Arturo Gatti and wife had violent relationship

It looks like the wife of former welterweight champion Arturo Gatti, Amanda Rodrigues, will be charged with premediated murder.  From reports, it seems the couple had a physically violent relationship.

Former welterweight boxing champion Arturo Gatti was reportedly stabbed in the back of the head with a kitchen knife, but managed to survive.  His wife may have then strangled him with her purse strap which could explain the bloody strap which Brazilian police found on the hotel room crime scene.

According to BoxingScene.com:

The couple went to dinner on Friday night, and then proceeded to a local bar.  According to witnesses, the couple had an argument on the street and Gatti pushed his wife to the ground where it appears she suffered minor injuries to her chin and left elbow. Gatti, with their one-year-old, caught a taxi back to their room.

Local police believe that Gatti was passed out drunk and his wife stabbed him to the back of the head with a kitchen knife and then strangled with a kitchen knife.

NY Boxing Examiner Michael Marley, with an interview of sources, mentioned that Arturo Gatti and his wife may have had a physically abusive relationship.  (Shades of Corrales: sources say Gatti assaulted wife in past)

Amanda Rodrigues, center, is escorted by police officers after being arrested in Recife, Brazil, Sunday, July 12, 2009. Brazilian authorities say they have detained Rodrigues, wife of former boxing champion Arturo Gatti, as a suspect following his death at a posh seaside resort. Gatti's body was found early Saturday in a hotel room at the Porto de Galinhas resort in northeastern Brazil.  (AP Photo/Clemilson Campos/JC Imagem)

Boxing legacy

The fight 5'7 brawler had a cult-like following in New Jersey.  He was the former IBF super-featherweight, WBC light-welterweight, and WBC junior welterweight champion.

Gatti retired in 2007 after losing to journeyman Alfonso Gomez, and retired with a record of 40 wins and nine losses.

Among fight fans, he was most known for his tremendous heart and guts.  A real-life "Rocky Balboa."  He broke his hand five times during his career, and earned endearment by being a consummate puncher who stood toe-to-toe with any opponent, trading pugilist bombs.  Arturo Gatti's epic, non-title, and downright brutal trilogy of bouts with Irish Mickey Ward are memorialized as one of boxing's best trilogies ever.

Gatti, earlier in his career, won 26 of his first 27 fights, with 13 of those victories coming in the opening round.