The wife and family of Arturo Gatti, pictured in 2007, are fighting over his will. (Sharon Stabley/Associated Press)The fight over deceased boxer Arturo Gatti's fortune continues in Montreal, where his Brazilian wife has arrived to contest a request by the former champion's family to have his will annulled.
Gatti's relatives say 23-year-old Amanda Rodrigues manipulated Gatti into leaving his entire multimillion-dollar fortune to her.
They say a new will signed just three weeks before his death is invalid and they stood to receive more in a previous one.
Brazilian officials said Gatti committed suicide at a resort last July, but Gatti's relatives think Rodrigues is somehow responsible.
Rodrigues asked a judge Monday if she could use her late husband's luxury cars while in Montreal and whether she can obtain custody of the couple's dog, which is now being cared for by Gatti's mother.
She also asked for advances of $150,000 each on support payments for her and her year-old son.
"She's asking for money because of a very precarious financial situation," her lawyer, Pierre-Hugues Fortin, told reporters. "She has no income, she has no assets, no liquidities.
"We maintain that the last will and testament is the only will at this stage."
Court heard that the former world champion's estate is worth $6 million to $8 million. His largest assets are in real estate.
Rodrigues was held for nearly three weeks in a Brazilian jail on suspicion of murder after Gatti's body was found in a rented apartment in a resort town in the northeastern part of the country.
Authorities determined Gatti hanged himself with a bag strap that he tied around a wooden staircase column more than two metres off the ground.
They said he looped it around his neck before stepping off a stool.
Gatti's relatives disputed the claim and had his body exhumed for a second autopsy.
The full results of that autopsy have not yet been released.
