Expert: Lian Shoemake - 5/11/2004

Question
Hey now,I was wondering if a fight ever occured in the states sometime in the eighties,where a fighter unexpectedly took a bit of a beating.Upon his father/trainer touching his opponents gloves it was discovered he had been fighting with the padding pushed down the hand,thus fighting bare knuckled.The boy was a tough cookie and suffered terrible injuries and later commited suicide.I believe I saw this on t.v long ago and recalled it earlier.Did this actually ever happen? and if so who was involved?Let me know what you find out? Thank you very much.

Answer
Hi Dee,

Thanks for the question.

The bout to which you are referring was between Luis Resto and Billy Collins, Jr. on June 16, 1983. Collins took a brutal beating for most of the bout, resulting in severe facial injuries that ended his career. As you said, Collins' trainer (his father) grabbed Resto's gloved hands after the bout and felt his knuckles. The resultant investigation found that around an ounce of padding had been removed from each of Resto's gloves by trainer Panama Lewis. As a result, both Lewis and Resto did jail time (2.5 years for Resto, who was charged with assault, conspiracy, and criminal possession of a deadly weapon - his fists).

The bout ws on the undercard of the Roberto Duran vs. Davey Moore Jr. Middleweight title bout at Madison Square Garden, and was shown on television later. Sadly, you're also correct that Collins did drop into depresesion and later committed suicide.

I hope this answers your question, Dee.

Thanks again for writing!

Regards,
Lian