… enshrined in the Boxing Hall of Fame yesterday as his mother, Ida, former manager Pat Lynch and daughter Sofie Bella honored the boxer.
MEMORIAL DAY: The late Arturo Gatti Jr. (top, clobbering Jesse James Leija in a 2005 bout) was enshrined in the Boxing Hall of Fame yesterday as his mother, Ida, former manager Pat Lynch and daughter Sofie Bella (bottom) honored the boxer. (Anthony J. Causi; AP (botom))
CANASTOTA, N.Y. — Mike Sciarra was wearing a blue warm-up suit with the word “GATTI” written across the back. On his wrist was a watch circled in diamonds that his friend Arturo Gatti had given him for his 44th birthday six years ago.
“I don’t usually wear stuff like this,” Sciarra said, referring to the expensive watch. “But Arturo said I had to look good if I was going to be with him during special occasions.”
There could be no more special occasion than Gatti’s induction yesterday into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Gatti died in 2009, his body found in a beachfront condo in Brazil. Brazilian law enforcement officials have ruled his death a suicide though some closest to Gatti believe he was murdered.
“Arturo would never give up. He’d never throw in the towel,” longtime manager Pat Lynch told the audience assembled for the ceremony. “Arturo Gatti never quit in the ring and I guarantee you he’d never quit in life.”
Lynch, along with Main Events promoter Kathy Duva and foe-turned-friend Micky Ward, accepted Gatti’s enshrinement on behalf of the Gatti family. At one point Lynch lifted Gatti’s 7-year-old daughter, Sofia Bella, to the microphone. In a brave voice, she told the crowd: “Thank you for my Daddy.”
This was a day to celebrate Gatti’s career and not debate the circumstances of his death, though emotions remain raw.
“I miss him to death every day and I think about him every day,” Ward said. “He’s always with me and I know he’s here.”
Added Lynch: “This is a tough moment for all of us.”
Though he was a three-time world champion, compiled a record of 40-9 with 31 knockouts and repeatedly sold out Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, there are those who challenge his credentials to receive boxing’s ultimate honor. But friends Sciarra and Chuck Zito insist their friend is worthy.
“He was the original blood-and-guts warrior,” Zito said. “Every fight, he gave you your money’s worth. He never took a step back. That was just the kind of fighter he was. That’s why he would have died in the ring instead of taking his own life.”
Sciarra added: “When he stepped in that ring, he stepped in that ring with his heart and his soul to honor his family. Nobody fought like him unless you watch fights from the ’50s when we weren’t born. He was a throwback fighter. When he fought, you never sat in your chair.”
Also enshrined yesterday were referee Mills Lane, ring announcer Jim Lennon Jr., British journalist Colin Hart and South Korean boxer Myung-Woo Yuh. The living inductees were all introduced and seated before Gatti’s name was mentioned before a list of Hall of Famers who died in the last year.
Ward recalled the three fights he had with Gatti, a trilogy of 10-round bouts that were all-time classics. “It was 30 rounds of non-stop action,” Ward said. “I became great friends with him after we fought. Obviously, he was a great fighter, but he was a great person.”
Zito tweeted Gatti’s plaque in the Hall of Fame museum and was thrilled by the response.
“They said he was a human pit bull, a true warrior and that you don’t see fighters like that anymore,” Zito said. “I’m glad I’m here.”
So were a bevy of Gatti fans, including his son, 4-year-old Arturo Gatti Jr., who wasn’t acknowledged but was in attendance after making an 8-hour drive from Montreal with a family friend.
“I came to see my daddy,” he told The Post. His mother, Amanda Rodrigues, who was briefly jailed for suspicion of Gatti’s murder and was later released, was not in attendance.