Arturo Gatti killed

[broncofan]

SAO PAULO — Officials say former world boxing champion Arturo Gatti has been found dead in a hotel room in northeastern Brazil.

A spokeswoman for the public safety department of Pernambuco state says the body of the former junior welterweight champ was discovered on Saturday morning in the posh seaside resort of Porto de Galinhas, where he arrived on Friday with his wife and one-year-old son.

She said it was unclear how the 37-year-old Canadian died.

"There were no bullet or stab wounds on his body, but police did find blood stains on the floor," she said, adding that his wife and son were unhurt.

The spokeswoman, who did not provide further details, declined to be identified because she was not authorized to comment on the case.


RIP

[NWOWolfpack]

sucks they think it was his wife.......................RIP

[NWOWolfpack]

Boxer Arturo Gatti's death was ruled a suicide by police Thursday and his wife, once suspected of killing the former champion, was released from jail.

Lead investigator Paulo Alberes told The Associated Press authorities decided Gatti killed himself on July 11 while at a seaside resort in northeastern Brazil.

When asked if police had determined the case was a suicide, Alberes said "yes." He offered no other details, though a judge -- in ordering the release of Gatti's wife -- cited the police investigation and wrote that "the victim took his own life, committing suicide by hanging."

The boxer's widow, 23-year-old Amanda Rodrigues, said in a phone interview as she walked out of jail she thinks Gatti may have killed himself because he was afraid she was going to leave him after the pair had a violent disagreement in public the night before his death.

[+] EnlargeArturo Gatti
Ed Mulholland/WireImageThe death of Arturo Gatti, left, seen fighting Thomas Damgaard in 2006, has been ruled a suicide by Brazilian officials.

"We had an argument in the street. Then he pushed me and I hurt myself. I believe that when we got home and he saw that he hurt me, he thought I would leave him, that I would tell him to just let me go, that I would separate from him," Rodrigues said. "He did that in a moment of weakness. He was drunk, maybe he didn't know what he was doing, maybe he thought I would leave him the next day."

A day after the 37-year-old Gatti was found dead, police said that Rodrigues had strangled him with her purse strap as he drunkenly slept.

But police began to back off the accusation about a week later after a coroner's report said Gatti may have killed himself as he was found "suspended and hanged." The autopsy report didn't exclude the possibility he was slain, but said he also could have died in an unexplained accident, or could have committed suicide.

"The police investigation concluded that Arturo killed himself," said Celio Avelino, Rodrigues' attorney. "I've said before it would have been impossible for her to suspend and hang a man of that size."

[BreakingBacks]

His family thinks his wife did him in.