Second Autopsy to Be Performed on Gatti’s Body

Amid all of the controversy, there was a need for better answers.

ESPN.com reports that the body of former boxer Arturo Gatti was exhumed on Friday evening at the request of his family. A new autopsy will be performed on Saturday at the Quebec coroner's office.

Gatti was found dead in his hotel room in Brazil on July 11, and early indications suggested that his wife, Amanda Rodrigues, had murdered him — but she was exonerated on Thursday, when Brazilian reports revealed that the boxer likely committed suicide by hanging himself with a purse strap from a staircase column over seven feet above the ground. According to an autopsy report, he was suspended for about three hours before he fell to the floor.

The boxer's family, however, is unwilling to accept that theory, thus demanding another autopsy which will be performed by an American pathologist.

Rodrigues, who was suspected of strangling her husband with the strap of her purse, was released from jail on Thursday. The 23-year-old had been held since July 12.

According to Rodrigues, she was asleep in an upstairs bedroom with her 10-month-old son the night of Gatti's death. She said she discovered his body at around 6 a.m. but assumed he was drunkenly asleep; when she went downstairs again at 9 a.m., she discovered he was dead.

There was no suicide note.

Rodrigues told The Associated Press that Gatti may have killed himself because he was afraid she might leave him. The night before the boxer's death, 17 witnesses claimed they heard the couple having a loud fight.

"I am absolutely sure that the second autopsy will reconfirm that he committed suicide," Rodrigues' attorney told ESPN.com.

Gatti, who retired in 2007, won 40 of 49 career fights. He was named the International Boxing Federation's super-featherweight champion in 1995 and the World Boxing Council's light-welterweight champion in 2004.