Billy Collins (boxer)

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Statistics
Billy Collins
Real name	William Ray Collins, Jr.
Rated at	Welterweight
Nationality	American
Birth date	21 September 1961(1961-09-21)
Birth place	Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Death date	6 March 1984 (aged 22)
Death place	Antioch, Tennessee, USA
Stance	Orthodox
Boxing record
Total fights	15
Wins	14
Wins by KO	11
Losses	0
Draws	0
No contests	1

Billy Ray Collins, Jr. (21 September 1961 – 6 March 1984) was an American professional boxer.

Fighting at welterweight, Collins won his first 14 fights as a professional, among them a decision win over future world title challenger Harold Brazier. On 16 June 1983, he was matched against Puerto Rican boxer Luis Resto at Madison Square Garden on the undercard of the Roberto Durán vs Davey Moore light-middleweight title fight. Collins entered the fight as a heavy favorite, but suffered a severe beating, losing by a unanimous decision. At the end of the bout Collins' father and trainer, Billy, Sr., noticed that Resto's gloves felt thinner than normal and demanded that they be impounded.

The subsequent investigation by the New York State Boxing Commission concluded that Resto's trainer, Panama Lewis, had cut a small hole into the palm of each glove and removed two ounces of padding. The fight was ruled a no-contest. In 1986, Lewis and Resto were tried and convicted of assault, conspiracy, and criminal possession of a deadly weapon (Resto's fists); prosecutors felt that Lewis' actions made the fight an illegal assault on Collins. Both men served 2.5 years in prison and were banned from boxing for life.^[1]

During the fight Collins had suffered a torn iris and permanently blurred vision, which prevented him from boxing again. Nine months later, Collins crashed his car into a culvert in Antioch, Tennessee, and was killed on impact. Billy, Sr. subsequently sued the state of New York for failing to protect his son. An initial trial resulted in a hung jury; a second trial ended in a dismissal in 1994. However, Collins' widow, Andrea Collins-Nile, is trying to reopen the suit.

In 2007, Resto made a tearful apology to Collins-Nile for his role in the scheme. He also admitted that his hand wraps had been soaked in plaster of Paris before the fight. This caused them to harden into plaster casts like those used to set broken bones. The hand wraps were never confiscated and did not figure into the official investigation of the tampering incident. However, the net result was that between the plaster casts and unpadded gloves, Resto was striking Collins with rocks.^[2]