Thunder & lightning
Remembering Mayweather vs Gatti, and exploring their contrasting ensuing journeys
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Divergent paths
THE LONG READ
Floyd Mayweather’s bizarre late-career world tour of being paid huge sums to beat up hopelessly overmatched influencer boxers has been one of the strangest stories on the outer reaches of the sport for the last few years.
Even today, while those with the sport’s best interests at heart are deriding ‘crossover’ boxing, Mayweather has become the most powerful establishment figure to align themselves closely to it. He saw an opportunity, and he exploited it. Something he has become incredibly adept at over the course of his hugely successful career.
Ever the opportunist, Floyd plays the game better than pretty much anyone else has before him.
As he travels the globe for exhibition fights against the likes of Don Moore, Mikuru Asakura and KSI’s brother Deji in completely meaningless exhibitions, Mayweather has become a cornerstone of what appears to be an ever-expanding new boxing universe.
Though novelty boxing has been a thing for pretty much as long as the sport itself has existed, it feels different now, somehow more legitimate, permanent and consistent. It has very little to do with the genuine elite-level article of the sport, but as the pro boxing game seems to be contracting in popularity and coverage influencer fighting has to some extent filled that gap.
The vast increase of acknowledged boxing media reporting on influencer (or ‘crossover’) boxing in some detail demonstrates that times are changing - not all outlets are doing it, some not at all, but many are and treating it legitimately. Boxing failing to deliver has a part to play, and many of the social media stars themselves have done a good job of making the most of the opportunity for their own individual brand, but Floyd - as an icon of the sport - has certainly played a role by being an early adopter. Whether that should matter to him or not is up for debate; to him, he’s just playing the game, as he is so adept at doing.
Mayweather has recently articulated his philosophy in this brave new world of boxing, explaining that he will forever be beholden to cultivating those huge fight purses…
“A lot of time people say, ‘Oh, Floyd have to do exhibitions’. My philosophy is never stop getting it (money). Currency over legacy. Currency over legacy…Believe me, if I don’t ever do another exhibition in my life, I can live a great life.”
Currency over legacy - could we expect anything else from a man who calls himself ‘Money’?
There was a time, however, when currency was harder to come by for Floyd Mayweather; when he was a supremely talented young boxer with very little drawing power. Far from the cash cow he would later become, it was ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd who needed to exploit the clout of boxers with large fanbases and a proven track record of drawing big numbers to cement his own status.
The early career of ‘Pretty Boy’ Floyd - a name coined due to his unerring ability to avoid being hit and maintain his facial features because of it - was a fascinating period of discovery for an unerringly talented young fighter. Having been robbed in the semi finals of the 1996 Olympics, Mayweather bubbled with ambition and proceeded to launch himself into a hugely promising pro career; the early years of Floyd were chronicled last year in detail by Kabir Chibber for The 13th Round.
As the 2000s rolled on, Mayweather became a two-weight world champion at both flyweight and super fly, a 33-0 boxer with extreme talent but without the status (and income) to match. Sure, he’d been featured prominently on HBO Boxing and was one of boxing’s undoubted pound-for-pound best, the gold standard of boxing coverage both then and now, but he was very much not a pay-per-view headliner. Mayweather needed a new strategy to really get himself to where he wanted to be.
Enter Arturo ‘Thunder’ Gatti.
A grassroots hero, a throwback fighter with perhaps one of the most fan-friendly styles in the history of the sport, Gatti truly left it all in the ring and had numerous stone cold, all-time classics on his resume. This had spawned a considerable fanbase.
He was also coming off the timeless trilogy of fights with Micky Ward in 2002 and 2003.
These were bouts which will forever be intrinsically sewn into the history of the sport of boxing, unmissable slugfests between two men who went from rivals to close friends, with Ward even eventually becoming Gatti’s trainer years later, through 30 unforgettable rounds. Two fighters who had both accumulated losses and been written off in the past - at a time when Floyd was just starting to make protecting your undefeated record the done thing amongst top-level boxers - but who battled through their setbacks to provide some of the most memorable content in the storied history of the much-missed HBO Boxing.
If there was ever a fighter who truly earned their star status in the ring, it was Arturo Gatti. By the time the Mayweather pay-per-view showdown - headlining a card known as Thunder & Lightning - came around in June 2005, ‘Thunder’ was a made man amongst boxing fans worldwide.
It was clear, however, that Gatti had shipped a lot of damage in his career, and that a fighter as slick, quick and effective as Mayweather appeared to be completely wrong for him from the outset, which justified Floyd’s position as a huge betting favourite. For Mayweather, there was also the opportunity to take Gatti’s WBC super lightweight belt and claim a world title in a third weight division.
Gatti was a fighter’s fighter though, and with enormous backing from his beloved New Jersey crowd he was confident - stating that he would take Mayweather “somewhere he’s never been”. There was legitimate bad blood and Gatti never backed down from a fight.
Very few people in the Boardwalk Hall that night enjoyed the experience…
Mayweather was almost completely dominant from start to finish, sweeping every round before Gatti’s trainer Buddy McGirt mercifully pulled his fighter out after a torrid sixth round. Although he of course wanted to fight on, Gatti’s heart and passion were not nearly enough on the night. Those epic battles of the past meant he was no longer the same fighter. Mayweather on the other hand was clearly the future of boxing, and the future was now.
It was perhaps one of the most one-sided pay-per-view main events in boxing history, a real crossroads for both men and in many ways for the wider sport.
