By Sue Montgomery

MONTREAL — Arturo Gatti's widow has won her case against the former boxer to inherit his fortune.

Superior Court Justice Claudine Roy ruled Amanda Rodrigues neither controlled nor manipulated Gatti in order for him to sign a will just before his 2009 death. 

The Gatti family claimed in court Rodrigues pressured Gatti to sign a 2009 will - just weeks before his death - and alleges the welterweight champion didn't commit suicide, as officials claim, but was murdered while on vacation in Rodrigues's native Brazil.

They want his will from 2007 - of which no one has a signed copy - to be honoured. It leaves everything to Gatti's mother, his brother and Sofia, his daughter from another union.

His daughter, however, is already financially secure.

After his breakup with the girl's mother, Erika Rivera, Gatti was ordered by the courts to set up a $1-million support fund, as well as a $100,000 education fund. He also paid $250,000 toward a house.

Testimony at the Montreal courthouse at times verged on a soap-opera script.

Rodrigues was 19 when she met Gatti, then 33. They married two years later and by most accounts had a tumultuous marriage.

Sue Montgomery is a reporter for the Montreal Gazette.