ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey, 27 June 2005 — Floyd Mayweather Jr. dominated Arturo Gatti Saturday night, battering Gatti before scoring a sixth-round technical knockout in their 140-pound title fight. Mayweather knocked Gatti down in the first round and cut Gatti around the eyes early, never giving him a chance to get going despite the cheers of the sell-out crowd of mostly Gatti supporters.
The fight was stopped at the end of the sixth round, with Gatti’s right eye swollen and just about shut.
Ringside punch totals had Mayweather throwing landing 168 of his 295 punches, while only 41 of Gatti’s 245 punches were on the mark, or just 17 percent compared with Mayweather’s 57 percent.
“We gave the fans a pay-per-view extravaganza,” Mayweather told ringside reporters at the WBC super lightweight title fight.
In a major upset on the undercard, Colombian Carlos Maussa won the WBA super lightweight title with a seventh-round knockout of New York based Vivian Harris.
Harris was hit with a left hook to the chin by Maussa and was counted out by referee Earl Brown 43 seconds into the seventh round.
Born in Guyana, Harris was hoping for a bigger fight in the competitive 140-pound division if he had won.
Also on the undercard, undefeated Ivan Calderon of Puerto Rico posted a unanimous decision over Gerardo Verde in a 12-round minimum-weight bout.
In a junior welterweight bout, undefeated 19-year-old Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr. — the son of Mexican great and former four-time champion Julio Cesar Chavez — scored a fourth-round knockout of Ruben Galvan.
Castillo Outpoints Ishihara to Defend WBA Super Flyweight Title
In Nagoya, Japan, Martin Castillo of Mexico defended his World Boxing Association (WBA) super flyweight title with a unanimous decision victory yesterday over Hideyasu Ishihara of Japan.
A Swedish judge scored the fight at 116-112 in favor of the defending champion, while Thai and Puerto Rican judges counted it 116-111 in favor. It was a repeat performance for Castillo, who defeated Ishihara by a TKO to win the vacant title bout in May last year.
Castillo, 28, became the real champion by beating title-holder Alexander Munoz of Venezuela in December and then downed Eric Morel of Puerto Rico in his second defense of the title in March.
