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EPISODE: Episode 19
Arturo Gatti was an Italian Canadian professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2007. A world champion in two weight classes, Gatti held the IBF junior lightweight title from 1995 to 1998, and the WBC super lightweight title from 2004 to 2005.
Podcast Episode
Transcribed:
Hello there, boxing fans around the world, welcome to another episode of neil the deal featuring neil the deal himself here on talk and fight, and tonight we’ve got a great episode lined up for you on arturo gotti, one of our favorite fighters, absolutely doing man nice to See you again, yes, he is he’s.
Definitely one of my favorite fighters of all time.
I used to love watching his fights.
He was always spectacular and uh what a slugger he was eh in the day.
Oh my gosh, i used to love his fights and he had some of the best fights of all time, like fights that i i continually still watch because they’re so they’re, so good, so yeah good evening, guys we’re going to talk about el toro gotti thanks for Coming out checking out talking fight tonight and uh, so otero gotti, he was born april 15 1972 and he has his handle was graham, do you remember his handle? No thunder really arturo thunder gotti yep, oh yeah, [, Music ] used to see michael buffer in there.
Just saying that, with uh with with great conviction, you know what i mean thunder, so he was he yo and he was thunderous i’ll tell you man any of his fights guys any any arturo gotti fights over the years.
Unbelievable guy was amazing, so unfortunately he passed away june, 11, 2009.
So rest in peace, champ we’re talking about you, hope you uh.
I hope everything’s all right.
You are awesome man thanks a lot uh.
He was born in lazio, italy, but uh.
His parents and him came to canada and resigned montreal, so they resided in montreal canada.
His career was uh quite a long career.
I saw him fight, at least i would say 15 20 times over over his career, and his career lasted uh from 1991 to 2007.
.
So it was 16-year career graham and he was uh involved in numerous title fights which we’ll go over a couple uh later on.
In the show here so uh, he fought in uh divisions that he fought in with super featherweight super lightweight and welterweight, and he was the world champion in two weight divisions, so he uh he won.
He won those titles and i’ll.
Never forget the titles that he won.
He was, he was an amazing champion, so he was also uh known for his.
As i always say, i’ve always liked him because he always seemed to have that never give up style abraham, like any of the fights you see him in he’s, he’s punching power, as we all remember he, his punching part was unbelievable uh.
He had huge heart.
Remember he’d be down in fights and he’d come back like he had heart and an iron chin man could that guy take a punch, you know and some of those uh some of those title fights were just back and forth and back and forth with him.
So i’ll never forget him and guys, like i said, hopefully, you’ll uh check them out our turtle county fights are super, exciting uh.
They were basically slugfests.
Remember, graham, i used to call him.
Oh here goes gotti, it’s going to be a slugfest tonight so and he could slug with the best of them.
That was his issue.
He was very aggressive fighter.
So what would happen was he would be throwing uh he’d be throwing everything he’s got at the guy and if the other guy would be throwing just as bad at him, it would infuriate him and he he he basically gave up on his defense.
In half of these fights it was just a basic bloodbath and a brawl.
You know he was like a brawler slugfest guy, so i used to love his style and his and his fights were always exciting as heck.
So in his amateur uh career he did uh.
He was a member of the canadian national boxing team and uh.
He was going to represent canada in the 1992 olympics summer olympics, but instead he decided to turn pro in 1990 uh 1991, so he decided not to pursue his amateur career and he went basically right into being a pro.
So let’s go over.
His pro totals uh.
He had 49 bouts, of which he had 40 wins 31 by knockout nine losses and uh.
That gives him a 64 knockout percentage.
But i’ll tell you any of any of the knockouts.
He had were like absolutely amazing.
Just furious punching power and – and he was just a blast to watch fighting so he had the 31 knockouts, which is pretty good out of the 40 fights.
That’S pretty damn good, so he turned pro like.
I was saying at 19 years old and uh in 1994.
He won his first title.
It wasn’t a world title, but it was the usba super featherweight title.
Then in december uh 1995 he won that first world title.
That was the ibf uh junior lightweight title, and i remember that fight.
That was a really good fight.
In 1996, he he didn’t, he didn’t fight a lot in 96, he only had two fights and one in 97, but they were spectacular, fights two of them were fight of the year.
One was uh with a guy named wilson rodriguez and the other one was against gabriel ruelas guys.
If you want to check out some super fights.
Arturo gotti versus uh rodriguez or arturo gotti versus ruelas were fantastic fights of the year back and forth.
