Assault in the Ring

It begins on June 16, 1983 in Madison Square Garden. The ring is illuminated in spotlights, and the stands are packed to capacity. Billy Collins, a handsome Irish fighter, enters the ring and makes his way to the Blue Corner. Luis Resto then confidently enters the ring and makes his way to the Red Corner where his trainer, Panama Lewis, waited to watch the massacre about to happen before his eyes.

And a massacre it was. With every punch, Billy Collins had bigger bruises and more swelling, especially in his eyes. Between two of the rounds, you hear him comment to his coaches that Resto was a lot stronger than he thought he would be. The surprise in people's faces was extremely evident, because Resto was the unquestionable underdog. He was challenging Collins for a belt, and Collins's record was undefeated. Nobody could believe that Collins could barely get a punch in.

The boxing fight lasted ten rounds, and Resto ultimately won. However, when he went to shake the hands of Collins and his father (who was Billy's coach), Billy's father realized something wrong with Resto's gloves. It was discovered that half of the padding inside was gone, meaning that Resto was hitting Collins with practically bare fists for ten rounds (thirty minutes).

That fight ended the careers of both boxers: Collins had an injury to his eye that would prevent him from boxing again, and Resto and Panama were sent to jail for two and a half years, along with both Resto and Panama being forever banned from the boxing world. Collins spiraled down into a deep depression after the eye injury was diagnosed. It was understood that if he was hit in just the right spot in his eye again, he would not only lose his career, but he would lose his sight. A few months after the fight, Collins was killed in a drunken car accident.

The story of this documentary follows Luis Resto at fifty-two years of age and living with the regret of what he did. He is led on a journey for him to lift the guilt off of his shoulders and have reconciliation for the night where he ruined another man's life, as well as his own. Also, along the way many truths are revealed about what happened in the locker room before the fight, where the padding was taken out of the gloves. One of these truths is that the padding being taken out was not the only instance of cheating in the fight: there were two other ways that Panama and Resto gained an unfair advantage.

There is something about Luis Resto's regret that bothers me, though. When he tells his family and others what happened, it didn't seem like he was telling people what he did because he felt bad about ruining someone's life: it was more like he just wanted to explain himself so he feels better. I kept wanting really badly to feel sorry for him, but when I really thought about it, I always came back to that conclusion.

The documentary was very well done, and went in a direction that the film-makers didn't expect it to. The producer admitted that he did not expect to lead Resto on such a life-changing journey, leading him to accept himself and confront Panama.

In the end, I strongly recommend this documentary. It may be more interesting to those who are interested in boxing, but it is an overall heart wrenching story that is bound to pull on the heart strings of any person.