New York Post Reports
Boxing champ Arturo Gatti's wife was arrested yesterday by Brazilian cops who suspect she strangled him with her purse strap, as people close to the slain fighter said they had long feared that either "he was going to kill her or she was going to kill him."
Gatti's wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, 23, was being held yesterday because the Brazilian native can't explain how she didn't realize for nearly 10 hours that he was dead in a beach-resort apartment where they were staying with their 1-year-old son.
She is expected to be charged with his murder. A police spokeswoman told Reuters: "She [Rodrigues] is the only suspect."
Police said they believe that Gatti - who was found dead early Saturday - was strangled with a handbag strap, and that the granite-jawed boxer also suffered a head injury.
The bloody strap was found in the apartment at the Porto de Galinhas resort.
Gatti, 37, reportedly was drunk and arguing with his wife Friday night at a resort bar.
Gatti's friends yesterday were mourning his murder - and were not surprised to hear that Rodrigues might be involved. The former junior-welterweight champ and his wife were extremely jealous and often squabbled when out socially and drinking in New York, Montreal and Brazil, sources told The Post.
From the beginning of their relationship, his friends, family and boxing advisers warned that she was young, immature and gunning for the millions he had earned in the ring, sources said.
One source said that their disputes were sometimes violent and that she did not hesitate to physically attack him. He told people close to him that she threw a lamp at him last month in Montreal, where they moved after living in Weehawken, NJ.
"The feeling was that either he was going to kill her or she was going to kill him," the source said.
Gatti's family, who sources said were not the least bit shocked by Rodrigues' arrest, learned of the murder while attending his sister Anna's wedding in Florida.
"A lot of people in his inner circle felt that this wasn't the right girl for him," said Carl Moretti, VP of the boxing promotional company Top Rank Inc.
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