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POUND FOR POUND RESULTS FOR ARTURO GATTI

By Danny Serratelli

Every time Arturo Gatti fights in Atlantic City, it is more than just a fight, it is an event, and Arturo is definitely a pound for pound ticket seller as consistent as anyone in the game. Boxing needs more situations like this. Even if he loses, he will sell out the arena in his next fight and the fans know they will get their money's worth. There are few others in the game with this drawing power, of course there is Oscar de la Hoya anywhere, Felix Trinidad at the Garden, maybe Rocky Juarez in Texas, but not many more have the magic drawing touch.

With the fight being sold out, scalpers were out on the boardwalk in bone chilling weather selling the cheapest seats, which were supposed to be $50, for $100+. Oscar de la Hoya was present, because Jesse James Leija was fighting under his company Golden Boy Promotions. When De la Hoya goes anywhere you would think he was the president based on the security and crowds he draws. Whether it's by choice or by necessity, he doesn’t mingle and hang out with the “regular people” at the fights like Gatti, Hopkins, Tarver, Ruiz and many other big names in the game do at the fights.

With an on again, off again fight now apparently not set against Floyd Mayweather in the wings, Arturo Gatti and Jesse James Leija entered the ring. Gatti, who is constantly being praised for his courage and tough style, is often overlooked in the skill department. Many ringside observers were predicting the upset, despite the fact that Gatti was a 5-1 favorite. As the fight started Gatti knew that Leija would have a game plan and would try to make him fight his fight. Gatti was content jabbing from the outside and trying to land something big every now and then while Leija sat back, moved well and counter punched. While I usually think you can score a fight better watching it on television, and I heard people were giving Gatti the rounds from home, I had it 3-1 Leija from ringside after 4 rounds.

The beginning of the end came in round number 5 when Gatti landed a solid right hand that dropped the rugged veteran. With the Bojado fight in mind, I thought for a moment that Leija would whether the storm and use his experience and ring savvy to survive. That would not be the case, while Bojado took his time and let Leija off the hook, Gatti came after him with everything he had. A left hook dropped Leija for a second time and the official time of the knockout was 1:48 of round number 5.

At the post fight press conference, Leija said, "The bigger stronger fighter won tonight." He said he was content with returning to his family and being a husband and a dad. "It was a long haul for me," added Leija. While he didn’t go as far as announcing his retirement, he said he doesn’t have the time to build himself back up to this level. Which to me sounded like, if the money is right and a high profile opponent, who he thinks he can beat calls, you never know. Regardless of his decision, if and when he does retire, Jesse James Leija will always be remembered as an excellent fighter and a very classy individual.

Gatti, in his 17th appearance on HBO, said that Jesse is a great fighter. He said it was a huge plus that for the second consecutive fight he won and didn’t have to go to the hospital. He will be fighting again on June 11th. While arrangements had been made for Floyd Mayweather to make this fight and in the process hype up a match-up between the two of them for June 11th, personal problems have held up the official announcement of Mayweather as Gatti’s June 11th opponent.

Gatti said he was glad both he and Jesse were OK, and he is glad he will be back fighting someone on June 11th. While he said he wanted to fight Mayweather because he tops many people’s pound for pound lists, he added when asked about Mayweather “I really don’t care who (I fight), he’s not the one who’s gonna sell the tickets anyway…but he is a great fighter.”

While Gatti-Mayweather is not a done deal, it appears that as long as Mayweather deals with some personal issues he has to take care of, the fight probably will happen. As a Jersey guy myself I’d rather see fights that would be more entertaining and fighters who Gatti may match up with better. I’d take my chances with Tszyu, Hatton or the up and coming Miguel Cotto. Mayweather to me is the least attractive option for Gatti, stylistically because he has more speed than any of the aforementioned fighters; he also brings a better defense and some power with that speed. However, I would give any of the guys a chance with each other and that, plus a few other top notch guys, is what makes 140 a great weight class.

Co-Feature:

Junior Middleweights- (IBF Title) Kassim "The Dream Ouma" 21-1-2, 13 KO’s won a unanimous decision over Kofi Jantuah, 28-2, 18KO’s. Ouma said afterwards to the press, “The man upstairs is great, there is no me without you, keep writing about me…I’m here to stay!…I love you all." Seems like a nice guy and a good fighter, while he won most of the rounds, I’d like to see him sit down on more shots from time to time.

Undercard:

Junior Middleweights- Giovanni Lorenzo, 14-0, 7 KO’s 1st round TKO over Dennis Sharpe, 17-0-2, 4 KO’s. Two local undefeated guys go at it, I was looking forward to this one, that didn’t even go 1 round. Sharpe is always a tough and exciting brawler, but seems to lack the punch he needs to go along with the style. Lorenzo, who is usually more of a mover, came out and traded toe to toe with Sharpe, this resulted in a called knockdown when Sharpe was on the ropes and a clean knockdown, from which Sharpe got right up. While Lorenzo seemed to have some speed on Sharpe, Sharpe never stopped punching and the end result was an action packed 2:45 at which time Sharpe’s corner threw the towel. Sharpe and I thought it was a premature stoppage, because he was firing back all the way through and looked like he wanted to fight, but what you want, and what should be done are often two different things.

Heavyweights- Malik Scott 20-0, 10 KO’s Unanimous 8 round Decision over David Bostice 22-9-1, 14 KO’s. One judge gave 2 rounds to Bostice and the other two gave him 1 round. Scott is undefeated, and got to go 8 rounds, two pluses for him.

Welterweights- Henry Crawford, 4-0, 1 KO won a unanimous decision over Phillip McCants, 2-1-1, 1 KO.

Cruiserweights- David Pareja, 2-1 won a majority decision over Gino Ranquillo, 1-1, 1 KO.

LightWeights- Danny McDermott, (pro debut) won a unanimous decision over Jason Chacon, 0-4.

1-29-2005

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