Luis Resto, 24 years later

In 1983 I went to Madison Square Garden to see a boxing match.  Roberto Duran, one of the best lightweights ever, was challenging Davey Moore for the junior middleweight title.  On the undercard, Billy Collins was fighting Luis Resto.  I had seen Collins fight a few times.  He could punch, and take a punch, but I didn't think he was anything special.  But he was white, he was undefeated, and one of the TV networks was trying to build him up for a title shot.  I figured he was a creation of television, maybe good enough to be a top-10 contender, and would lose a title fight if he ever got one.

I had never seen Resto fight, and vaguely knew him by reputation to be a 30 journeyman boxer, someone brought in as an "opponent" to make Collins look good.  Before the fight started, I asked my brother about him, and he said Resto was a clever boxer who couldn't punch.

As I recall, Resto won the first couple of rounds, really nailed Collins, and had him in trouble for a while.  When the round ended, I asked my brother, "I thought you said Resto couldn't punch?"  But he was just as surprised as I was.

The rest of fight went the same way, Resto beating up Collins for ten rounds.  It went to decision, but Collins had been hurt in almost every round, ending in a unanimous decision for Resto.  I just chalked it up as an upset, and figured Collins was just an over-hyped TV fighter.  After the fight, there was some commotion in the ring, but I was too far away to hear anything, and besides I was looking forward to the main event.

Roberto Duran knocked out Davey Moore to win the title, and did it convincingly.  Duran's return to glory was all anyone talked about the following day.  Until the Resto story broke.  We didn't know it at the time, but at the end of one of the first rounds, when Collins staggered back to his corner his father (who was working his corner) said Resto was no puncher.  But Collins said it felt like Resto was hitting him with an ashtray.

Collins' father was suspicious, so when the fight ended he went into the ring as if to shake hands with Resto.  He squeezed Resto's gloves and felt his knuckles.  He immediately screamed to the officials that Resto had torn all of the padding out of his boxing gloves.  For ten rounds, he had been hitting Collins with bare knuckles.

The decision was eventually reversed, Resto's cornerman Panama Lewis was banned from boxing for life, and Resto was given a 2-year suspension.  As an experienced boxer, they felt he should have known something was wrong with his gloves.  Not that this did Collins any good.  He suffered eye damage, blurred vision, and his career was over.  Since he couldn't box any more, he started drinking, went into depression, and several months later killed himself in an automobile accident.

Now, 24 years later, Resto has come forward to admit he knew about his gloves.  They didn't just rip the padding out, either.  The tape they used to wrap his hands had been saoked in plaster of paris, and had hardened.  Collins was getting hit with a plaster cast all night.  I'm not sure what the moral of all this is, but they just made a movie about it called "Cornered" and it opens this month.  I really don't know if I want to see it.