Mayweather strikes down Gatti

ATLANTIC CITY -- For weeks, Floyd Mayweather Jr. had warned the world that ''thunder makes noise but lightning strikes." Last night at Boardwalk Hall, he taught World Boxing Council super lightweight champion Arturo Gatti how painful those realities could be.

Dominating the ring and the room from the opening bell, the former junior lightweight and lightweight champion added the 140-pound title to his resume, stopping ''Thunder" at the end of the sixth round when he forced him to retire on his stool at the insistence of his cornermen.

By then Gatti's left eye was closing, his body was being battered, and his legs were no longer secure under him. In what would prove to be the night's final round, Gatti took a terrible beating, buckling three times from crushing right hands but never going down.

When that round ended, Gatti turned and, instead of walking straight to his corner, wobbled to the right and nearly walked into the ropes before he got to his stool.

''Too much speed," Gatti (39-7) said. ''Things weren't coming out right. He's harder to hit than I thought. I was head-hunting too much. [Trainer] Buddy [McGirt] told me to stop head-hunting but I couldn't. He was just too quick."

That was obvious from the opening bell and nothing changed for the rest of the night. Mayweather was faster, technically more proficient, devastatingly agile, and overwhelmingly controlled and aggressive.

The heavily pro-Gatti crowd not only booed Mayweather lustily when he entered the ring, they booed his three world title belts when his handlers first entered the ring waving them over their heads. That enmity only increased when Mayweather was carried from his dressing room by Roman centurians.

Gatti was knocked down in the opening round when he was hit by a right and a left in close. Referee Earl Morton failed to break them at that point, but Gatti seemed to think he had, as Gatti dropped his hands and Mayweather smacked him with a hard left that sent Gatti to the floor.

The champion was unhurt but irate, hollering at Morton as the bell sounded.

Things did not improve in Round 2 as Mayweather used his hand speed and agility to blister Gatti repeatedly with double right hands to the body and head, often landing one punch, then stepping to the side to land a second before Gatti could react.

Little changed in Rounds 3, 4, and 5 as Mayweather's speed and quickness repeatedly allowed him to blunt Gatti's attack while he safely landed stinging jabs and those double right hands. Gatti was boxing well, but the speed difference was causing him a multitude of problems.

Mayweather sensed the problems were beginning to overwhelm Gatti as Round 6 opened and he went after him, beating the proud champion into submission with crushing right hands and flurries of fast punches that Gatti could neither counter nor block.

Three times that round Mayweather stunned Gatti, twice buckling his knees, then hurting him to the body with another right hand. Refusing to go down but unable to get out of the way, Gatti barely survived the round.

McGirt took one look at his fighter's fast-closing eyes and the pained expression on his face before telling Morton the fight was over. Gatti accepted the decision after a night in which he had been outpunched, 168-41, according to CompuBox statistics, and outfought.

''This was one of his most dazzling performances," said Roger Mayweather, who trains his nephew. ''He thought he was the champion coming into the fight."

Certainly he was going out. Champion of more than just this night -- the pound-for-pound champion of all of boxing.

In a stunning upset, lightly regarded journeyman Carlos Maussa (19-2, 17 KOs) knocked out World Boxing Association super lightweight champion Vivian Harris (25-2-1) at 43 seconds of the seventh round with one long, looping left hook that caught the tiring Harris flush on the jaw.

Harris staggered backward for several steps before collapsing as Maussa tried to hit him one more time but missed. Not that Harris would have noticed, because he was laboring even to catch his breath. Long before that point, however, the champion already appeared to be exhausted, his chest heaving as early as the third round.

Harris had weighed in at an astonishing 134 pounds despite the 140-pound super lightweight limit, a full weight class below that division and even a pound below the lightweight limit of 135. Harris, who had talked all manner of trash during the week about how he was ready to beat all the other super lightweight champions, including Mayweather and Gatti, had to be held up under the arms as he left the ring.

It was speculated that Harris was badly overtrained and he certainly fought like it, unable to hurt Maussa despite hitting him flush numerous times early in the fight. Harris quickly began to fade despite the fact Maussa was seldom hitting him with anything with authority.

On the undercard, World Boxing Organization minimum weight champion Ivan Calderon (23-0) easily won a unanimous decision over Gerardo Verde (13-2) in what was believed to be the first world championship fight judged by three women, Melvina Lathan, Adelaid Byrd, and Debra Barnes . . . Undefeated heavyweight contender Calvin Brock (26-0, 21 KOs) stopped Kenny Craven (26-16-2) at 2:34 of the fourth round . . . Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (20-0, 15 KOs) stopped Ruben Galvan (21-7-2) at 2:22 of Round 4. Referee Benjy Estevez allowed Chavez to beat and batter Galvan for the last two rounds until New Jersey State Athletic Commission head Larry Hazzard hollered for a stoppage. Estevez still didn't react until Galvan's corner finally threw in the towel.