Number 8 Billy Collins Jr
Light middleweight prospect Billy Collins Jr was at the center of one boxing’s most notorious and
tragic scandals. In June of 1983, the undefeated Collins stepped into the ring with Luis Resto,
at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. The fight went the distance and Resto won by unanimous
decision. Collins had sustained severe injuries in the bout as both his eyes had been swollen shut.
He was unable to box again, due to a torn iris which left his vision permanently blurred. He was
physically and emotionally broken by the loss of his livelihood and died in a car crash, a little
over a year after the fight. After the decision, Collin’s father, who was also his trainer, went to
shake Resto’s hands. He noticed that his gloves felt light and demanded that they be withheld.
An investigation would later reveal that Resto’s trainer, Panama Lewis, had taken out an ounce of
padding from each glove. Both Lewis and Resto were charged with assault. Resto would spend
over two and a half years in prison. While, for nearly 25 years, he denied having had
knowledge of the tampered gloves, Resto confessed that he’d gone along with his trainer’s plan.
Moreover, he revealed that Lewis had soaked his hand wraps in Plaster of Paris.
This caused them to harden, similar to casts used to mend broken bones. The combination of
removed padding and hardened wraps meant that, for 10 rounds, Resto had basically hit Collins
in the face with rock-hard hands. Number 7 Frankie Campbell
Max Baer is remembered as one of the hardest punchers in boxing history. Several years before
he captured the heavyweight title, Baer fought Frankie Campbell on August the 25th of 1930,
in San Francisco. Campbell caught Baer in the 2nd round, causing him to fall to the canvas. Campbell
thought that Baer would be getting a 10 count, so he turned and started walking towards his corner,
waving to the crowd. However, the referee had considered the fall as a slip, not a knockdown,
and motioned to Baer to get back up. Enraged, Baer unleashed a devastating right hand which caught
Campbell on the chin. He followed it up with a few more punches before the round was over. As
he walked back to his corner, Campbell told one of his trainers “Something feels as though it broke
in my head”. He fought through the next few rounds but a relentless barrage of strikes from Baer
dropped him to the canvas in the 5th round. He’d actually gone unconscious on his feet and was
only held up by the ropes. Doctors attempted to revive him, both in the ring and at the hospital,
but he ultimately succumbed to a severe brain concussion. Doctors ruled that Baer’s blows had
knocked Campbell’s brain completely loose from the connective tissue in his skull.
Those close to Baer claimed that, while he maintained an indestructible public persona,
he’d privately been deeply affected by the outcome of the Campbell fight.
Number 6 Edward Ives In 2013, former boxing champion Edward Ives
beat a man to death in a kebab shop in Dartford, England. 30-year-old Ben Mahoney and a friend were
waiting for their order, when Ives stormed in. Mahoney confronted Ives over his behavior towards
the takeaway’s staff. He then threw a punch at him. Ives had been released on probation only
a few weeks prior, after serving time for witness intimidation. The 29-year-old had
23 prior convictions, many relating to violence. Ives repeatedly struck Mahoney with such force
that he’d essentially left him dead on his feet. His head violently jerked back, causing a fatal
artery rupture in his neck. As Mahoney was convulsing on the floor, Ives demanded payment
from staff for a stain on his sleeve that he’d sustained in the altercation, threatening to kill
everyone inside. The terrified workers gave him 30 pounds in addition to a refund on his order.
Ives was arrested roughly 2 hours later, when officers found him hiding under a child’s bed. He
was subsequently sentenced to 8 years in prison. Number 5 Viviane Obenauf
In December of 2020, a former professional boxer was arrested on suspicion of beating her husband
to death. Brazilian-born Viviane Obenauf captured the World Boxing Federation lightweight title
and challenged for championship belts in other organizations three more times, from 2017 to 2019.
After her latest loss, Obenauf retired from the sport. She briefly worked in the
gastronomy industry before opening her own gym, in Switzerland. In January of 2020, she married
Thomas, a 61-year-old wealthy Swiss hotelier. They lived together in the town of Interlacken
and would upload pictures of themselves as a loving family to their social media.
While they appeared to be happy, Obenauf was known to violently lose her temper. A few years prior,
she’d been arrested for punching a man who’d reportedly groped her, at a London nightclub.
