Head Strong

AS HE BASKED in the glow of a unanimous-decision victory over a 41-year-old pug named Ron Bellamy last Saturday, Joe Mesi admitted to feeling butterflies before the fight. After all, it was the first time the 32-year-old, once one of the up-and-comers of the heavyweight division, had fought in two years. He knew he'd be rusty.

Mesi fought before just 2,000 spectators in a tiny arena in Guaynabo , Puerto Rico , but his return to the ring reverberated throughout the boxing world, which viewed his comeback with queasy curiosity. Boxers take their lives in their hands whenever they fight, but Mesi was pushing his luck more than most. In March 2004, after he suffered two subdural hematomas--blood clots on the brain--in a win over Vassiliy Jirov , Mesi was placed on indefinite medical suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission. At the time Mesi was 29-0 with 25 knockouts and ranked as the WBC's No. 1 contender, but the ruling was essentially a death sentence for his career. The suburban Buffalo native was banned from fighting anywhere in the U.S. , including Puerto Rico .

The Nevada commission had reason to be skittish: Subdural hematomas are the leading cause of ring deaths. But Mesi insisted his brain injuries were minor and, with the backing of several high-profile neurologists who said he had healed enough to fight, he went to court to get the suspension lifted. After a 20-month legal battle, a Nevada judge ruled in December that the state could no longer enforce the nationwide ban because Mesi's boxing license had expired.

It was a legal loophole: The court didn't agree he was healthy, but Mesi was free to fight in any state that gave him medical clearance. "The judge ruled by the letter of the law, and he was right," says Nevada deputy attorney general Keith Kizer. "But that doesn't change the fact that we are concerned for the safety of Joe Mesi ."

Boxing officials in Nevada and New York say it's unlikely that Mesi would be cleared to fight in their states, but in February the Puerto Rico Boxing Commission licensed him, clearing the way for an eight-round bout with Bellamy. Mesi was a shadow of the fighter he once was. "I give myself a C-plus," he said. By the seventh round Bellamy had landed several telling head punches, and Mesi's right eye was starting to close. But after the judges' decision he was upbeat, saying he hoped to fight again in June and planned to be the champion of the star-starved heavyweight division. "I was not concerned about my health by any means," he said.