POST-FIGHT ANALYSIS: RON BORGES

July 25, 2006

The end is seldom pretty for a brave warrior. It comes with apparent suddeness, even though usually it's been building for some time, and when it arrives it does so with a finality one cannot dispute.

That was the sad end Arturo Gatti had to endure Saturday night in Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, the arena he packed so many times. He had done it once again, his loyalists cheering wildly when he entered the ring to face little-known World Boxing Council welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir. This was supposed to be a coronation, a victory for Gatti over an accidental champion who had caught Zab Judah on a bad night but would not be so lucky this time. This night would erase the sad memory of the beating Gatti took from Floyd Mayweather, Jr. just over a year ago. It would be an affirmation that at 34 there were battles yet to be won.

Nine rounds later Gatti lay on his back, having been knocked to the floor a second time by a man with only 12 knockouts in a lifetime of boxing. Gatti was spent, a tired soldier who had, it turned out, engaged in too many wars already. From the outset he was too small, too slow, unable to hurt an opponent who is big by any welterweight's standards and considerably bigger than a guy who once was a world champion at 130 pounds.

Like the honest fighter Gatti has always been, he was equally forthright in defeat after referee Wayne Hedgepeth stopped the bout at 2:50 of Round 9. He looked out at a hall full of his supporters and admitted, quite simply, that this was the kind of defeat that could be neither rationalized nor ignored.

"Tonight was tough,'' Gatti (40-8, 31 KO) admitted. "It was tough to take a beating like that...I'm not sure (if he might retire) but after what happened tonight I'll think about it.''

As well he should. Gatti is one of the great ticket sellers of his time. He is also a two-time world champion with a loyal following and good people around him. Few of them believe he should continue. It is one thing to lose to Mayweather, who is arguably the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. It is quite another to lose to a journeyman with nine losses, six draws and only one victory over a name opponent until Saturday night.

Gatti understands that in the way old warrior's do when the end is staring them in their bloodied and tattered face. He would not fully acknowledge it but neither did he refuse to admit to the world what had just happened to him.

"I tried to box,'' Gatti said. "He looked like he knew what he was doing. He trained to box me. He did a great job. By the time I neutralized him with my boxing ability it was too late. I was tired and he kept applying pressure. He was very strong. He was getting stronger and I was getting weaker.''

There is no shame in that. It is what happens to old warriors who fight one too many battles. In Gatti's case, he may have fought several too many. The beat down Mayweather put on him before his loyal cornerman Buddy McGirt stopped the fight after six rounds with Gatti bloodied, bruised and exhausted as he sat on his stool was difficult too watch because he never had a chance against the younger man from the opening bell. But in some ways the loss to Baldomir was worse because early in the fight Gatti was landing clean shots, none of which even slowed Baldomir down let alone hurt him.

The resiliency of his chin has always been Baldomir's greatest asset and it was Saturday night. He is legendary in gyms around Los Angeles for being like a Timex watch. He takes a licking and keeps on hitting. That's what he did early against Gatti and soon enough his relentlessness began to wear Gatti out.

McGirt kept calling for his man to use his jab and legs more, to move and not engage Baldomir but that has never been Gatti's preference or style. He can box some, although never quite as well as some of his fans would like to believe, but when a fight broke out he was always a willing participant, ready to engage you and take his chances. He did against Baldomir early and he landed but to no effect and as the fight wore on he simply wore out.

Arturo Gatti did not lose this fight because of heart failure. He did not lose because he had too much trouble making weight, as has been his problem in some lower weight classes. He lost for the simplest of reasons but for the one that's hardest to accept. He lost because he doesn't have it any more. He has heart and bravery and a willingness to give the crowd all he has and more than they paid for. That is the fighter's contract and Arturo Gatti agreed to it a long time ago.

What he no longer has is a big enough punch to knock down the larger men in the welterweight division or the strength to endure the way he once did and then come back. Saturday night, in the end, all he could do was take punishment, finally toppling forehead to the floor from a crushing Baldomir left hand that landed after he'd trapped the tiring Gatti along the ropes.

The Warrior pushed himself up one last time, well knowing what was coming next but also still hoping somewhere in his arsenal he would find the weapon that could right this wrong and reverse what was happening to him as he had done so many times in his youth. But old age hides those weapons from the warrior's hand. He reaches for guns that are unloaded, seizes the bow with no arrow left in the quiver.

Baldomir, who had cautioned before the fight that he felt Gatti was no longer the fighter he once had been, moved in quickly and savaged Gatti, driving him off balance into the ropes and then along them before he fell a second time from a flurry that was capped off by a second left hook less powerful than the first. It didn't need to be as powerful because Gatti stood on shaky legs, his reflexes having deserted him. All that was left was his resolve to endure but even that can stand only so much punishment.

When it was over Baldomir talked of how he needed this kind of victory to validate the win over Judah, who so many people in boxing felt was a fluke. He insisted he didn't care if he fought Mayweather or Ricky Hatton next, two men who hold forms of the 147-pound title Baldomir quite rightly said belonged to him for he had won them from Judah before boxing's arcane politics intervened and handed several of those belts to men who didn't desereve them, including Judah, who somehow retained the IBF title at the same time he was losing it to Baldomir.

"They both have titles that belong to me,'' Baldomir (42-9-6) said.

"I'm the real champion. I beat Judah for all three times. tonight I proved to everyone that I'm the best at 147 pounds.''

As he spoke Arturo Gatti, a broken warrior, left the arena for possibly the last time. The nasty gash under his right eye that had dripped red from the fourth round had been staunched, although stitches would probably be necessary. His head was aching but clear and it was not yet decided if he would make one last visit to the emergency room Atlantic City Medical Center where he had spent so many other late nights, in both victory and defeat. All that was sure was this: something had just happened that could only be ignored at your own peril.

"I don't know if I'll ever fight again but I had a good time,'' Gatti said an hour after it was over. "Now I see how he beat Zab. He's a strong welterweight.''

Too strong for a proud little man who has been fighting all his life.

To strong for a little man who first appeared in a professional arena as a 19-year-old kid from Montreal. He stopped a guy named Jose Gonzales that night in Seacaucus, New Jersey 15 years ago. No one could have known then what he would become, especially after he lost a split decision to a guy named King Solomon in his seventh professional fight in Philadelphia.

He never fought King Solomon again, which was probably a break for the King, but three years later he would win his first world title by outpointing Tracy Harris Patterson to claim the IBF super featherweight championship. He would win and lose many times after that, including a three-fight losing streak to Angel Manfredy and Ivan Robinson (twice) in 1998 when it appeared his career might have ended long before its time because of what he now admits was an obsession with partying and nightlife.

He battled back, quite literally, from all that as well as from a terrible beating from Oscar De La Hoya, who like was Baldomir a far bigger man. As usual he fought on after that, winning the junior welterweight title three years later to resurrect himself one last time. But even the brave warrior can carry only so many scars.

Saturday night, with any luck at all, Arturo Gatti, the bravest of the brave, suffered his last one. Every fan who ever cheered for him should cheer that, too.