Arturo Gatti Found Dead in Brazilian Hotel

Published on: 11th July, 2009 @ 5:46 pm by JeffG

According to a report on TSN, former Welterweight champ Arturo Gatti was found dead in a Brazilian hotel room.

He was 37.

Gatti was in the Brazilian city of Pernambuco, celebrating his second honeymoon with his wife Amanda Rodrigues.  Their one-year-old son was also on the trip.

Amanda awoke to find Arturo dead on the floor, with marks on his head and neck, most likely made by a blunt instrument.  Authorities are treating Gatti’s death as a suspected homicide.

A spokesperson for the public safety department of Pernambuco released the following statement…

“There were no bullet or stab wounds on his body, but police did find blood stains on the floor,”

Gatti’s wife and son were unhurt.

Arturo Gatti is the second former boxer to die in the past two weeks.  Alexis Arguello was found dead on July 1st from an apparent suicide.

Update:  Wow.  Not a good week for athlete’s jilted lovers.  According to reports, Gatti’s wife Amanda is being held by Brazilian authorities as a suspect in her husband’s murder.  Police found contradictions during her interrogation, and questioned how she could be in the same room with Gatti’s corpse for nearly 10 hours.  Police are also saying that Gatti was murdered with a purse strap that was found at the scene with blood stains on it.  Witnesses are reporting that the pair were fighting the night of the murder, and that Arturo Gatti was drunk upon returning to their hotel room.  If it turns out Rodrigues did in fact murder her husband, it’ll be the second high profile athlete murder in a week, after Steve McNair was gunned down in a murder/suicide by his 20 year old girlfriend.

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