was also named fight of the year by Ring
Magazine. Hurt badly and shaken in round four,
Gatti came back and knocked Ruelas out in round
five to retain the world title.

After that fight, Gatti chose to relinquish the
world title, going up in weight to the Lightweight
division. But 1998 was a bad year for Gatti, as he
lost all three of his fights that year. He lost by
a technical knockout in round eight to Angel
Manfredy, and then lost a pair of close decisions
in 10 rounds to Ivan Robinson. Gatti-Robinson I
was chosen fight of the year by Ring Magazine,
thus marking the third year in a row that a Gatti
fight was given that award. 

He only had one fight in 1999, knocking out Reyes
Munoz in round one.

His first fight of 2000 proved to be
controversial, however. Faced with former world
champion Joey Gamache, Gatti won by a knockout in
round two. But when Gamache went into a coma for
one day and it was discovered that Gatti had
gained 15 pounds since the weight-in the day
before and thus had a large advantage in size over
Gamache, boxing legislators pushed for a new law
requiring boxers not to exceed a certain amount of
extra weight from the weight accorded, on the day
of the fight. After Gatti-Gamache, boxing
commissions started weighing the boxers a second
time, on the day of the fight.

Gatti then won his two other fights that year,
over lesser quality name opponents.

In 2001, Gatti only had one fight, going up in
weight to meet Welterweight De La Hoya, a multiple
times world champion who beat him by a technical
knockout in five rounds, but in 2002, Gatti
rebounded down at the Jr. Welterweight division
well, beating former world champion Terron Millet 
by a knockout in round four, and then splitting
two ten round decisions with "Irish" Micky Ward,
losing their first bout, but winning their second.
Gatti-Ward I also garnered fight of the year
honors by Ring Magazine.

Gatti-Ward I has already been called the fight of
the century by many experts, including HBO
commentators. Emanuel Steward called round nine of
that fight, the round of the century.

On June 7 of 2003, he and Ward had a rubber match,
and Gatti recovered from one broken right hand and
a knockdown in round six to win a unanimous ten
round decision. HBO producer Lou DiBella said
their 30 rounds against each other will live in
boxing history.

On January 24, 2004, Gatti also recovered from a
broken hand, scored a tenth round knock-down and
defeated Gianluca Branco of Italy by a twelve
round unanimous decision to win the World Boxing
Council|WBC's interim Jr. Welterweight title. This
victory could have given him a chance to challenge
Kostya Tszyu for the division's undisputed world
title (the Tszyu-Gatti fight ultimately did not
materialize). 

On July 24, 2004, he knocked out the previously
unbeaten, former world champion Leonard Dorin in
two rounds at Atlantic City, to retain his interim
title.

Gatti's second defense of his interim title came
against another former world Jr. Lightweight
champion, Jesse James Leija, on January 29, 2005.
Gatti beat Leija by a fifth round knockout.

Gatti lost to former Jr. Lightweight and
Lightweight world Champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. on
June 25 of the same year, by a sixth round
knockout in Atlantic City. With this defeat, Gatti
lost recognition as the WBC's world Jr.
Welterweight champion.

Gatti has a record of 39 wins and 7 losses, with
30 wins by knockout.