Champion of cheating
QUESTION
A popular cartoon trope is for a boxer to hide a horseshoe in his glove. Has anything similar happened in real life? Possibly the most notorious incident of this kind ever recorded in professional boxing took place on June 16, 1983, when unbeaten red-hot welterweight prospect billy Collins Jr met hispanic New yorker luis Resto at Madison square Gardens.
Resto was a tough journeyman. He was not considered a concussive puncher but he was trained by Carlos ‘Panama’ lewis — a wily fox who knew all the angles, and a few more.
in a massive upset, Resto won a ten-round unanimous decision over a bloodied and marked-up Collins.
After the bout, Resto came to Collins’s corner to shake hands with his father and trainer billy sr. When billy sr grabbed Resto’s hand he discovered Resto’s gloves had no padding and kicked up a major fuss. The New york state boxing commission impounded the gloves. An investigation found that each glove was missing a pound of padding. Collins was being hit with virtually bare knuckles.
Collins suffered a torn iris and permanently blurred vision, which left him unable to box again.
He began drinking heavily and on March 6, 1984, he committed suicide by crashing his car into a culvert near his home in Antioch, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville.
in 1986, 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 sentenced to six years in prison, Resto to three years.
lewis was released from prison in 1990 and Resto in 1989.
in 2007, Resto made a tearful apology to billy’s widow, Andrea, for his part in the scheme. He also admitted that his hand wraps had been soaked in plaster of Paris before the fight.
The 1983 incident and subsequent aftermath is covered in the Hbo-aired documentary Assault in The Ring (2008).
Stephen Neil Burley, Cardiff. The idea of weighting boxing gloves with a horseshoe is popular in cartoons (see the 1948 bugs bunny cartoon Rabbit Punch) but would be impractical in real life. The boxer would be as likely to break his own fist as to damage his opponent. The taping of boxers’ hands is overseen by an official from the opposite camp and also sent for analysis after a bout.
This doesn’t mean that boxers haven’t attempted to cheat in this way. The usual trick is to sprinkle white plaster of Paris on the wraps; this hardens when it comes into contact with water, in this case sweat during the fight.
on July 4, 1919, the legendary Jack dempsey hammered heavyweight champion Jess Willard, despite being outweighed by 58lb. dempsey knocked Willard down seven times in the first round. Willard quit after three rounds of punishment.
in 1964, sports illustrated published a posthumous memoir by dempsey’s former manager doc Kearns, claiming he had ‘loaded’ dempsey’s gloves with plaster of Paris.
in 2009, prior to the 2009 shane Mosley-Antonio Margarito fight, Mosley’s trainer Naazim Richardson was in Margarito’s dressing room observing the hand wrapping. Richardson noticed white powder on the wraps.
He accused Margarito of fighting with loaded gloves and he was ordered to re-wrap. Mosley beat Margarito.
The California department of Justice laboratory later confirmed the substance was similar in nature to plaster of Paris.
in a previous fight, Margarito had been victorious against Miguel Cotto.
When Cotto heard what had been discovered by Richardson, he accused Margarito of fighting with loaded gloves. Margarito was suspended for a year.
on his return he again fought Cotto, who had his revenge by thrashing him in 2011.
sometimes, though, looking for an edge isn’t worth the trouble.
in 1988, undefeated heavyweights Mike Tyson and Michael spinks fought for the undisputed title. before the fight, spinks’s trainer butch lewis requested that Tyson rewrap his hands three times. Tyson grew so agitated he slammed his hand through a wall. seated in the next room, where Tyson’s fist protruded, was spinks, who was ‘scared beyond scared’, by the force of that blow, sugar said. Tyson knocked out spinks in 91 seconds.
Lee Ebberly, Gloucester.
QUESTION
The population of Scotland is less than half that of Greater London. How many English counties (including their cities) have bigger populations than Scotland? The ons figure for the population of Greater london as of 2011 is 7,813,600, with a density of 1,922 people per square mile.
The population of scotland is 5.3 million with a density of 26 people per square mile. The second largest british county is the West Midlands, whose population is half that of scotland with 2,655,200 people and a density of 1,137 people per square mile.
There are 650 constituencies in the UK; 533 in england, 59 in scotland, 40 in Wales and 18 in Northern ireland.
This translates as one MP per 100,000 in england (pop. 53 million), one MP per 90,000 in scotland, one MP per 75,000 in Wales (pop. 3.064 million), and one MP per 100,000 in Northern ireland (pop. 1.811 million).
Greater london has 73 MPs, which equates to one MP per 107,035.
Dean Smith, Luton, Beds.
QUESTION
Which British MP holds the record for winning a seat in the most consecutive General Elections? Charles Pelham Villiers, a member of the Whig party, represented Wolverhampton for more than 63 years.
From 1835 until 1885, Villiers was MP for the single constituency of Wolverhampton and then from 1885 until his death in 1898 MP for Wolverhampton south (bilston).
Villiers was a tireless campaigner for free trade and the working man, meeting with success in 1846 when the Corn laws were repealed. The Cobden Club called Villiers the Father of Free Trade at a celebration of 50 years of free trade in 1896. in 1879, his statue was erected at snow Hill, although in 1931 it was removed to West Park.
Villiers served as a commissioner to the Royal Commission enquiring into the operation of the Poor law. From 1859 until 1866 he served as President of the Poor law board. He was the Father of the House of Commons from 1890 until his death in January 1898.
Janet Longden, Shrewsbury, Shropshire.