Luis Resto mans up and admits to having loaded gloves when he fought (and nearly killed) Billy Collins, Jr. It was Collins, Sr., who caught Resto and his accomplice, the dirty "Panama" Lewis, in the act. Although Lewis appears to have gotten away with attempted murder, his underhanded tactics in this fight raise some interesting questions: for years, he trained (or at least assisted in the training of) none other than "Manos de Piedra" ("Hands of Stone") himself, Roberto Duran. More than once, opponents complained that Duran's gloves were loaded. Nothing ever came of any of the charges (at least, not that I know of), but Lewis also worked the corner of Aaron Pryor against Alexis Arguello. Pryor twice gave Arguello a fearsome beating. (I've watched these two fights several times and wondered what Lewis meant when- in a clip that's shown in this documentary- he asks specifically for a water bottle that he had "mixed." Now I know.) Resto comes clean (finally), but Lewis ducks and dodges to this day. The fact that so unsavory a character is still training fighters is all the more reason why a boxing commission of the type espoused by Teddy Atlas is needed. Boxing has YET to step out of The Dark Ages and into the light. Consider the all too recent case of Antonio Margarito: the murderous Margarito seemed to be a fighter on the rise (he "stopped" Kermit Citron and Miguel Cotto) before Shane Mosley's trainer caught Margarito with loaded gloves before their fight. Margarito's hands were re-wrapped... and Mosley knocked him out. Without the plaster cast, Margarito stood exposed (like Resto) for the fraud he was/is. (And Margarito is once again being licensed to fight in this country!) Everyone involved in these fights, from the promoters and matchmakers to the broadcasting companies and the ringside announcers, is responsible to one degree or another for the safety of these fighters. In the words of Roberto Duran himself: "No mas." ("No more.") Boxing's dangerous enough as it is.
Review of Assault in the Ring
