ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Carlos Baldomir knocked out Arturo Gatti in the ninth round Saturday night to retain his WBC welterweight title.
Baldomir (43-9-6), fighting for the first time since stunning Zab Judah on Jan. 7 to win the WBC belt, sent Gatti to the canvas twice in the final round after hemming him in on the ropes and pummeling him with a flurry of punches.
Baldomir had been criticized for not having enough punching power to hurt Gatti (40-8). But he punished Gatti through the first five rounds, opening cuts on his lip and under his right eye, and by the middle of the fifth round, Gatti appeared dazed.
Gatti rallied in the middle rounds and appeared to have gotten a foothold in the fight until the ninth round, although he was trailing on all three judges' cards through eight rounds.
Baldomir held an edge in punches landed with 267 of 562 (48 percent) compared to 36 percent (161 of 445) for Gatti.
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The sellout crowd of 12,380 left no doubt as to who it was favoring, chanting "Ga-tti! Ga-tti!" when the challenger entered the arena.
Both fighters wasted little time measuring each other after the opening bell. Gatti landed an overhand left and a left hook to Baldomir's face, but also absorbed several hard shots.
At times Gatti alternated between right- and left-handed stances, a strategy he used effectively in his win in January against Thomas Damgaard. But as the fight wore on, he largely abandoned the ploy.
Baldomir began to gain the upper hand in the third round as he landed two left hooks and then two hard rights followed by a combination.
The round ended with Baldomir again catching Gatti with a combination of head and body punches.
Midway through the round Baldomir even appeared to taunt Gatti, pointing to his stomach as if to challenge Gatti to hit him there.
Gatti recovered in the middle rounds and fought Baldomir on even terms. He lost his balance and fell twice in the eighth round, but was hurt neither time.
On the undercard, Giovanni Lorenzo (21-0) remained undefeated when he stopped Canada's Bryon Mackie (27-13) in the sixth round of a junior middleweight bout.
