Former world boxing champion killed himself in Brazil

SAO PAULO - Former world boxing champion Arturo “Thunder” Gatti, whose body was found in a holiday flat in the Brazilian resort of Porto de Galinhas in early July, committed suicide, police said.

An investigation found that the Italian-Canadian had hanged himself and was not murdered.

As a result, a court in Recife ordered the release of his wife, Amanda Rodrigues, 23, who had been held on suspicion of his murder.

Detaining his wife was no longer necessary as inquiries had ruled out that Gatti was murdered, the court said Thursday. The boxer “killed himself by hanging”, it added.

Gatti was found dead July 11 in Porto de Galinhas in an apartment where he was on holiday with his wife and one-year-old son.

In her statement Amanda Rodrigues admitted to having an argument with her husband in which they came to blows but denied killing him.

She said she found her husband dead the next morning in the two-story apartment.

The former boxer was under the influence of alcohol at the time of his death, the investigation found.

Gatti was the International Boxing Federation super-featherweight world champion from 1995 to 1997. In 2004, he won the World Boxing Council world title at junior-welterweight but lost it a year and a half later to Floyd Mayweather Jr. He retired in 2007.

Gatti fought 49 times as a professional, winning 40 of his bouts.