Panama Lewis
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Carlos "Panama" Lewis is a well-known and highly controversial boxing trainer who achieved his greatest notoriety in the 1980s.
Lewis was a trainer for several highly-rated boxers in the early 1980s, the most noted of which was light-welterweight champion Aaron Pryor. In 1982, Pryor fought Alexis Arguello and seemed to be taking a brutal beating. Before the fourteenth round, HBO cameras caught Lewis telling another cornerman "Hand me that bottle, the one I mixed".No one has ever proved the bottle had anything illegal in it but,Pryor had been exhausted in the previous round but sprang from his stool and knocked Arguello out showing maniacal energy.
It was never clearly determined what Lewis had given him.
The most notorious incident in Lewis's career took place on June 16, 1983. A fighter he was training, Luis Resto, was fighting undefeated prospect Billy Collins, Jr. in a bout televised by ABC's Wide World of Sports. Resto won in a 10-round unanimous decision over a bloody Collins. After the fight, when Resto came to Collins' corner to shake hands, Collins' father and trainer, Billy, Sr., discovered that Resto's gloves were thinner than normal. Screaming that he thought the gloves had no padding, Collins, Sr. demanded that the New York State Boxing Commission impound the gloves. The gloves were shown on the TV to be nothing more than bare coverings. An investigation revealed that Lewis had cut 0.75-inch holes in the palms of the gloves and removed two ounces of padding from each glove. Collins suffered a torn iris and permanently blurred vision, ending his boxing career. Resto's win was subsequently changed to a no contest.[1]
Lewis and Resto were both put on trial and found guilty of assault, criminal possession of a weapon (Resto's hands) and conspiracy. Lewis was also found guilty of tampering with a sports contest. Prosecutors charged that since Lewis had deliberately removed the padding from Resto's gloves, the bout with Collins amounted to an illegal assault. Lewis was sentenced to six years in prison, Resto to three years, of which they each served 2.5 years. Both were effectively banned from American boxing for life. [2]
Collins died nine months later by driving off a cliff; many think he may have committed suicide because he was unable to continue boxing as a result of the actions of Lewis and Resto.[3]
Years later, Resto admitted that his hand-wrappings had been soaked with plaster of Paris. In essence, Resto had been hitting Collins Jr. with rocks for 10 rounds. [4]
However, in the exact words of William Dettloff who writes the articles for thering-online "One more note about the “revelation” that Luis Resto used plaster of paris on his hands before his infamous fight with Billy Collins Jr.: A dear friend reminded me that in 1964, Boxing Illustrated conducted an experiment in response to the old Doc Kearns claim that Jack Dempsey’s gloves were loaded with plaster of paris prior to his butchering of Jess Willard. They wrapped the hands of heavyweight puncher Cleveland Williams, soaked them in plaster of paris, let them dry, and had Williams hit the heavybag five times. The stuff crumbled to bits on impact. As a weapon, it was entirely useless." Proving that it wouldn't matter is Plaster of Paris was used or not.
A further travesty is that even though this was one of Boxing's worse scandals, Lewis is able to continue to work as a trainer ouside the USA, with a stable of fighters that included heavyweight contender Frans Botha. He resurfaced in the news in the United States in 2002, when Mike Tyson brought him in as an advisor for his title fight with Lennox Lewis. Panama Lewis is reviled by Boxing fans and legitimate members of the Professional Boxing community.
[edit] References
- ^ Luis Resto
- ^ Farhood, Steve. Unforgiven. Boxing Monthly, 2000.
- ^ Silver, Mike (December 1997), “The Ten Dirtiest Fights of All time”, The Ring 76, no. 12: 48
- ^ After 25 years, boxer admits to tampering
