The Brazilian wife of a former world champion boxer has been taken into custody after her husband was murdered in the upmarket resort where they were having a second honeymoon.

Arturo Gatti, 37, was found dead early on Saturday morning in an apartment that the couple had rented at the Porto de Galinhas beach resort, near Recife in northern Brazil. A police spokeswoman said it appeared that Gatti had been strangled with the strap of a handbag and had sustained a head injury. The bloodstained strap was found in the apartment.

Gatti’s wife, Amanda Carina Barbosa Rodrigues, 23, had been detained because she could not explain how she had been in the apartment with her husband for almost ten hours without realising that he was dead. The spokeswoman said that the authorities were preparing charges against Ms Rodrigues, who denied being involved in her husband’s death.

Local television reports said the couple had dined at a bar in the resort on Friday evening. According to Josedith Ferreira, a police officer who interviewed witnesses, Ms Rodrigues said that Gatti had been drunk and they had argued. The ex-boxer had pushed his wife and injured her elbow.

She claimed to have called out to her husband when she woke up but, deciding he was asleep, had decided to take care of their one-year-old son.

It was only later when she tried to wake her husband that she realised he was dead. The child is with his mother’s sister.

The couple had paid 30 days in advance for a flat at a resort, said Cristina Esperidião, the estate agent who handled the rental. They had seemed happy and the holiday was intended to be another honeymoon. But the Brazilian boxer Acelino Popó de Freitas, a friend of Gatti, said he knew that the couple had been having problems and were on the point of separating.

Gatti, known as “Thunder”, was one of the most exciting fighters of his generation. Born in Italy, he was a naturalised Canadian and grew up in Montreal. He started his career in 1991 and defeated Tracy Harris Patterson in 1995 to become IBF Junior Lightweight Champion. In 2004 he won the WBC Junior Welterweight title — a title he defended twice before losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2005.

He retired after being defeated by Alfonso Gómez in 2007.