Even high-performance sport has a strong playful charge. The game and fun are implicit in the practice of any physical activity framed in rules with an objective to conquer. However, boxing is one of the few sports that cannot be played, because by its nature, life itself is risked during its practice, during and after a fight. This is the story of Billy Collins Jr.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Billy Ray Collins Jr. showed a natural talent for boxing. The son of a former professional boxer who left the ring to pursue a career as a truck driver, he was soon given the opportunity to prove himself with his gloves. He forged a brilliant amateur career, which is certified by his record of 101 wins in 110 fights.
It was well known that the next step for the man nicknamed the Irishman, partly due to his red-haired status, was professionalism. And so it was. In December 1981, at the age of 20, he had his first boxing professional fight: a third round knockout victory in Atlantic City.
The meteoric rise of Billy Collins Jr.
The promise was fulfilled: Billy Collins Jr. was a quality boxer. After his winning debut against Kevin Griffin, he continued to leave a trail of boxing quality from fight to fight. Positive results were not long in coming, even against much more experienced opponents, such as Bruce Strauss, an opponent he defeated in his fifth fight as a professional who boasted 95 previous fights.
Two years have passed since then and Collins Jr. has been climbing the 154-pound rankings. It was time for him to face more demanding tests, such as fights against Ricky Whitt or Steve Johnson, undefeated and who had in mind the same thing as him, to aspire to a title opportunity in the Super welterweight category.
Billy Collins Jr’s tragic night
With the legendary Madison Square Garden as witness, Davey Moore and Roberto Durán, the legendary Panamanian champion, faced each other with Moore’s WBA World Super Welterweight title on the table, on Thursday, June 16, 1983. An unforgettable night for boxing, both for better and for worse: Mano de Piedra would conquer a world championship in a third division, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, would begin the beginning of the end of the promising career of Billy Collins Jr.
Apparently, it was going to be a quiet night for the Irishman, who was coming into Madison Square Garden, the iconic venue of world boxing, with a record of 14-0-0, 11 KOs. His opponent was Luis Resto, who shared with Roberto Duran the fact of being born in the same country and little else, who showed a timid 20-8-2, with only 8 knockouts.
There was even speculation that a win for Billy Collins Jr. would put him very close to facing the winner of the main event fight between Dave Moore and Roberto Duran. The future looked bright for the kid from Nashville, Tennessee. However, no one could have even imagined what would happen both that night and 9 months later.
Boxing gloves. (Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
Luis Resto inscribes his name in the history of boxing in a bad way
The bout between Collins Jr. and Resto did not go as anticipated. As the rounds went by, the Panamanian did not look the same, as he suddenly became the owner of a devastating punching power. His punches rocked Billy Ray, who bravely endured the ten rounds of the bout. However, his eyes showed how hard he had been punished.
Evidently, Billy Collins Jr. lost the fight at that moment. Luis Resto celebrated the best performance of his career as never before and, in an act of disguised chivalry, went to shake his rival’s hand. In the encounter between rivals, the Irishman’s father, drawing on his experience as a professional boxer, noticed something strange about the gloves of his son’s victimizer and immediately made it known.
The scandal began: the then chief inspector of the New York Athletic Commission confiscated Luis Resto’s gloves and subjected them to a thorough investigation involving both the glove manufacturer, Everlast, and the NYPD. The result revealed one of the main reasons for the scandalous defeat of Billy Collins Jr.
Billy Collins Jr.’s eyes were destroyed. (medium.com)
The lives and careers of Billy Collins Jr. and Luis Resto would never be the same again
Investigations revealed that fifty percent of the gloves’ padding had been removed through holes punched in the inner lining, which reduced the gloves’ padding and thus made the punches of a limited-power fighter like Luis Resto feel like those of Mike Tyson.
The consequence was the one-year suspension, at that time, of Luis Resto and the definitive revocation of the license of his trainer Carlos Lewis and another member of his corner. It was Lewis himself who, in a tricky way, prevented Resto’s gloves and bandages from being checked, a rule of all professional boxing fights, claiming that he needed more time to prepare his fighter when the inspector on duty visited his dressing room to carry out the check.
For Billy Collins Jr. the consequences were worse. After the fight, he visited several ophthalmologists until he received the dreaded diagnosis of a tear in the iris of his right eye that would blur his vision for life. His boxing career was ruined, and his very existence compromised.
Collins Jr.’s life fell apart. He found no place in the working world outside the sport and ended up in trouble with his wife and family. The consequences of not knowing how to manage his failure led him to fall into the clutches of alcohol and on March 7, 1984, 9 months after being destroyed by Luis Resto in the ring, he would crash drunk while driving his car at excessive speed and tragically lose his life.
Billy Collins Jr.’s life and career were ruined. (George Wood/Getty Images)
Luis Resto could not escape the justice of destiny
Devastated by the death of his son, Billy Collins Sr. convinced then Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau to seek legal punishment against Luis Resto and Carlos Lewis. Both were put on trial for assault, criminal possession of a weapon (Resto’s altered gloves) and conspiracy. The final verdict of the New York Supreme Court found them guilty and sent them to prison in October 1986. The boxer spent only two and a half years in jail, while the trainer and handler used his influence not to accompany his boy.
Luis Resto did not return to boxing and had to devote himself to other activities such as masonry, private security and the care of a gym, after having spent some time on the streets aimlessly. For his part, Carlos Lewis never recovered his license, but, somehow, he remained linked to boxing and worked for Mike Tyson, Francois Botha and Zab Judah among others.
The last part of Luis Resto’s truth was told until 2009, in the documentary Assault in the Ring. There, Resto not only confirmed that for the fight against Billy Collins Jr. he was an accomplice of Carlos Lewis in the alteration of the gloves he wore, but also that his then trainer dipped his bandages in plaster, which also gave him much more strength to his punch.
Boxing bandage. (Getty Images)
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