A great pair of boxing trunks signed by Ray
Mancini, this great items comes with a photo from the actual
signing! A great piece of boxing memorabilia.
Ray Mancini £65.00
Ray Mancini was given the nickname Boom Boom
after his father Lennie "Boom Boom" Mancini who
laid the foundation for his son's career. His nickname was
also significantly so, considering his wild, "whirlwind"
fighting style. He was the reigning lightweight champion
of the world throughout much of the 1980s.
His first world title attempt came in his
next bout, vs. Alexis Arguello. It was chosen by many (including
Ring Magazine and ESPN) as one of the most spectacular bouts
of the 1980s. Mancini gave Arguello trouble, but the more
experienced champion used his experience to his advantage
and took out the challenger in 14 rounds. Mancini was saddened
by his first defeat, but not about to give up on his dream.
Six months later, he challenged the new
world champion, Arturo Frias, for the world lightweight
title. Fifteen seconds into the fight, the fast starting
champion caught Mancini with a right to the chin and Mancini
shook. Another combination made Mancini start bleeding from
his eyebrow. Mancini stormed back and dropped the champion
right in the center of the ring with a spectacular combination.
Dazed and surprised, Frias got back up, but Mancini went
after his prey with a fury, and was on top of him the moment
the referee said they could go on, trapping him against
the ropes. After many unanswered blows, the referee stopped
the fight, and the Mancini family finally had a world champion.
Before his confrontation with Frias and during
training camp in Tucson, three gunmen paid a visit to Mancini
at his hotel. The gunmen were told he was not there, they
never came back, and Mancini trained with police surveillance
until the fight.
Mancini's first defense, against former world
champion Ernesto Espana, went smoothly with a Mancini knockout
win in 6 rounds.
His next defense would change both his life
and the face of boxing: On November 13th, 1982, he met South
Korean challenger Duk Koo Kim. Kim had to lose several pounds
before the fight to make the weight, and was dehydrated.
By fight time, Kim was spent. It was, according to many
observers, a fight filled with action, but Mancini had an
easy time hitting Kim during the 14 rounds the fight lasted.
Kim sustained brain injuries that led to his death 5 days
later. The week after his death, the cover of Sports Illustrated
magazine showed Mancini and Kim battling, under the title
Tragedy In The Ring.
Mancini went to the funeral in South Korea,
but he fell into a deep depression afterward. He has said
that the hardest part is when people approach him and ask
him if he was the boxer who "killed" Duk Koo Kim.
As a consequence of the fight, studies were carried out,
which revealed that usually a boxer receives most of his
or her punishment after round 12, and because of that finding,
the WBC soon shortened its title bouts to a 12 round distance.
The WBA and WBO followed in 1988 and the IBF did in 1989.
Mancini began the process of getting his
life back together by putting on gloves, and he went to
Italy to fight British champion George Feeney, a tough guy
from England. Mancini won a 10 round decision, but he was
not the Ray Mancini of old.
He defended his title twice more, including
one against double world champion Bobby Chacon on HBO. The
overmatched Mexican boxer lasted only 3 rounds and, to the
fans at least, the old Boom Boom seemed to be back. He was,
however, planning to get out of the sport and into a less
violent trade: Acting.
In June of 1984, Mancini, obviously still
feeling the effects of the immediate shock after the tragedy,
put on a brave effort to retain his title in a wild slugfest
vs Livingstone Bramble in Buffalo, New York. It was to be
another Mancini all-out style bout, this time he came on
the losing end, defeated after 14 intense rounds. He gave
up his title, but not before a brave effort, the immediate
result of which was an overnight stay at a hospital and
71 stitches around his eye.
Mancini was not done, and he would come back
twice again for world title attempts, one of which produced
the now famous phrase of his: 'If you stop it, I'll kill
ya!!!', quoting the famous line spoken by Rocky Balboa in
the 1976 movie Rocky. He said that to referee Mills Lane,
who refereed his rematch with Bramble, which he lost after
another noble effort by a close but unanimous 15 round decision
in 1985. His next attempt would come in 1988, but this time
he was outboxed by Hector 'Macho' Camacho, losing a unanimous
decision.
