NYDailyNews Reports
Boxing star Arturo Gatti wasn't murdered - he killed himself in a Brazil seaside resort three weeks ago, authorities said Thursday.
The rough-and-tumble fighter's wife was released from jail after the ruling that Gatti, 37, committed suicide, the Associated Press reported.
Former exotic dancer Amanda Rodrigues, who discovered the body on July 11, was arrested after police theorized she had strangled the former world champion with her purse strap.
Police suggested Gatti was too drunk to defend himself when he was killed.
But Brazilian state court Judge Ildete Verissimo de Lima in the city of Recife ordered Rodrigues' immediate release after the new finding.
The 23-year-old was on a second honeymoon with Gatti and their 10-month-old baby when he was found dead inside their hotel room in Porto de Galinhas.
Gatti, born in Montreal, trained in Jersey City, N.J., and found stardom on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. He captured his first title in 1995, by defeating junior welterweight champion Tracy Harris Patterson.
Gatti's career also included a trio of brutally memorable battles against Micky Ward, along with fights against Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Merriweather.
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