No knockout, and one round short. But Mayweather did it with a TKO in the 6th:
In front of a sellout crowd at Boardwalk Hall, Mayweather backed up his bold statements with a virtuoso performance that was the boxing equivalent of a no-hitter.
The slick and confident 28-year-old thoroughly dominated Gatti on Gatti’s home turf, masterfully dodging punches and easily landing his own at will. The end came when Gatti could not answer the bell for the seventh round, but the result was obvious by midway through the second. Only Gatti’s legendary courage — and Mayweather’s decision to taunt and toy with the champion before officially taking his belt — kept it from ending earlier.
‘Gatti was tough, strong and came to fight,’ Mayweather said. ‘I respect him for giving me the chance to win the title. I boxed, and I stepped it up. He’s a great champion, I’m a great champion. Everything I said about him before the fight was just to hype the fight.’
And just to remind folks why speed is better than strength:
“Too much speed,” Gatti said. “Things weren’t coming out right. . . . He’s harder to hit than I thought.”
Comparing Mayweather to Ali is a fair comparison. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who just don’t like Mayweather’s showboating and hype, but that’s boxing.
Mayweather-Hatton or Mayweather-Massua sound like the next probable fights. Either one should be great to watch.