More than 1,000 people filled St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church on Kennedy Blvd. in Jersey City Thursday night to attend a memorial mass for former two-time world boxing champion Arturo Gatti. Gatti had lived in Jersey City and Hoboken.
Some of the people in attendance included Academy Award-nominated actor Mickey Rourke, famed actor-stuntman Chuck Zito and a host of famed former boxing champions, including Chuck Wepner, Mark Breland and Bobby Czyz and current IBF world cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek, who resides in Jersey City.
Incredibly, the memorial mass was held on the same day that Brazilian authorities ruled that Gatti’s death on July 11 was officially determined to be a suicide.
According to Associated Press, Brazilian police said Thursday that an investigation determined that Gatti hung himself. A Brazilian judge then ordered the release of Amanda Rodrigues, Gatti’s 23-year-old wife, who was being held until Thursday on charges that she killed her 37-year-old husband.
The news that Gatti’s death was ruled a suicide did not sit well with the people who attended the services.
“Arturo Gatti lived with passion and fought with passion,” said Lou DiBella, a boxing promoter and matchmaker who helped to arrange some of Gatti’s best bouts. DiBella was one of three speakers who delivered eulogies after the services were completed.
“Arturo Gatti loved life and everyone here knows that he loved life,” DiBella said. “He never quit once in his life and he didn’t quit in Brazil either. We can hope and pray that justice will prevail and we can find out the truth of what really happened to our friend.”
Czyz also disputed the reports of Gatti’s alleged suicide.
“I think you can tell by the way he fought that he wasn’t one who was going to ever quit,” Czyz said. “Suffice it to say that I don’t believe what I heard today. It’s very difficult to believe, especially by the way Arturo lived and the way he fought. I know he wouldn’t have ended it that way. No way is it true.”
The Brazilian police initially had said that Gatti was allegedly drunk and was found dead face down in bed with marks on his neck and a wound to the back of the head, probably caused by a blunt object.
It was believed that Rodrigues, a native of Brazil who lived in Union City and worked as an exotic dancer at the Squeeze Lounge in Weehawken when she met the local boxing hero, may have strangled Gatti with the strap of her purse.
However, that story changed dramatically Thursday.
We’ll have more on the Gatti investigation and his memorial mass in next week’s editions of The Hudson Reporter. — Jim Hague