Dishonesty in the ring

By Simon Allen: Cheat – Act dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage.

Cheating in sport is frowned upon by all societies around the world. Fans watch sport to see fair competition and the best man win. Knowing a person has cheated to gain an advantage is unacceptable and derided, rightly so.

In Boxing, cheating, in any way is arguably more dangerous than any other sport. After all gaining advantages in sprinting or allowing another team to score against yours, rarely if ever gets anyone seriously hurt.

Sure the athletes caught are named and shamed and shunned and looked down upon chastised by society and rightly so, but rarely are the consequences such that someone is seriously hurt.
In combat sport cheating makes a horrendous difference after all the risks are already great.

We watch fights because they are fair, matched up. Fighters battling fighters that have learnt their trade. We have officials to protect them and rules in place to ensure all is fair.
A cheat gains advantages over their opponent that in a ring can be catastrophic and devastating.

Imagine the extra power in a man’s fists used to hurt an opponent. How their extra speed or endurance allows him to evade any counters and land more punches, to keep going flat out whilst their victim languishes in the trenches. An unfair advantage in boxing more than any other sport can have lasting and more terrific consequences.

“Irish” Billy Collins Jr, was an American welterweight boxer, 21 year’s old born in Nashville, Tennessee. An excellent boxer, many tipped him to go on to the big time. Despite only having twelve fights he had still beaten the likes of Harold Brazier a future world championship contender and was making his way quickly up the rankings. Sadly we will never know just how good Collins could have been.

Enter Luis Resto and his trainer Panama Lewis. Resto was born in Puerto Rico and moved to America as a child. He began boxing at an early age and won the 1975 and 76 147lb New York Golden Glove Championship.

Resto was a rugged come at you fighter but the owner of a very light punch. He turned professional with high hopes and remained unbeaten in eight fights before being knocked out by Bruce Curry. After more ups and downs Resto was scheduled to meet Collins Jr with his record standing at 19/7/2 (8). Collins record by comparison stood at 14/0/0 (11).

By now an above average journeyman, Collins was considered a class above and heavy betting favourite and aimed to use Resto as a high level stepping stone.

Panama Lewis was a well known face in boxing circles considered one of the best trainers around in the eighties. He had been corner man for Duran during his unanimous victory over Sugar Ray Leonard in 1980.

He also trained Aaron Pryor for his fight with Alexis Arguello. During the fourteenth round of the fight Pryor was gassing, when a fellow corner man passed Lewis a bottle, TV cameras over heard him shouting “Not that bottle, the one I mixed.” Pryor then proceeded to go out with a new found energy and knock Arguello out.

This incident however fueled rumours of cheating and forever tarnished Panamas’ reputation. Panama never seemed to be far from controversy.
On June 16 1983, on the undercard of Roberto Duran vs Davey Moore, Resto and Collins met.

The unfancied Resto came out slugging with Collins Jr willing to meet him in the middle of the ring and trade, both fighter landing heavy blows.

Almost immediately Collins had swelling appear on his face, around both eyes and his nose in the early rounds. He was also obviously having trouble fighting his opponent.

Nevertheless both fighters continued to trade heavy blows in the ring with Resto gaining the better of it hurting Collins and rattling him often. His face growing more disfigured with every round. Collins though had the heart of a fighter and kept on coming trying to fight back.

As the fight wore on it became increasingly more one sided, Collins clearly having trouble seeing his opponent and his punches, taking a beating. The fight lasted the full ten rounds.
After acquiring the judges’ score cards, Resto was declared the winner by unanimous decision over the beaten, battered, swollen and bloody Collins Jr.

Resto celebrating headed towards Collins corner to observe boxing courtesy and shake hands with Collins and his dad and trainer Billy Collins Sr.
When Sr grabbed his hand to shake it he discovered Resto’s gloves felt thinner than normal.

Collins Sr began screaming in the ring that the gloves had no padding, to the referee and officials and he told the New York State commission officials to impound the gloves.
Resto and Lewis pleaded ignorance claiming they were the gloves they were given and denying any wrong doing.

An investigation found that each glove was missing an ounce of padding. There were two holes just under an inch long in each glove.

Billy Collins Jr suffered a torn iris and permanently blurred vision from the fight, forever ending his promising boxing career.

After the investigation the New York State Boxing Commission found that Panama Lewis had tampered with the gloves. Lewis had his training licence revoked, banning him from ever having a role in an American boxing bout again.

In October 1986, Lewis and Resto were both put on trial, both were found guilty of assault, criminal possession of a weapon (Resto’s fists) and conspiracy. Panama Lewis received six years in prison. Resto three. Allegations of illegal betting and drug syndicates involving Lewis then followed.

For Collins Jr life was never the same. Unable to box for his living, Collins found jobs but almost immediately lost them again. He began suffering from depression and his behaviour changed having frequent aggressive outbursts.

On March 6 1984, Billy Collins Jr died after driving his car into a culvert. Many believe he committed suicide.

Further revelations revealed that Lewis had dipped the hand wraps in plaster of paris, dramatically increasing his punching power. Resto was in effect hitting Collins with concrete. It was also revealed that Lewis had tampered with the water bottles adding a tablet that dramatically assisted lung capacity therefore giving Resto extra energy.

Despite all this Panama Lewis still maintains his innocence regarding the fight. Luis Resto never fought again and has shown remorse for his actions that night in the ring.

Cheating that night ultimately showed the costs and the risks. Luis Resto and Panama Lewis lost careers in boxing. For Billy Collins Jr he didn’t just lose a fight he lost his family, his job and ultimately his life.