Remembering Arturo Gatti
Mark E. Ortega
Freelance
July 16, 2009
Arturo Gatti was more of a role model to me than any fighter out there. There may never be another fighter who will inspire me to “suck it up” when things get hard in my own life. Arturo taught me not to look for defeat, but to look for a way to overcome it, and that when we are down, that is when life is most precious.
It still has not fully hit me yet that Arturo Gatti is no longer with us. Sure, he had been out of the ring for almost exactly two years since suffering a shock knockout loss to Alfonso Gomez in July of 2007. But when you consider all that Arturo Gatti persevered through as a fighter, all the punishment he took in and out of the ring during a tumultuous sixteen year professional career that included world titles in two different weight classes as well as four Ring Magazine Fight of the Year awards and a Comeback of the Year Award, you figured if he was able to survive all of those things that he was going to be around for awhile after he hung up the gloves. Sadly for us, Arturo Gatti was taken way too soon and the circumstances surrounding his demise are as tragic as they can get.
