Magazine Archive: Boxing Betrayal: The Infamous Cheats

As seen in Fightful Magazine, issue 2! Available at FightfulMag.com!

By Carlos Toro

Boxing has never been a sport for the weak of heart. Its warriors put their lives on the line every time they step into the ring, even if it’s not something fans immediately realize.

In an instant, a punch can send a fighter to a hospital, break their ribs, cause concussions, and leave long-lasting damage that will follow them well after they hang up their gloves.

Of course, that’s when boxers are in the ring fighting on fair and equal terms. When boxers cheat, it substantially raises the danger level when that bell rings. In some unfortunate cases, cheating in the sport has even ended the lives of some of its bright, young fighters. Such was the case with Billy Collins Jr., whose injuries suffered at the hands of a cheater known as Luis Restoled to a series of events that ultimately ended Collins’ life a year after the two of them fought in 1983.

Getting a first-hand account of that night isn’t easy, perhaps impossible, in 2021. Both Collins and his father and trainer, Billy Collins Sr., are no longer alive, nor is Resto’s trainer Panama Lewis. Resto still currently sits in a lifelong boxing exile, with few aware of his whereabouts today.

Sitting down with Randy Gordon, the former editor-in-chief of Ring Magazine and former Chairman of the New York State Athletic Commission, for more than an hour shined a light on the night Collins’ life was on borrowed time. Gordon was close with the Collins family for years and even testified in a lawsuit Collins Sr. had against New York State years after Billy Jr.’s last fight. It was Gordon’s editorial in Ring Magazine that helped launch an investigation into the matter, which Resto spent time in prison for. All of it started on one summer evening in New York in June 1983.

In the early 1980s, Billy Jr. was a promising young fighter in his early 20s who won all 14 of his pro bouts, with 11 of them ending in a knockout. He was viewed by many as a future contender, with some believing he had the skills to fight for a world title and even win it. He faced Resto at Madison Square Garden in an event headlined by the legendary Roberto Duranfacing Davey Moorefor a 154-pound world title.

The fight against Resto was supposed to be Collins’ coming-out party, a showcase of his talents on a major stage as a future star to watch out for. Collins was the prohibitive favorite to win the fight, but what took place in that ring was far from what many had predicted.

From the beginning of the fight, Resto landed hard punch after hard punch, which caused Collins’ face to swell almost immediately. The elder Collins found it strange that Resto had the kind of power to deal that level of damage on his son.

After ten grueling rounds for Billy Jr. that left the young fighter a battered mess with a face to match, Resto emerged victorious, much to the surprise of the boxing world. Once the fight was over, Billy Sr. looked to confirm his own suspicions regarding Resto’s power that night. Billy Sr. sought out Resto for a handshake after the final bell, and when he felt nothing but fingers inside the gloves, he noticed something highly unusual.

It was revealed that Resto’s gloves had the padding removed right before the fight. Panama Lewis had a hand in the process of Resto’s padding being removed, giving him an unfair advantage in their fight. Whether or not Lewis was the one who cut into Resto’s gloves and took the padding out was up in the air, but he, and the rest of his team that night, knew about the glove tampering.

The image of the young fighter, whose potential was at a world title level, in his hotel room with his face black and blue and both eyes swollen shut from the night prior will be one of the sport’s most harrowing, a reminder of what the sport can do to its constituents. Gordon remembered first seeing the picture Ben Sharavtook for Ring Magazine, recalling that he had almost fainted.

“Watching that assault in the ring was sad, unbelievably sad. It was nauseating,” Gordon said.

Billy Jr. never fought again. The level of damage he was dealt with that night forced him to retire. Irreparable tears to his iris, among other things, kept him from being granted a license to box.

Both Resto and Lewis were convicted on charges of assault, conspiracy and criminal possession of a deadly weapon, spending more than two years in prison. But the damage had already been done. Billy Jr.’s life unraveled, and he died in a car crash in 1984, with the blame being placed on Lewis and Resto for sending what was left of the 22-year-old Collins’ life into absolute hell, not wanting to live on if he couldn’t fight.

“Billy was basically told he could never box again. He turned to alcoholism and drugs. His whole life just turned around. His marriage fell apart. His relationship with his parents and his siblings fell apart because of all the drug abuse. It was a horrible, sad story,” Gordon said.

Although Resto publicly denied having knowledge of his gloves being tampered with on that night for years, he revealed in a 2009 HBO documentary that he was aware of the cheating. Resto tried for years to return to the sport, even asking Gordon during his time leading the NYSAC to lift the lifelong ban placed on him. Gordon never granted Resto’s wish, and Resto blamed him for ruining his life and shunning him from the sport.

That night in 1983 led to changes on how commissions and fight officials would handle pre-fight preparations to make sure cheating was no longer possible, with Gordon leading the charge on some of those changes.

Nowadays, inspectors and officials from the state’s athletic commission are required to oversee the entire process of a fighter being fitted with his gloves and having his hands wrapped right before the fight. Such a procedure was not a rule in place when Billy Jr. and Resto fought in 1983.