Back and forth.
Back and forth, just unbelievable stuff, so in uh 1998 he decided to vacate that title pad and he moved up to lightweight and that didn’t work out so well.
I can remember he lost all three fights in 1998, which was kind of like wow.
What the heck are you doing? You know what i mean you vacate the title, and now you lost three in a row but uh in 2001.
He did, he did have a big fight and i watched it and i remember it distinctively and uh.
He did not win the fight, but he was fighting oscar de la hoya in 2001 and he lost in the fifth round.
I believe it was a tko in the fifth round, but he he gave it all he had in that one.
I remember he was he.
He was in there for a bit but de la hoya kind of got the best of them there.
So then, in 2002 and 2003, that’s when uh, when they had the arturo gotti, mickey ward fights now guys.
These are by far some of the three best fights you’ll ever see.
Um.
I i love watching them.
I just love watching them, especially the third fight.
The third fight the rubber match.
Basically was was amazing.
Uh each one won the first, the first uh, the each one won of the first two and then uh and then the third one uh that was like fight of the year.
It was unbelievable.
So if you want to watch a fight that that you’ll you’ll probably never see a fight, i believe emmanuel stur stewart there was a there was a round in there that he called it the round of the century.
Something like that because uh they these.
If you remember, do you remember those fights, graham yeah, absolutely yeah? They just basically went toe to toe to toe to toe back and forth.
Like you think one guy’s getting knocked out nope, then the other guy’s getting knocked out no and it just went back and forth for the whole fight.
It was so exciting.
It was unbelievable and they were both cut both bleeding.
They both ended up in the third fight.
I know they both ended up in the hospital on uh on uh gurneys beside each other or something, and they ended up becoming really good friends after that funny enough in his last fight, i understand that mickey ward was his trainer for his last fight, so they Became really good friends after that and uh that basically put him on the map, but i mean that’s like three fights of the year right there already in his career, so unbelievable, two thousand uh and four after those he won the super lightweight title.
He won another world title, the the wbc title and in june 2005 he was beat by our buddy there, floyd mayweather jr.
He lost the title to floyd mayweather jr in june 2005 and then uh in 2006.
He won the iba welterweight title, but then, in july of the same year he fought another guy named carlos baltimore, who was a fantastic fighter himself and uh.
He lost by in the ninth round tko uh gotti right.
So in his final fight, which was july 2007, he lost to a guy named alfonso gomez and after that fight he decided to uh.
He decided to call it a retirement right then, and there after that fight.
Now he was uh.
He was inducted into the boxing hall of fame december 2012, and that was uh.
He was, he became the 10th canadian boxer inducted into the hall of fame, so boxers were canadian.
Boxers were in the hall of fame, but now we know at least 10.
.
You know so like i say he unfortunately passed away july, 11, 2009 and uh under some very controversial circumstances.
That’S another whole another thing in itself um, but it’s really sad because he was a great guy.
He was only 37 years old when he passed away.
So he’s still a young guy but uh thanks a lot for the fight, all the fights and uh the great career arturo.
It was awesome rest in peace, my friend and uh thanks a lot for everything guys for coming out and talking about arturo gotti with me today and listening you really liked him too.
Graham, i did.
He was a one of my favorites.
I mean when you talk about devastating puncher, but a guy who had a solid chin who could take a blow wow.
This guy was amazing, really top-notch really really good fight.
You know how you should describe the mexican fighters of heart and soul.
Never give up.
That’S how i kind of think of arturo gotti just never gave up just continually swinging away and uh.
You know when he lost he lost uh, they weren’t uh.
You know he wasn’t.
I wasn’t going to leave in the hands of the judges.
If you know what i mean he’d leave it all in the ring that guy that’s.
Why i liked him he had, he had a he had a go for broke style.
If you know what i mean, he was just swinging for the fences.
Every fight and uh super exciting to watch so guys.
If you want to watch any of the arturo.
The mickey ward fights like i said were amazing.
Floyd mayweather fight was amazing.
The ruelas fight was amazing, there’s all kinds of them.
The rodriguez fight was amazing, so any of those fights guys if you want to check uh check them out.
You won’t be disappointed in turo gotti, because i, like i say i love them right from day one.
So thanks a lot for coming out tonight, guys checking out the show the likes the shares subscriptions thanks a lot really appreciate it.
We’Ll see you tomorrow, night, uh, 7 p.
m.
Eastern standard time, thanks very much yes, thanks for having me
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