The reality is that defeating Gatti in such a devastating manner didn’t single-handedly make Mayweather a huge draw. It did though offer him a vision of the best template to adopt to become boxing’s ultimate cash-generating bad guy. He soon realised that being disliked AND supremely talented was a recipe for success, and moreover, money. Controversy creates cash.
He also shrewdly realised that his current situation was missing a trick. In 2006, Mayweather paid $750,000 to buy himself out of his contract with promoter Top Rank, in a bold but strategic move to grow his brand with a new and younger audience. Appearances on Dancing With the Stars and wrestling The Big Show at WrestleMania followed, only increasing the potential universe for his boxing events.
As Bob Arum would attest years later, Mayweather’s moves were two steps ahead at the time…
“The mistake I made was because of my long relationship with Ali, I thought I knew everything about the African-American community…When Mayweather kept pushing us to market him with that community, I thought he didn't know much. But he was looking at the young. He realised the potential and as an older person, I did not. He made a fortune.”
Two years after the Gatti fight, Mayweather signed to face Oscar De La Hoya. It would become the most-watched boxing pay-per-view ever at the time, generating 2.4 million pay-per-view buys, a 600% increase from the Mayweather-Gatti event 24 months earlier. Sure, De La Hoya was already boxing’s golden boy, but he’d never drawn like this before, and Floyd’s bad guy character had been a major part of that success.
HBO promoted the fight with the then-revolutionary 24/7 documentary series, which would become the blueprint for the marketing of major boxing events. Mayweather’s brash personality lent itself perfectly to the format and helped further establish his brand to the masses. By the time the two fighters entered the ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Floyd had played a vital part in building the anticipation to a fever pitch.
Taking home more than $25 million personally, along with a split decision victory, Floyd Mayweather was now operating on another stratosphere. It was therefore apt that the De La Hoya fight saw the debut of the ‘Money’ moniker; $25 million would become the base salary for Mayweather on a per-fight basis going forward as he became the most high-profile (and highly-paid) presence in the sport over the next decade.
Arturo Gatti’s story after the Mayweather loss encapsulates the truly divergent paths fighters can take. Things got pretty dark inside the ring, but this was eclipsed ten times over by events outside it.
By the time 2006 rolled around, ‘Thunder’ had decided to continue his career, moving up to welterweight for his final three fights. This included another humbling experience at the hands of then-WBC welter champion Carlos Baldomir in front of his adoring Atlantic City fans, a full year after the Mayweather mismatch. Gatti should have been nowhere near a world title shot at this stage in a new division, but a genuine star will always get an opportunity in the lawless land of boxing.
Gatti’s final fight, once again at the Boardwalk Hall, took place a year later in July 2007. Yet another TKO defeat, this time to Alfonso Gómez, finally drew the curtain on an unforgettable career. Though a comeback was discussed, we would not see Arturo Gatti in a boxing ring again and he retired with a record of 40 wins and 9 losses, a resume which doesn’t do his impact on the sport justice.
Four years after the defeat to Mayweather, at the age of just 37, Arturo Gatti would no longer be with us at all.
On July 11th, 2009, the day of his sister’s wedding, he was found dead in the Brazilian hotel room that he was sharing with his wife and 10-month-old son. Gatti’s wife, Amanda Rodrigues, told police that she woke to discover his body, presuming he had committed suicide, however she was initially charged with first-degree murder based on the evidence at the scene. Though she was later released and the cause of death was recorded as suicide, many question the circumstances surrounding Gatti’s passing.
Just three weeks before his death, Gatti’s wife had reportedly demanded that he change his will to sign his assets over to her, voiding their pre-nuptial agreement, under the threat of leaving him and taking their young son to live in Brazil permanently. Numerous investigations brought into question the circumstances of Gatti’s death - with his family believing his wife and an accomplice conspired to carry out the murder - but the Brazilian authorities have never reopened the case, concluding that his death was caused by suicide despite evidence to the contrary.
It remains a mysterious case to this day, with no prospect of an acceptable resolution for many, and is an incredibly sad end to a boxing career for the ages.
Despite their genuinely heated rivalry years earlier, reports indicate that Floyd Mayweather in fact paid for Arturo Gatti’s funeral, and he has publicly acknowledged his respect for the fighter ‘Thunder’ and the man behind him. Gatti was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2012, the first year he was eligible, and left an indelible mark on the sport.
Mayweather, of course, went on to untold financial and critical success in boxing, exploiting the chaos and opportunity at the heart of the least structured sport of them all. At the age of 45, he’s continuing to do the same, only with much less risk as he tours the exhibition circuit. The different lanes taken by the two fighters after that night in June 2005 could not have been more stark.
Lord knows what Arturo Gatti would have made of ‘crossover’ boxing, but I can’t imagine he would have been content trawling the world taking on YouTubers in exhibitions. He was perhaps one of the last of the breed of true old-school boxers, a hero and star due to the incredible sacrifices he made so consistently in the ring.
Neither defeats like the one he suffered to Mayweather nor the tragic way his life unfolded after that night could ever take that away.
For a further deep dive into the truly incredible trilogy of Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward, along with the subsequent stories of both men, then I heartily recommend the brilliant HBO Legendary Nights special from 2013. The friendship, trust, even love forged in fire between the two boxers demonstrated the best of what boxing can be, even if Gatti’s life was tragically cut short. I defy you to watch this outstanding documentary without wiping away a tear or two…
“Great fighters die, like everyone else. Their lives end, sometimes naturally, sometimes not so naturally, and they are laid to rest, like everyone else. But, you see, what makes great fighters different is what they leave behind. The memories of the nights they stepped in to the ring and did things with their body and their heart that shouldn’t have been possible. No one who sees them ever forgets nights like those.”