Vinny Paz's Rocky Road to the Boxing Hall of Fame

My high school years were the glory years for sports in my lifetime.

In 1986, the Patriots and Red Sox made it to the Super Bowl and World Series, respectively, for the first time in my lifetime. The Celtics won a championship with arguably one of the greatest teams of all-time.

Tennis was must-watch with compelling personalities like Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe on the men's side and the riveting rivalry between Martina Navratilova and one of my childhood crushes, Chris Evert, on the women's side.

Boston College made college football relevant around these parts for perhaps the only time in my lifetime, thanks to a 5'10" diminutive quarterback from Natick, Massachusetts named Doug Flutie.

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics stand out vividly. Carl Lewis dominated track and field, gymnast Mary Lou Retton became America's Sweetheart, and Greg Louganis was untouchable in diving. On a personal note, Carlos Lopes gave Portuguese people worldwide pride by winning gold in the marathon.

Even more locally with me being a Rhode Islander, 1987 saw the Providence College Friars, led by point guard Billy Donovan and coached by a young upstart Rick Pitino, make a surprising run to the NCAA Final Four.

Big East basketball was as big as it would ever get, with some of the greatest coaches ever–Georgetown's John Thompson, UConn's Jim Calhoun, Syracuse's Jim Boeheim, Seton Hall's P.J. Carlesimo, Villanova's Rollie Massimino, and St. John's Louie Carnesecca.

Boxing was also huge during these years with all-time greats like Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, and Brockton's own "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler.

Yet, no athlete or team captured my imagination more around this time than a scrappy Italian kid from Cranston, Rhode Island—Vinny Pazienza.

Pazienza first came to my attention on the local news in the mid 1980s. Sports were probably allotted 3-5 minutes on the local newscasts.

So at the end of these sportscasts, I would hear Channel 10's Frank Carpano or Channel 12's Mike Gorman spend ten seconds reporting about how a local kid named Vinny Pazienza won another boxing match.

A couple of weeks after the Patriots got smoked by the Chicago Bears in the Super Bowl, Pazienza really caught my attention when he fought his first fight at the Providence Civic Center. I couldn't believe that they would use something as big as the Civic Center (14,000 seating capacity) for a boxing venue, especially with a local kid as the headliner.

The other thing that raised my eyebrows was the name of his opponent--Joe Frazier, Jr., son of boxing legend Joe Frazier. Even more impressively, Pazienza won by TKO in the seventh round.

The sportscast that night was probably the first time I got to see any footage of Paz box. He was lightning quick. He was relentless. He wore baggy shorts with the Italian colors of red, green, and white. The crowd was wilder than any crowd I had ever seen for any event at the Civic Center. I was hooked.

A year and a half later, Pazienza got his first title shot. He would be fighting Greg Haugen for the IBF Lightweight Championship. The fight was set for Providence in front of Vinny's home crowd.

I can still remember the press leading up to that fight. Haugen just had a smug, squinty-eyed, smirking, cocky look on his face at all times. He was an easy individual to hate.

The fight wasn't televised, locally, but the fight was so big that the local AM news talk radio station, WPRO, was carrying the fight. So there I was, listening to a boxing match on the radio. I couldn't believe it.

But it was exhilarating and I am glad I got to experience it that way. I got to feel the frenzy of the local crowd cheering their hometown hero. As I write this, I am getting goosebumps reliving the radio announcer describing Pazienza getting Haugen on the ropes and hitting him with a flurry of combinations as the crowd's cheering crescendos.

The two gladiators battled for 15 rounds. When the ring announcer said, "The winner, and newwwww IBF Lightweight Champion of the world..." I jumped and pumped my fist in the air as if I had just watched Rocky beat Ivan Drago in Rocky IV.

I thought this was just the beginning of something special.

Pazienza would lose the title back to Haugen in another epic 15-round fight eight months later in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Pazienza lost, but he was now becoming a draw. His effervescent personality and frenetic fighting style– which earned him the nickname "The Pazmanian Devil"--made him a natural for TV.

Now all his fights were being shown on TV on the USA Network. Yet, big-name victories eluded him, including losses to Roger Mayweather (uncle and later trainer of Floyd Mayweather, Jr.) and Hector "Macho" Camacho.

He would go on to beat Haugen, again by decision, in the final installment of their trilogy.

Pazienza would add two more titles to his trophy case in his next two bouts, but, again, the wins came against no-name fighters.

Things all changed for Pazienza on November 12, 1991. A little over a month after winning the WBA Light Middleweight Championship from Gilbert Dele, Pazienza was involved in a serious car wreck on his way to gamble at Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

He broke two vertebrae in his spine and a third was dislocated. When Pazienza spoke to doctors in the hospital, he asked them when would he able to fight again. The doctors responded that they weren't sure if he would ever walk again, nevermind fight. His boxing career was over, they told him.

Pazienza told his doctors that they were wrong--that they didn't know the kind of person they were dealing with.

The doctors fitted Pazienza with a "halo" contraption which was screwed into his skull to keep his spine and head aligned.

Pazienza would walk again, but his doctors still warned him that his boxing career was over. If he were to ever to take a punch that jerked his neck in a certain way, he risked paralysis.

