Gatti No Match for Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather Jr. exposed Arturo Gatti as the club fighter he said he was, giving the brawler a vicious beating Saturday night and taking the 140-pound World Boxing Council title when Gatti’s corner called it quits after six rounds.

Showing speed and power that Gatti had no answer for, Mayweather pounded him with shots to the body and head for six rounds before a stunned sellout crowd at Boardwalk Hall that had come to cheer on their local hero.

Mayweather, undefeated in 33 fights, won his third title in as many weight classes. He easily avoided Gatti’s punches and landed his own with crisp precision while Gatti’s face swelled as the rounds went on.

The end came after the sixth round, when Gatti was taking punch after punch to the body and the head while offering little response. When he walked back to his corner, he staggered toward the ropes and barely made it to his stool.

“I’m stopping it, baby. I’m stopping it,” Gatti’s trainer, Buddy McGirt, told his fighter, who protested only briefly. “No more. No more. Your eyes are closing.”

Mayweather had claimed all along that Gatti’s skills were suspect and that he was little more than a club fighter who had enough talent to beat other club fighters.

Mayweather played the villain to the hilt, entering the arena held aloft on a throne by four men dressed as Roman gladiators.

He was kinder afterward, calling Gatti a great fighter who showed heart.

“He’s a tough fighter,” Mayweather said. “Tonight I was the better man.”

Gatti (39-7) didn’t have nearly the talent to match Mayweather, who was so dominant that ringside statistics showed him landing 168 punches to only 41 for Gatti.

“This was one of his most dazzling performances,” Mayweather’s trainer, Roger Mayweather, said.

“Floyd is used to big fights. I am not surprised what happened.”

Said Gatti: “He’s fast, very fast. I think I did very good for six rounds but I took too many shots to the head.”