Not even death cold keep Puerto Rican boxer Christopher Rivera Amaro from the ring.
Rivera's family sent their loved one into the afterlife on Friday by posing the boxer's body in a ring, standing in the corner wearing a yellow hood, black sun glasses, blue boxing gloves, shorts and sneakers, the New York Post reported.
The wake for Rivera, 23, was filled with his grieving family taking pictures with cellphones next to the boxer's embalmed body, posed as if ready to fight. A white candle stood burning in the middle of the ring.
The boxing ring wake was set up at a community recreation center in San Juan, Puerto Rico, The Post reported. The center is located in the same public housing complex where Rivera lived.
Rivera's family said the boxer requested that if he died, he wanted his funeral to represent his life as a boxer, the Associated Press reported.
The vice president of the funeral that organized the wake, Elise Rodriguez, suggested they pose Rivera's family in a boxing ring, the AP reported.
Rivera's mother, Celines Amaro, his wife Lidianette Carmona and Rivera's son Julio Christopher agreed.
Rodriguez told the AP it took several hours to set up the ring with Rivera's standing body. Rodriguez also said this is not the first time the home, Marin Funeral Home, staged an elaborate wake like Rivera's. They once posed a man seated on top his motorcycle, the AP reported.
Rivera was shot on Sunday, Jan. 26 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, police told the AP. No arrest has been made.
At 130 pounds, Rivera held a 5-15 record for his weight class, the AP reported.
