“I know for a fact he never quit in the ring, and he’d never quit in life. I just know there’s something more to it. I guarantee it wasn’t suicide,” Micky Ward, speaking in November, about Arturo Gatti’s death.
As his many millions of fans and admirers know only too well, it’s been almost 11 years since the tragic and untimely death of the great Arturo Gatti. Calling Gatti a fan favorite is an understatement; Gatti is one of the very special ones, a fighter the fans hold in unique esteem. Gatti gave his all in the ring, each and every time he fought. Fans will never, ever forget that.
Fans will also never forget the day they heard the awful news of how Gatti, at just age 37, was found dead in a Brazil hotel room. It was back on July 11, 2009, and to this day there are so many unanswered questions surrounding Gatti’s death. Was it suicide or was it murder? Did Gatti’s wife play a part in her husband’s death?
This week (June 20) a new book will hopefuly put to rest some of the speculation that has continued ever since that sad day almost 11 years ago. Writer Jimmy Tobin has penned the book: “Killed in Brazil?: The Mysterious Deat of Arturo “Thunder” Gatti. Published by Hamilcar Publications, and avialable for $10.99, the work has had fine pre-sale reviews:
“Tobin astutely looks at the varying possibilities that would have led to Gatti’s death. Such an approach intelligently and respectfully piques interest in a real-life mystery that has left Gatti’s fans and family in need of both solace and satisfactory answers,” Kirkus Reviews.
The case is indeed as puzzling as it is disturbing. Amanda Gati found her husband’s body on the morning of July 11, 2009. The couple had been staying at a resort in Brazil, with their young son. Officially, Gatti died of strangulation and Amanda was arrested. Later freed, after the autopsy ruled the death a suicide, it was determined how Gatti had hanged himself with a strap from his wife’s purse. But to this day, and most likely forever, many millions of Gatti fans and admirers refuse to accept Gatti, a courageous fighting man who was the epitome of a never say quit soul, took his own life.
Gatti, they argue forcefully, had too much to live for. Micky Ward, who perhaps knew Gatti the fighter better than anyone else, is firmly among these people. So what will Tobin’s new book reveal? Fans will be able to find out this week. But will we get any satisfactory answers to this, the most troubling, tragic and mysterious death of a great, great fighter and hero?