Although Resto’s gloves being tampered in this manner was somewhat rare in 1983, Gordon said it was not the case when looking back in the sport’s long history. Still, there was a window of opportunity for people like Lewis and Resto to break the rules.

“Inspectors didn’t have the protocol in place back then like they do today. Over the years, in the 1920s, ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, do you know how many guys used to do that? It was commonplace for fighters in the dressing room, if not to take the padding out, but to break the gloves in. You would see guys take the gloves out and pushing it one way and then pushing it the other way, leaving nothing but knuckle there,” Gordon said. “If you look at Willie Pep, he’d have a shiner [after many fights]. He’d have his eye one time that looked like it was another head. All those fighters, they had knots all over their face because of the amount of punches. The fighters expected their gloves were going to be broken in. That’s the kind of gloves they fought with back then. This is what they did.”

Fast forward more than 25 years after Resto and Collins last stepped foot in a ring as fighters, and a new kind of controversy surrounding glove tampering emerged.

In 2009, Antonio Margaritofought Shane Mosleyin a welterweight world title fight in Los Angeles, a bout that pitted two of the division’s very best in an action-packed war. Mosley won with a ninth-round technical knockout victory, but that wasn’t the story of the fight.

Before the fight, Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardsondiscovered that there was a white substance in Margarito’s hand wraps. As it turned out, the substance was similar to plaster of Paris, a material used for protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings. Plaster of Paris hardens when in contact with moisture, and it would harden with the sweat of a fighter whose hand wraps contained the substance.

Margarito was forced to wrap his gloves again to make sure no foreign substance was introduced into his gloves. That still didn’t prevent Richardson from expressing extreme disgust at what had just transpired.

“He could’ve killed Shane. We’ve seen guys die on the up and up. You can kill him,” Richardson told Ring Magazine after the fight. “He could’ve endangered somebody’s life. This sport is tough enough. I’ve seen guys get hurt with 18-ounce gloves in training, and this guy is going to fight with 8-ounce gloves with extra s*** on them?”

The illegal hand wraps resulted in Margarito being issued a one-year suspension by the California State Athletic Commission. However, that wasn’t the end of the Margarito cheating scandal.

In 2008, Margarito fought former world champion, Miguel Cottoin Las Vegas, beating Cotto to win the WBA welterweight world title. Following the revelations about Margarito’s hand wraps before the fight against Mosley, suspicions about Margarito’s hand wraps against Cotto arose.

The build-up to their 2011 rematch saw Cotto angrily discuss Margarito’s hand wraps in their first fight, fully convinced that Margarito cheated.

The Association of Boxing Commissions’ regulatory guidelines stated that “Hand wraps shall be restricted to no more than 20 yards of soft gauze, not more than two inches wide.” Weeks before the rematch, both Cotto and Margarito sat down with Max Kellerman to talk about their fight on an HBO-produced program called “Face Off.” It was on that program that Cotto brought a picture of Margarito’s hand wraps after their first fight, and made note of a tear on Margarito’s left-hand wrap. “They’re supposed to be simply gauze. Gauze doesn’t rip. Look at the wrap, it’s broken like that,” Cotto said.

Margarito scoffed at Cotto’s allegations, not truly addressing his opponent’s proof. Nonetheless, Cotto looked to right the wrong he felt he was dealt with in 2008. And Cotto got his revenge, securing a TKO win in the rematch, and Margarito’s legacy was forever tarnished. His name, among several throughout history, is now associated with cheating in the sport of boxing.

Nowadays, it’s much harder to get away with cheating in boxing. Fighters still manage to fight with performance-enhancing drugs in their system, only to fail post-fight drug tests and get hit with a lengthy suspension. Glove tampering is seldom heard of nowadays because of how careful inspectors and the commissions are when it comes to overlooking the hand wrapping process.

That’s why Gordon scoffed at the conspiracies thrown around regarding Tyson Furyallegedly cheating in his 2020 rematch against Deontay Wilder. The amount of inspection required by law would almost prevent a boxer from pulling off a similar stunt that Lewis and Resto committed in the 1980s and get away with it.

“Now, more than ever, you wouldn’t believe what goes on in a dressing room. When Tyson Fury’s hands were being wrapped, there were people from Deontay Wilder’s camp standing right there. You always have a member of your camp standing there, and they watch the hands being wrapped. Then you watch the inspectors sign off on the hand wraps. Once it’s signed off, there’s no more tape, no more gauze, no more wrapping,” Gordon said.

“Boxing can be a very hurtful sport. We know what happens to these fighters. They take too many shots, too many gym wars. It’s a sad reality.”

A popular saying in the sport is, “You don’t play boxing.” Once you step into the ring, it no longer remains a game. It is now life and death for these fighters.

In the case of one Billy Collins Jr., he paid the ultimate price due to the transgressions of others within the sport. The black, blue and purple spots engulfing his face after his fight against Resto will be a haunting lesson, that there is no room for cheating in boxing, in sports and in life.

Carlos Toro has quickly emerged into one of the top boxing journalists and has worked with Fightful since 2016, covering MMA and pro wrestling. He also handles financial analysis for the site.

Twitter: @CarlosToroMedia