When Inspiration Becomes Greater Than Greatness
 By Coyote Duran (February 1, 2005)  
Photo © Marty Rosengarten/ HoganPhotos.com
Before it's all over, I can't imagine you'll ever see Arturo Gatti on anyone's pound-for-pound lists.

Like he gives a Jersey Devil's ass.

Because when you have a crowd who loves you so unconditionally like the crowd at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, who cares about some goofy list that some keyboard jockey coughed up when he or she was bored? And that very crowd was in attendance Saturday night to cheer on the greatest sports hero they've ever known.

And they got their money's worth, I'll tell you what.

Now I've often been loath to use the term 'hero' in pertinence to sports so maybe 'idol' is a more fitting term to describe the warrior mentality that an Arturo Gatti possesses. But no matter the vernacular, we're compelled to jaw wide-eyed at what living, breathing, bleeding flesh and blood can do when up against another human who wishes to install a new dent in his head.

Sometimes you lose. Most times you win.

And that's particularly the case with Gatti, 40-7 (31), who failed so dreadfully against Floyd Mayweather Jr. only to bravely return in a do-or-die scrap against undefeated, world-rated Thomas Damgaard, 37-1 (27), for something called the IBA Welterweight Title. Cheap shit belts aside, this is far from the first zero 'Thunder' has taken away from anyone, considering that undefeated fighters like Joe Hutchinson, Gianluca Branco and Leonard Dorin have tested their mettle against Gatti in the past, only to walk away as footnotes in the history of who's now become known as 'The Human Highlight Film'.

However, some of us can't get away from submitting Gatti to the unrelenting scrutiny that a fighter of his caliber tries so hard to escape from. Sometimes our judgments become influenced by the opinions of others. When Gatti lost to Mayweather, many were quick to write off Gatti, remembering what Mayweather had declared while hyping up the fight and agreeing with 'Pretty Boy' when he boldly proclaimed that Gatti was but a 'C' grade fighter. When Gatti returns with pride fully bandaged, these same couch critics freely crucify him for taking on an 'unknown' in his return foray in the 147-pound ranks.

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

So if Arturo Gatti's chosen path within his career is really that uninspired and overblown, then why on Mother Earth is he so beloved? Simple. It's because Gatti has no illusions of himself. It's why he's got seven losses and falls against the likes of Mayweather. It's because no matter how much you cry and complain about Gatti taking on the Damgaards, Wards and Dorins, you forget: Those fighters are Gatti's equals. You can't expect noble and steadfast Prometheus to challenge Mount Olympus all the time, now can you?

Mostly, it's because Gatti's just brave and that's all he's ever known how to be.

You see, greatness doesn't follow everyone who deserves it. Ask any single parent who holds down two jobs to keep a roof over his or her children's heads. Or the cancer patient that suffers incessantly from the brutal inner torture that battling the unseen brings. Of course, a prizefighter who subjects himself to what seems like unnecessary physical trials may pale in comparison to the aforementioned entities in my example but understand this: Fighters like Gatti appeal and inspire the regular and the anonymous. And those regular and anonymous live vicariously through Gatti when he eats dozens of jabs and crosses just to get that one sweet uppercut or hook in because it makes them feel alive. It makes them feel like they can do anything.

It makes them feel like winners.

So what really does a win that soberingly kept Atlantic City’s favorite son just one more fight away from retirement mean? Well, if any of the scuttlebutt surrounding the Gatti camp proves valid, we can expect that welterweight championship scrap between him and real World Welterweight Champion Carlos Baldomir sometime this summer. Since Baldomir has no contractual ties to HBO or Showtime, you can just about bet the fight’ll be a summer sizzler set for HBO, Gatti’s umpteenth home (right after Jersey, Montreal and Italy).

And what if Gatti had lost against Damgaard? Hell, what if he loses against Baldomir or what if he beats Baldomir and loses to the next guy, whoever the next guy may be, and then finally retires once and for all like he hinted he might have had he fallen to Damgaard? Is there really a chance that we’ll see Arturo ‘Thunder’ Gatti, ‘The Human Highlight Film’, grace the vaunted halls of Canastota, New York, five years later? Y’know what? If I have any say, then you’d better believe it. Because if Ingemar Johansson can do it than you can be goddamn certain Gatti can.

And if not, at least Gatti’s got the other Hall of Fame: The Boardwalk Hall of Fame.
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