Boxing In Your Face

Joe was born and raised in New York City in Spanish Harlem, and lived in Puerto Rico for eight years. Like many young men in the neighborhood, Joe and his brother Mike gravitated toward boxing. They were a team in amateur bouts and Golden Gloves tournaments and continued on to compete professionally. Joe stopped fighting because of lack of boxing opportunities at that time.

Joe married his wife Sylvia in 1965. He then relocated to Puerto Rico in 1969 with his wife and two daughters; Cindy and Sandy and started onto a 13-year career in the hotel industry. He worked his way up the ranks at the El Conquistador Hotel in Fajardo, Puerto Rico from a Front Desk Clerk to Executive Assistant Manager of the hotel. In 1976 he moved back to New York and worked with the parent company—El San Juan Hotel Corporation as Assistant Casino Operating Manager for all three properties; El San Juan, The Palace, and El Conquistador Hotels. In 1982 he ventured onto an entrepreneurial career, purchasing a Deli in Yonkers, New York. In Yonkers he became involved in the community and gave his support to the Task Force on Crack and many PAL events to encourage kids to stay off drugs by speaking to them at various schools throughout the state. He also sponsored Project Return for youths making a return into the community. From there he developed and implemented a successful community vision outreach program with leading ophthalmologists in New York, New Jersey, Las Vegas, and Chicago to provide those in need in the community with eye care service. He participated in many health fair events along with the Lions Club. He is very active with the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and participates at many of their fund raising events.

Upon returning to New York in 1976 Joe became involved as a boxing referee. He spent six months as an amateur referee and was pushed to the professional level by his mentor Pat Mascia. He applied and received his first licence from New York State and applied with then Boxing Commissioner "Jersey" Joe Walcott of New Jersey. He now also holds a licence in the state of Nevada. From there on he has refereed 156 World Title Championship fights in over 11 countries. His dream was to do just one Championship bout.

Joe and Sylvia now live in Las Vegas along with their daughters—Cindy, Sandy, Christine, and grandsons, Ricky and Bryce. His family had a tragic auto accident in California in June 1996 where his daughter Cindy and his wife were injured. The accident caused Cindy serious spinal cord injury and she is now a quadriplegic. Because of Cindy’s fighting spirit and determination to get better, Joe’s focus is now to create awareness to spinal cord injuries. His dream is to raise funds for spinal cord injury research. While Cindy was a patient in Loma Linda University Medical Center Rehabilitation Unit, she received an encouraging phone call from, Christopher Reeve, who was touched by her focus and determination. Joe, Sylvia, their family and friends are committed to help raise funds toward spinal cord injury research, his new project in his life, because Cindy will walk again with God's help.

"Boxing has afforded me a spot in the limelight and I intend to use the opportunity to help set a good role model to the youth and minorities and help wherever I can", Joe replied during a recent interview with a leading magazine. He previously worked with the Clark County School District Police Department on a special federal grant through the Justice Department from Washington, D.C., to help at-risk youth with a boxing program that not only taught boxing, but discipline, self esteem and raised their confidence level. Joe was also a Deputy Constable in the City of North Las Vegas. In the summer of 2011, Joe Cortez was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame along with Mike Tyson, Julio Cesar Chavez, Kostya Tzu, and Sylvester Stallone. Joe, considered one of the top referees in the boxing industry is looking forward to growing with the sport.

A first generation Italian raised in New York, Teressa's love for the arts came from her father who came to America as a young child to pursue his dream of dancing. Through hard work he became a professional dancer performing and assisting in choreography of the film Flying Down To Rio with Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers. As a teenager, Teressa followed her father's steps to Hollywood, in the 1980's when she and her family moved to LA where she pursued her own dreams in the entertainment industry as an actress. Her dream of working as an actress in Hollywood became a reality when she landed bit parts on such hit TV shows as Moonlighting with Bruce Willis and the TV drama, Cagney and Lacey.

Although acting was her goal, she became interested in directing when she had the opportunity of a lifetime serving a short internship with the legendary director, Blake Edwards on the film Blind Date starring Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger. Since then Teressa's experience in the entertainment industry has been broad. She spent many hours working as a production assistant on major sets such as the TV Drama LAX with Heather Locklear and Blair Underwood to Desperate Housewives with Eva Langoria and The West Wing with Martin Sheen. Her Credits also include a Producer title for the show Possessed Possessions for the network TLC.

After working for several years on numerous major sets, Teressa decided to venture off and create her own shows in the independent world. She has written and directed several local commercials for the LA and Las Vegas market. She has created, written, shot and directed two sitcoms Love Bytes and Wannabe Champion that have aired on KSCI channel 18 in Los Angeles, KHIZ, Dish Satellite Network and Cox Cable.

Teressa has also directed a few music videos including Cine Vegas best 2011 nomination for Naked City and several web series for various shows and outlets. Teressa has also been given the opportunity to direct and interview some legends, including directing the last show and last interview ever with the Legendary comedian Charlie Callas. She has also interviewed the Legendary Musician Carlos Santana and the legendary boxer, George Foreman. One of Teressa's current projects is having the privilege to work with the legendary boxing International Hall of Fame Boxing referee, Joe Cortez on his web show Boxing In Your Face and respectively, on his life story documentary.