America At Large: All Jose Rivera needed, apparently, was a little vacation time. At 33, Rivera has fought professionally 41 times, but he's never given up his day job. For the past 10 years he's raised his son, Jose jr, and for nine of them - until he married his new bride, Daisy, last year - he did it as a single parent.

For that reason he continued to work as a full-time court officer in his home town of Worcester, Massachusetts, escorting defendants to and from the dock.

It's a pretty thankless job, because once a judge pronounces a fellow "Guilty" and remands him into custody, Rivera is the poor guy who has to slap the cuffs on him and lead him away while the wife of the lawbreaker starts to cry.

But it's a living, and the big paydays have been few and far between for Rivera. A couple of years ago, after he'd won a version of the WBA welterweight title, he had lined up his biggest-ever purse.

He was supposed to make a quarter of a million dollars, or approximately 10 times his biggest previous night's work, for defending against Ricardo Mayorga on a Don King show at Madison Square Garden, but when it came time for the weigh-in Mayorga had eaten his way out of the welterweight division and the fight never came off.

It was a year later before Rivera got back into the ring, and when he did, he lost a split decision to Luis Collazo and his title along with it. This is the same Luis Collazo (and the same championship) who will be going up against Ricky Hatton on Saturday night in Boston in the British star's first American appearance in a title fight.

In the interim, Rivera had spent half a year on the shelf after undergoing surgery to repair a damaged hand, but promoter Don King managed to manoeuvre him into position for one more title fight.

Even though the WBA light-middleweight title bout would take place at the DCU Centre in his hometown, few expected Rivera might actually be the equal of Alex (Terra) Garcia, a hard- punching Mexican who brought a 25-1 record into the fight.

(Rivera, by contrast, had lost not only to Collazo, but over the years to a trio of journeymen named Willy Wise, Pat Coleman and Robert Frazier.)

The title shot, on the other hand, did offer the promise of one last, decent payday, a chance to put a dent in the mortgage before Jose had to go back to relying on his bailiff's salary from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Back in 2004, Rivera recalled, he had used up all of his paid holidays to prepare for the aborted Mayorga fight. He consequently had to prepare for Collazo after hours, and was ill-trained for the bout.

"Plus, I was having trouble making the weight," he said. "I had to lose about 25 pounds, so I was dehydrated going into that one."

When he married Daisy a few months later he didn't even have enough vacation time for a honeymoon. The couple went away for the weekend, but on Monday morning Jose was back at the courthouse.

With the dawning of 2006, though, six weeks' vacation time had accrued. Rivera decided to roll the dice and use it all to get ready for what he knew might be his last bite at the cherry. He engaged the services of a strength-and-conditioning coach and put himself under the care of a dietician.

Although last Saturday night's fight was nationally telecast by Showtime, it played second fiddle to a pay-per-view bout out in Las Vegas, where Oscar De La Hoya was returning to the ring against Rivera's old nemesis Mayorga. (Don King, as Mayorga's promoter as well as Rivera's - and Garcia's - was thus involved in head-to-head competition with himself.)

Only 4,858 - one-third of a full house - turned up to witness what most figured would be Rivera's swansong, but once the bell rang that enthusiastic little band was treated to an unlikely series of events.

Rivera has never been exactly what you'd call a banger, but a minute into the first round he put Garcia on the floor when the Mexican walked into a stiff jab, and then later in the round he knocked him down again, this time when the two threw simultaneous right hands and Rivera's got there first.

The fourth saw one of those group-gropes, where the two boxers and Dick Flaherty got themselves tangled up in the middle of the ring, and as all three tried to scatter for higher ground, Garcia nailed Rivera with a right hand that knocked him to the canvas. As knockdowns go, it wasn't much, but it was enough to get Garcia back into the fight on the judges' scorecards.

At this point, though, Rivera seemed to draw energy from the crowd, and he won round after round while Garcia never seemed to fire. At one point late in the bout, trainer Roberto Sandoval could be heard imploring his fighter to show some cojones, but instead, Garcia, whose nickname translates as "dirt", ate some more Terra.

Rivera scored three more knockdowns in the last four rounds, building up such a margin that he didn't even need help from the all-Massachusetts panel of judges working the fight, who scored it 116-106 (twice) and 114-108.

"He was a strong fighter, but I prepared for that," said Rivera. "I was frankly surprised that he kept getting up, but that just shows the heart that he has."

Garcia paid Rivera an even higher compliment: "He fought," said the defeated champion, "like a Mexican."

Having used his vacation time wisely, Jose Rivera was back on the job Monday morning, but he did take his new championship belt along to show to his co-workers at the courthouse.

And, unless we miss our guess, any surly defendants he had to deal with this week were even more likely to be impressed by the new addition to his wardrobe than by the revolver he normally wears strapped to his waist.