Arturo Gatti vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Background

The Gatti–Mayweather bout had been in the making for over a year. After a tough trilogy with Mickey Ward, Gatti earned a shot at the vacant WBC super lightweight (AKA light welterweight) championship, winning the title on January 21, 2004 with a unanimous decision victory over Gianluca Branco. Four months later, Mayweather would vacate his WBC and The Ring lightweight title and move up to the light welterweight division. Initially, Mayweather was set to face the undefeated former IBF lightweight champion Paul Spadafora to determine who would be the mandatory challenger to Gatti's title, but the fight was nixed due to Spadafora's legal troubles. Instead, Mayweather was matched up against former WBO light welterweight champion DeMarcus Corley in a WBC "eliminator" bout on May 22, 2004. In his light welterweight debut, Mayweather had Corley down on the canvas no less than seven times (though only two were declared official knockdowns) and cruised to an easy, lopsided unanimous decision that not only made him the number one contender to Gatti's title, but also the number one pound-for-pound fighter in boxing. After a successful defense against Leonard Dorin, Gatti announced his intentions to face Mayweather. However, several disagreements hindered the negotiations and the two sides would not reach an agreement until March of 2005 for a June 25th fight in Gatti's native New Jersey. Prior to the fight, Mayweather repeatedly bashed Gatti in the press, calling him, among other things, a "C-plus fighter", "club fighter" and a "bum." For the most part, Gatti refused to appear at press conferences with Mayweather, saying "I just don't want to be bothered by his mouth." Mayweather, however, crashed a Gatti press conference, referring to him as a "paper champion" and lampooning his struggle to make weight by loading food on a plate.

The Fight

Mayweather dominated Gatti through six rounds. Late in the first round Mayweather would score a knockdown as Gatti dropped his hands and complained to the referee about an illegal punch Mayweather had landed. With Gatti's attention turned towards the ref, Mayweather landed a left hook that sent Gatti into the ropes and on his knee. Things would only go more downhill from there for Gatti as Mayweather continued to overwhelm the champion with his quickness and hand speed, landing combinations at will. After losing all six rounds on the scorecards and having landed only 41 total punches to Mayweather's 168, Gatti's trainer and cornerman Buddy McGirt stopped the fight following the sixth round, giving Mayweather an automatic technical knockout victory.