Pazienza didn't care. Boxing was his life. He would return to the ring, or die trying. He secretly began working out in the basement of his parents' house where he was supposed to be resting and recuperating in bed.

Reluctantly, he convinced his doctors and family to let him fight again. He found a trainer, Kevin Rooney, willing to take on the risk of working with him. Finding an opponent to fight was harder.

Only thirteen months after the accident that almost paralyzed him, Pazienza returned to the ring, ironically enough, at Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut–the same casino he was headed to when he got into his car accident.

Paz would go on to win two more titles to give him a total of five. He would have a record of 19-5 after his return to the ring, finishing with a career record of 50-10.

I remember Paz was pitching plans for a life movie about himself even prior to his car accident and improbable successful comeback. But now, instead of him pitching his story to Hollywood, Hollywood was coming to him.

Paz fought his last fight in 2004--securing his 50th victory. In 2010, it was announced that a film would be made of Paz's life. Filming started in late 2014, with some scenes shot in Providence at the Dunkin' Donuts Center (formerly the Providence Civic Center, and now the Amica Mutual Pavilion).

The film, Bleed for This, was released in 2016. It starred actor Miles Teller as Vinny Paz. He was great in the role.

I'd like to say Paz's life story turned out like I would have envisioned it as a teenager in high school in the late 1980s, but I'd be lying.

Paz was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on June 8, 2025 along with Manny Pacquiao and Michael Nunn. It should have been a celebration and the cherry on top of a career that I watched begin forty years ago.

Instead, the ceremony was an embarrassment.

As soon as Paz was introduced up to the microphone, he took a direct detour past the microphone to speak to a pretty female fellow inductee, Mary Jo Sanders, on the opposite side of the stage. The crowd waited as he whispered something into her ear for about ten seconds. Sanders politely smiled.

Then Paz got up to the stage and started by pointing out Sanders and how attractive she was. He added that they would make beautiful babies--"we'd pop out like four Marvin Haglers."

Ugggh. Come on, Vinny.

It wasn't the last time Paz made reference to them having babies, either. He wouldn't drop it.

As if the moment couldn't have got more awkward, Paz pointed out his current girlfriend in the front row. "Missy, my girl, I don't mean nothing by it. She knows I'm nuts."

But he didn't drop it. Right after that. he said, "No, Jimmy, right, me and her, f*****g Marvin Hagler ain't got s**t on that."

He then thanked Ed Brophy, the President of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the man who has the last say in who gets inducted.

Paz joked it was about time he got inducted, and that Brophy only finally inducted him because Paz "told him I was going to kill him if he didn't put me in." He then added Brophy is lucky because now he gets to live.

Maybe the newly-minted Hall of Fame boxer thought he was joking, but the crowd was stunned by the one-two combination of the sexual innuendo and the threatening comment.

The remainder of his speech wasn't any better. It was like pulling teeth. You never would have believed he had over six months to craft a speech.

He had long gaps where he wouldn't say anything and just stare around at the crowd from above his sunglasses.

He swore constantly--very inappropriate for the setting.

At one point he looked at someone from his camp in the front row and asked who else he should thank. When it looked like he was, mercifully, done rambling, the master of ceremonies walked up behind him expecting Paz to sit down.

Instead, Paz went back to the microphone to go another few rounds. The m.c., sheepishly, stepped back--unsure of when Paz would call it quits.

It's a shame to see Paz like this.

It's one of those cases of not wanting to meet your idol because you're afraid they will ruin the image you have in your head of them. Back in the mid 1980s, I would only hear about Paz on newscasts and listen to his bouts on the radio.

I had an image in my head of him as a Rhode Island version of Rocky Balboa--a fairy tale underdog story of a humble Italian kid from the streets of Cranston. But Paz was nothing like Rocky.

Paz went to strip clubs. He "dated" porn stars. He had numerous anger management, drinking, gambling, and legal issues. Essentially, he never grew up.

In 1997, Pazienza sued the driver of the car he was a passenger in for the 1991 crash that almost paralyzed him.

In 2001, he legally changed his name to Vinny Paz.

He got arrested in 2003 at his fabled Foxwoods Casino for writing bad checks.

He filed for bankruptcy in 2005.

In 2007, he was arrested on suspicion of DUI and resisting arrest. There was also a domestic assault charge against him in 2007.

In 2013, Paz was arrested for hitting a woman inside a bar on Federal Hill in Providence and, a few months later, for refusing to pay a $23 tab at a bar in Warwick.

In early 2018, he was arrested for assaulting a man he claims had stolen stuff from him.

Just a couple of months later, he was arrested on domestic assault charges against his girlfriend. He pleaded no contest in the case and got only probation.

He even sued the makers of "Bleed for This" for failure to pay him in full.

Rhode Island is a tiny state. Odds are pretty good that if you live in Rhode Island, you've run into Vinny somewhere.

Towards the end of his career, I saw him a couple of times late at night at a 24-hour breakfast place. Both times he was with a girl and he was wasted. The thought of walking up to him and saying hi never even crossed my mind.

There will be other great underdog stories– either individual or in team sports--in future years to come out of the tiny state of Rhode Island, but there will never be another boxer like Vinny Paz.

Take that for what it's worth.

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