The famous tampered-glove fight which ended in court... then tragedy.


JCS wrote:classboxer wrote:
They have made a film about this fight,what i want to know is were the gloves "loaded" or was it just the padding taken out of the gloves ?
heres the link to the article aboveclassboxer wrote:Heres Restos view
As for the gloves, Resto contends they were switched some time between the end of the fight and four days later, when the holes were discovered at an upstate police laboratory.
(After the fight, John Squeri, the New York commission’s chief inspector, took the gloves from Resto’s dressing room and placed them in a cardboard box. He then handed them over to Jack Prenderville, the chairman of the commission. According to a 1985 article in Inside Sports, Prenderville in turn gave the gloves to Jack Graham, another member of the commission, who inexplicably left them in the trunk of his car. The next day, Graham brought the gloves to Everlast for inspection. From there, the gloves made their way to the police lab.
(get the picture ?)
“The gloves felt the same as always,” Resto said. “There were no holes. Before the fight [referee] Tony Perez felt the gloves and didn’t feel anything wrong. If the padding was out, when you hit somebody, you’d feel pain. You’d break your hands. My hands were fine. And if I knew the gloves had been tampered with, why would I have gone to Collins’s corner after the fight to congratulate him? That’s when the father said what he said. He’s lucky I didn’t hit him.”
Let’s say the padding was indeed removed before the fight without Resto’s involvement or initial knowledge. Is it possible that he could have fought 10 rounds without sensing that something was different?
“Luis knows my position on this. Hey, prison is full of guys who didn’t do it. It’s a shameful thing, of course, and I think he refuses to admit it. At the Puerto Rican Day Parade last year, people were screaming: ‘Hey, Luis, keep the padding in the gloves.’ That sent him into a depression. His downs are very low, and there’s no doubt in my mind that’s what it’s about.
“Will he ever admit it? No. And that’s the part of him I don’t particularly care for.”
In the tight and tiny world of professional boxing, there is an unofficial code of conduct. Fighters have murdered and raped and stolen, but boxing isn’t to blame for what happens on the outside. Luis Santana played dead after being fouled by Terry Norris and secured himself a six-figure payday. Mike Tyson bit off and spit out a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear, then bit him again, and has made about $30 million in two fights since. Those are pardonable offences. What Luis Resto and Panama Lewis did will forever be viewed as an unforgivable sin.
When Jim Borzell considers Resto’s surroundings and says: “I’m not certain it’s a bad thing that a simple guy like Luis lives a simple life,” he’s simplifying Resto’s plight. If Resto was wrongly convicted, shame on all of us. If he was guilty, he’s never really been released from prison, has he? And those sad eyes tell you he knows he never will be.
btw
Resto never admitted guilt,maybe he is innocent,what ever the gloves in question went walk about for 4 days after the colins/resto fight
officials were involved in this
I noticed that, too. What amazes me is, assuming Resto was directly involved in the whole scheme, what the hell was he doing going over to Collins' corner. You'd think he would have avoided the pleasantries. Or, at the very least, would've made them very short and sweet.Crssbones wrote:If you watch Resto's reaction motioning towards his corner and trying to get his hand away in my opinion he also knew that his gloves were tampered with. This fight destroyed Billy Collins career and started the downward spiral that ultimately ended his life.