Joe Souza, “The Picasso of Cutmen,” 1934-2011
A native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, Souza was a resident of San Antonio since 1972, and became a fixture on the South Texas boxing scene. In later years he came in demand as a for-hire cornerman, and at various times stopped the bleeding for Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, Fernando Vargas and Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko. He worked Arturo Gatti’s corner during his celebrated trilogy with Mickey Ward. When asked what stood out in his mind about those fights, Souza said:
It was just a job. The bell rings and you’re up there. That’s it. I believe I was very successful because before every fight, I would get things ready. I would put this in my pocket, I would keep this away from the referee… Come on! We mixed stuff and we knew what we had to hide. You know for a fact that if we followed the rules, none of us would have been successful. Wouldn’t you agree? So what I would do is find out who the hell the referee was. He’d come up to us and say, “Keep it clean.” And I said, “Oh, shit.” But before I left the house, I always made sure that I had all my equipment in my bag. And once I had my bag, you couldn’t get nowhere near it.
