WBC 140-pound champ Gatti looks to Mayweather

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Arturo Gatti is headed for a showdown with Floyd Mayweather.

The WBC's 140-pound champion did his part Saturday night to set the stage for the fight. Gatti (39-6) knocked out "Jesse" James Leija in the fifth round of a scheduled 12-round bout.

"I want to be the best pound-for-pound at 140," Gatti said Saturday after manhandling a game but overmatched Leija (47-7-2).

A pay-per-view fight pitting the popular brawler and the quick, crafty Mayweather has been tentatively set for June 11.

Mayweather (33-0), a former WBC super featherweight and lightweight champion, was equally dominant in his last outing, stopping Henry Bruseles in the eighth round Jan. 23.

Gatti, who made $2 million for the second defense of his WBC title to Leija's $700,000, was unfazed when Mayweather didn't show for a post-fight news conference announcing their fight.

"He's not the one that's going to sell tickets anyway," Gatti said. "That's the truth."

Indeed, it's Gatti -- box-office gold in Atlantic City in recent years -- who consistently puts bodies in the seats at Boardwalk Hall.

His last five fights here have all drawn 11,000 or more, including a sellout crowd of 12,599 on Saturday night.

Keeping his distance in the early rounds, Gatti boxed defensively, wary of any surprises by Leija, who said before the fight he hoped to use Gatti's aggressiveness against him.

"He's crafty and I expected the way to beat him was to use the jab," Gatti said. "I stayed on the outside because of his experience. I wanted to stay on the outside. Once I started landing the right hand, that made the difference."

In the fifth, he knocked Leija down with a hard right to the head that was the beginning of the end. Dazed, Leija took a 9 count, barely getting to his feet before referee Earl Brown could count him out.

Gatti finished him with left hand to the ear. Leija got to his knees but Brown counted him out at 1:48 of the fifth, depriving the crowd of one of the gory, down-to-the-wire brawls they usually get from Gatti.

"I won the fight and didn't have to go to the hospital. That's a big plus for me," said Gatti, 32, of Jersey City.

Leija, meanwhile, sounded like a fighter ready to call it quits.

"I think my body is talking to me more," he said after the fight. "I'm 38 years old. I can't wait to get home and be a husband and daddy again."