By Danny Serratelli, ringside

Arturo “Thunder” Gatti 40-7, 31 KO’s delivered in his move up to the welterweight class last night. He came, he saw and he conquered the gallant warrior from Denmark, Thomas “Lionheart” Damgaard, who fell to 37-1, 27 KO’s. The 11th round stoppage was Damgaard’s first loss in his almost 9 year, 38 fight career. The Dane came to New Jersey not knowing what it was like to taste defeat in his professional career, and it showed. Arturo, who appeared to hurt his right hand as early as the 4th round would eventually end the fight with the same damaged right hand in the 11th round when Damgaard’s legs would no longer comply with his big heart.

In this ultimate test of wills, Damgaard seemed determined to keep constant pressure on Gatti in anticipation that the natural 147-pounder’s strength would wear Arturo down later in the fight. Arturo would switch to southpaw at times and often do his best work when answering Damgaard’s shots with punches that looked harder and faster. Damgaard came with all he had, but in the end would fall short.

Just about the time when Arturo started to look like he would coast to a unanimous decision, thunder struck. Arturo, who was still throwing the right hand he injured in the 4th round with authority, capped off a great performance with the 11th round TKO. Arturo out-boxed Damgaard for most of the fight, but as everyone has become accustomed to he did some of his best work in the trenches. Damgaard was caught and hurt by Gatti in the 11th round, but managed to stay on his feet. At first the stoppage looked as if it may have been premature, but upon further review, Damgaard’s legs went and it became apparent that referee Lindsay Paige called the fight at just the right time.

Arturo is now looking forward to fighting for the welterweight championship in the summer against newly crowned champ Carlos Baldomir. Arturo said, “This is my first fight as a 147-pounder and I still have a lot of work to do and will look better against Baldomir”. Arturo continued, “Timing is everything. Baldomir wants to make money and I want all of his titles, so we should make the fight. Hopefully, back in Atlantic City.”

In the co-feature, featherweight Jason Litzau, 17-0, 15 KO’s kept his undefeated record intact in impressive fashion with his victory over Carlos Contraras, 20-12, 3, 13 KO’s. Contraras came to fight and swore he would last the distance, but Litzau made him eat his words at 1:17 of the 6th round.

Lyndhurst, New Jersey’s super-middleweight, Wayne “Lights Out” Johnson, 10-1, 5 KO’s had a good number of Wayniacs mixed into the crowd to back him up on his way to a majority decision victory over Edward Hempfield, 3-2, 1 KO. Hempfield, who had rededicated himself to boxing, was riding a 3-fight winning streak entering the fight, and Wayne was coming off a questionable decision loss. The fight was cut from a 6 to a 4 rounder and it appeared that it took Johnsen a round or 2 to get comfortable, which was why he ended with a majority decision victory.

Noriko Kariya, 3-0 was also very impressive and showed marked improvement in her unanimous decision victory over Maria Contreras, who fell to 1-3. Noriko looked poised and professional in front of a large crowd picking up the win in her Atlantic City debut.

In other action:

Welterweights – Henry Crawford, 9-0-1, 3 KO’s (UD 6) over Luis Armando Santos, 9-2, 6 KO’s
Heavyweights – Malik Scott, 24-0, 10 KO’s (UD 6) Kendrick Releford, 13-7, 5 KO’s
Heavyweights – BJ Flores, 15-0, 10 KO’s (UD 8) Jermel Barnes, 17-11, 4 KO’s
Light-heavyweights – Rudy Markussen, 33-1, 20 KO’s (TKO2) Brock Strodden, 17-11, 9 KO’s
Heavyweights – Mariusz Wach, 7-0, 2 KO’s (UD 4) Adele Olakanye, 6-5-2, 4 KO’s