On this day in 1984, two all-time greats entered the ring at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Less than six minutes later, the fight, such as it was – a more apt description – a display of total destruction, was over. Thomas Hearns, at his absolute fighting peak, defeated the never-before-stopped Roberto Duran. Fans, pundits, fellow fighters – all were in awe, and jaws dropped as the order of the day.

Current WBC and Ring Magazine super-welter champion Hearns, who predicted a quick KO, kept his word. Fighting at his ideal weight of 154 pounds (Hearns was slightly undernourished during his welterweight boxing days, “The Hitman’s” sleek frame was not ideally suited to middleweight, super middleweight or airy heavyweight; only Hearns’ size saw him win belts in the heavier weights) – Tommy was the epitome of the unbeatable fighter.

Could any 154-pounder beat Hearns that night?

Duran, coming off a close decision loss to the fearsome 160-pound Marvelous Marvin Hagler, was past his prime, but he wasn’t as finished as he might have thought after exchanging the ring with Hearns. Duran, just 33 years vintage, was cut down in the first round, dropped twice and the fight turned into a one-man show. Duran, dazed and confused, went to the wrong corner as the bell rang, ending the worst round of his entire boxing career.

The end of this brief fight came quickly.

The 26-year-old Hearns, on fire, drove Duran into the ropes, and then, while the smaller, shorter-armed Panamanian legend tried unsuccessfully to respond, Hearns unleashed the right hand of his career. A powerful, perfectly placed punch (see bomb) landed squarely on Duran’s jaw, and he fell, face first on the mat, unable to even think about getting up. Referee Carlos Padilla didn’t even bother to count.

Legends die relentlessly, as the saying goes, and Roberto Duran certainly experienced that day in 1984. It was the most brutal KO in the renowned Four Kings rivalry.

Hearns, who would never lose a fight at 154 pounds, now had only one fighter in his sights. A great fight with Wonderful awaited the best from Detroit.

Forty years ago, on the undercard of Roberto Duran Vs. Davey Moore fights two men on opposite ends of their careers in Recent York in a ten-round welterweight fight. What happened next changed both men’s lives forever, and the events in the ring that night also changed boxing.

Billy Collins Jr., 21, was a 14-0 prospect who was expected to make the cut. Promoted by Bob Arum and trained by his father, former fighter Billy Collins Sr., the newborn Tennessee fighter was paired with a tough but not terribly unsafe fighter named Luis Resto. Resto, a 27-year-old Puerto Rican with a record of 19-8-2(8), would eventually become one of the most infamous fighters in all of boxing. The same could be said for the fight Resto “won.”

Trained by Panamanian Lewis Resto, to everyone’s surprise, defeated Collins Jr. Resto, not known as a particularly mighty hitter, moved into action that was usually aggressive and stimulating to watch Collins. Collins soon began to show severe facial damage, with both eyes rapidly swelling and his cheekbones and forehead also becoming gruesomely deformed by the end of the fight.

Collins really struggled, but he managed to stay tough until the final bell. It wasn’t until afterward, when people found out what had happened, that fans could truly appreciate just how tough Collins was. The two men met in the middle of the ring after the decision was announced, and as Resto went to pay his respects to Collins, Collins Sr. shook hands with the man who had just beaten his son and immediately noticed something was wrong – he could feel that Resto’s gloves were almost completely devoid of padding.

The trainer/father immediately raised the alarm bell and Resto did everything he could to get away, looking at his own trainer Lewis with desperation. There has indeed been significant tampering with the Resto gloves, resulting in approximately one ounce of padding being removed from each glove and, perhaps even worse, some Band-Aid placed on each Resto box. The beating of Collins Jr. is now seen by the world as simply the terrible thing it actually was. Resto denied any wrongdoing. Resto claimed it was all Panama’s fault. He was playing with Resto’s gloves without the warrior knowing.

Only he didn’t.

Years later, in 2009, when Eric Drath’s wonderful and moving documentary “Assault in the Ring” was released, Resto finally admitted that he knew about the gloves, the cast, and the drug that Panama gave him that helped him breathe during the fight, thus allowing him to get a second wind; Resto stating that the drug was given to asthma patients.

All of this was supposed to happen a few years earlier, and so far, both fighter and trainer have been paying the price. Panama was sentenced to a year in prison, Resto to two and a half, and both men had their driving licenses taken away. Resto would never fight again; Lewis would never be allowed to enter the ring as a trainer again. But for Collins Jr., it was much worse. Falling into depression, his career was torn away from him due to solemn facial injuries, the father and husband began drinking heavily, and by accident or on purpose, he crashed his car into a creek near his home, dying at the age of seven. It happened on March 6, 1984. Billy was only 22 years aged.

The events that took place at Madison Square Garden 40 years ago have never been forgotten and will never be forgotten. How could something like this be allowed to slip through the rules and regulations? How could such a heinous act of barbaric fraud have gone undetected? Panama, as we learned from Resto in Wrath, took care of his misbehavior in the locker room bathroom. Resto, who has shown and continues to show real remorse for what happened, has clearly suffered. Nevertheless, the hatred some people have for the former fighter remains unchanged.

Lewis, who died in September 2020, never showed remorse and never admitted to any crime. No obituaries were written after Lewis’ death.

The man’s life was nearly taken on the night of June 16, 1983, as a promising career in the ring was brutally cut miniature. Some firmly believe that Panama Lewis was the real bad guy behind the disgusting plan, while others claim that Resto was involved and equally guilty. Panama knew what he was sending his fighter to do, namely to inflict horrendous pain on another boxer through illegal violence, which he had to know about. While Resto certainly knew that he was fighting against a deck that was so stacked in his favor that he hit his opponent with gloves that were prepared.

Would Billy Collins Jr. have forgiven either man if his life hadn’t ended so prematurely and so tragically? We’ll never know. But there are plenty of people who will never forgive Lewis or Resto. And who can blame those people?