On October the 19th, less than a year into her marriage to Thomas, the man was found dead in the
apartment they shared. It was reported that he’d died following a “sustained violent assault” with
a blunt object. While her motives remained to be determined, Obenauf was arrested as the main
suspect in the killing. Number 4 James Butler
Super middleweight boxer James Butler rose to prominence in the late 1990s. He became champion
but lost the IBF belt via a unanimous decision, in 2001. That same year, Butler would become infamous
for one of the most despicable sucker punches in boxing history. On November the 23rd he fought
Richard Grant in a charity event at the Roseland Ballroom, in New York City. It was a rematch,
with the first 4-round confrontation having ended in Grant’s unanimous decision victory. Even though
Butler was a heavy favorite, he would, again, lose the decision. Shortly after the referee
raised his hand, Grant reached out to Butler for an expected exchange of congratulations.
The latter’s hands were still wrapped but he’d had his gloves removed by that point.
As soon as Grant was within range, Butler sucker punched him with a devastating right hook. Grant
suffered a dislocated jaw and severe lacerations to his tongue, which required 26 stitches. Butler
was charged with assault in the 2nd degree and spent four months in prison. Upon his release,
he fruitlessly struggled to revive his boxing career. In October of 2004, he was living with
longtime friend Sam Kellerman, brother of sports analyst Max Kellerman, at his Hollywood apartment.
On October the 12th, Kellerman was killed inside his home and the place was torched. Butler,
the only suspect in the case, was arrested. It’s believed that he’d gotten into an argument with
Kellerman, who’d asked him to move out. Butler repeatedly struck him in the head with a hammer
then burned down the apartment to cover up the murder. He eventually pleaded guilty to
voluntary manslaughter and arson, for which he was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
Number 3 Elena Povelyaikina In 2020, a young woman was sentenced to 13 years
in prison, after killing two men in the Russian town of Mikhailovka. After graduating college,
22-year-old Elena Povelyaikina returned to help on her family’s farm. Povelyaikina was
a skilled boxer who, in spite of her small stature, was described as extremely strong.
According to a Russian media outlet, she was known to draw art depicting humans with severed limbs,
which worried other townspeople. Her first victim was an unnamed 37-year-old man, who was drunk
and reportedly refused to leave her family’s home. After Povelyaikina mercilessly beat him,
she used a shovel handle to inflict severe injuries to his intimate parts.
Once the man was dead, Povelyaikina threw him over a fence and into the street. It was only
after a second incident, which took place a few months later, that she was tied to the killing.
The young woman was drinking with some locals when one of them, identified as
31-year-old Ivan, made unflattering comments about her gun-toting father,
Pyotr. She jumped on him, as he was sitting on a sofa, and started to viciously punch and kick
him. After the attack, witnesses didn’t call for an ambulance, believing Ivan would recover
but the man succumbed to his extensive injuries the following day. Povelyaikina was arrested and,
according to the police, she’d initially confessed to both killings but later refused to testify.
A series of psychiatric examinations determined that she was fit to stand trial and the woman was
eventually convicted for her crimes. Today's topic was requested by Instagram followers
@sam_mcfadden, pindercrystal and quasarmorris. If you have any other topics you'd like to learn
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and reach out to us there. Number 2 Benny Paret
In the early 1960s, a trilogy fight between Benny Paret and Emile Griffith
ended in tragedy. In their previous fights for the welterweight belt, Baret had been knocked out but
then regained his title via split-decision. A third fight was set for March the 24th of 1962,
at Madison Square Garden, with the event being televised live on ABC. Griffith was saved by the
bell in the 6th round, after Paret nearly dropped him with a successful combination. In the 12th
round, Griffith backed him into the corner and unleashed a devastating flurry of punches. It
was clear that Paret was unable to defend himself after the first few blows but the referee didn’t
stop the fight. He finally intervened after Paret had sustained 29 consecutive punches to the head.
He passed out in the corner and then fell into a coma. 10 days later he was pronounced dead
at a Manhattan hospital. The referee was subsequently criticized for not stepping
in sooner. The New York boxing authorities also came under scrutiny for clearing Paret to fight,
even though he’d had sustained beatings in his previous three fights, all of which had occurred
within the span of 12 months. Number 1 Dwight Ritchie
On November the 9th of 2019, Australian boxing champion Dwight Ritchie died following a
freak training accident. He was sparring with fellow Australian middleweight Michael Zerafa
for the latter’s upcoming title rematch. Ritchie, who’d only lost twice in his 21-fight career, took
a body shot from Zerafa during the 6th round of sparring. Zerafa told a media outlet that the blow
had caught him on the left side, but that it was “nothing out of the ordinary”. 27-year-old Ritchie
collapsed while holding his chest and paramedics would pronounce him dead in the ring. He’d beaten
cancer as a child but recent medical checks didn’t indicate he suffered from any health problems.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather take a punch to the stomach from a heavyweight boxing champion
or get kicked by a racehorse in the same spot? Let us know in the comments section below!