Panama Lewis.. A black eye for boxing.

Carlos Panama Lewis was a disciple of trainer Chickie Ferrara. In the early 1980s, he was considered one of the best trainers around, mentioned in the same breath as Manny Steward and Angie Dundee for a time, most notably for his work with light-welterweight champion Aaron Pryor.  In 1982, Pryor fought Alexis Argüello. Before the fourteenth round of the fight a cornerman held up a plastic water bottle as HBO tv cameras would catch Lewis yelling the infamous "Not that bottle, the one I mixed." Line. Pryor would knock Alexis out, but Lewis' comments would fuel rumors that the bottle contained stimulants. Lewis said later that the mix was only Perrier and tap water. Lewis was never formally sanctioned, the incident tarnished his reputation, which was confirmed by his cheating discovered in subsequent fights. It was later alleged in an interview with former Lewis-trained boxer Luis Resto in the HBO documentary film Assault in the Ring, that Lewis would (allegedly) break apart pills used to treat asthma and pour the medicine into the water, giving Resto greater lung capacity in the later rounds of a fight. Resto would feature heavily in Lewis's most despicable chapter.

This the most notorious incident in Lewis's career took place on June 16, 1983. Panamas fighter Luis Resto, was fighting undefeated prospect Billy Collins, Jr. in a bout televised by ABC's Wide World of Sports. The fight was the undercard for a fight between Roberto Durán and Davey Moore.
Resto would win the 10-round bout by unanimous decision over a broken looking Collins. After the fight, Resto came to Collins' corner to shake hands with Collins' father and trainer, Billy Sr. When Billy Sr. grabbed Resto's hand, he noticed that Resto's gloves were thinner than normal, keen to attract attention Sr shouted his concerns about the gloves to the officials present. Collins Sr. demanded that the New York State Boxing Commission impound the gloves. An investigation found that each glove was missing a whole ounce of padding. There was also a 0.75-inch hole in the palm of each glove. In the bout, Collins suffered a torn iris and permanently blurred vision, devastatingly ending his boxing career.
After an investigation, the New York State Boxing Commission determined Lewis had tampered with the gloves. On July 1, 1983, it permanently revoked Lewis' state boxing license. Since most state boxing commissions honor sanctions imposed by other states, this action had the effect of banning Lewis from ever having another official role in an American bout. Resto's win was subsequently changed to a no contest.
In October 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 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. Lewis was released from prison in 1990.

Sadly Collins died on March 6, 1984, when he crashed his car into a culvert near his home in Antioch, Tennessee. Many think he may have committed suicide because he was unable to continue boxing as a result of the actions of Lewis and Resto.
Years later, during the filming of the documentary Assault in the Ring, Resto admitted that he knew Lewis had not only tampered with the gloves, but had also dipped his hand wraps in plaster of Paris, dramatically—and illegally—increasing his punching power. He also said that Lewis had taken the padding out of his gloves on at least two other occasions. It was also alleged by Resto that the plot centered around a large amount of money bet on Resto, the underdog, by a third party who had met with Lewis prior to the fight.
Lewis maintains his innocence to this day, and many of his defenders allege that someone removed the padding from Resto's gloves after the bout, saying an official with the New York State Boxing Commission had left the gloves in his car after receiving them from the state boxing commission. However pictures of Collins' face after the bout suggested otherwise it was horrific and many felt it was improbable a light puncher like Resto could have inflicted such damage on his own.
When confronted by Resto and Assault in the Ring director and producer Eric Drath, Lewis again denied any wrongdoing and said that it was cornerman Artie Curley who had wrapped Resto's hands. An agitated Lewis said that if Curley were alive today, "none of this would have happened to him."
I came across Lewis in 1993, he appeared to be working with Don King heavyweight Tony Tucker, he was everything I expected him to be, a self absorbed, remorseless parasite looking for a payday off the back of a heavyweight title challenger. Thirteen years later I would run across him again, in Atlanta working with heavyweight contender Sultan Ibragimov. I was with Friday Ahunanya for the bout against Sultan at the Gwinnett Centre in Duluth Ga, I recognized Lewis at the weigh in and alerted Georgia State officials to who he was, and why he had no business working a fight in the US. Lewis had been chief coach for Ibragimov for most of his career, largely unchallenged because Ibragimov had been boxing mostly overseas around his Russian homeland or in States where he could go undetected. The Georgia commission weren't much interested at first but later that evening we were informed that Lewis had been briefed by officials that he could not appear ringside on fight night..  Defiant, Lewis made a desperate attempt to have his voice heard by his corner by way of two way radio... Sultan won the heavyweight fight on a cut eye stoppage but I considered it a moral victory to have such a low life character removed from his part in a sport he has no business in..  
Carlos Panama Lewis remains high on my list of filthy stains on our sport. His actions were unforgivable.