BoxRec

On a Saturday afternoon at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV, America and the world witnessed one of the most brutal fights that ever been televised on regular network tv. WBA World Lightweight Champion Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini from Akron, OH, stopped in 13 rounds South Korean Deuk-Koo Kim. It was November 13th, 1982....The fight finished in a tragic ending. Kim dies 4 days later.

Because of this tragedy, the WBC then reduced world title fights from 15 to 12 rounds

Ironically, the fight was a day after the Pryor vs Arguello I fight.

Yes, 30 years have passed. Unbelievable how time flies!

that was one action packed fight.
this fight triggered a ton of media out cry for the elimination
of the sport.
mancini was never the same after

It was an amazing fight, that fact gets lost in the tragedy. There wasn't a single moment when that fight should have been stopped, sometimes the sport just reminds us how much these guys risk in there.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:It was an amazing fight, that fact gets lost in the tragedy. There wasn't a single moment when that fight should have been stopped, sometimes the sport just reminds us how much these guys risk in there.

excellent point

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:It was an amazing fight, that fact gets lost in the tragedy. There wasn't a single moment when that fight should have been stopped, sometimes the sport just reminds us how much these guys risk in there.

Why did the ref commit suicide?

Rover wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:It was an amazing fight, that fact gets lost in the tragedy. There wasn't a single moment when that fight should have been stopped, sometimes the sport just reminds us how much these guys risk in there.

Why did the ref commit suicide?

i remember hearing an interview with a family member
claiming he went into a deep depression and was recieving death threats following
the fight.
the guy just could not handle it

MEISINGER wrote:

Rover wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:It was an amazing fight, that fact gets lost in the tragedy. There wasn't a single moment when that fight should have been stopped, sometimes the sport just reminds us how much these guys risk in there.

Why did the ref commit suicide?

i remember hearing an interview with a family member
claiming he went into a deep depression and was recieving death threats following
the fight.
the guy just could not handle it

Too bad; he did nothing wrong.

That was pretty sad. A reminder how brutal the sport can be, Deuk-Koo Kim fought a great fight and it cost him his life.

Ambling Alp II wrote:That was pretty sad. A reminder how brutal the sport can be, Deuk-Koo Kim fought a great fight and it cost him his life.

His mother committed suicide also.

saad is right. i watched it again last week and the ref was not at fault at all. just a terrible tragedy. we dont have many in our sport contrary to some opinions.

RIP kim

misterpunch wrote:saad is right. i watched it again last week and the ref was not at fault at all. just a terrible tragedy. we dont have many in our sport contrary to some opinions.

RIP kim

i agree 100% the ref did a good job
not many ref's if any would of stopped that fight

MEISINGER wrote:

Rover wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:It was an amazing fight, that fact gets lost in the tragedy. There wasn't a single moment when that fight should have been stopped, sometimes the sport just reminds us how much these guys risk in there.

Why did the ref commit suicide?

i remember hearing an interview with a family member
claiming he went into a deep depression and was recieving death threats following
the fight.
the guy just could not handle it

The fiancee and the mother of Kim committed suicide also.

Won't be forgotten by me as long as I live. How my father told me he was yelling at the ref to stop the fight. How Mancini held his ancestor's hatred because of ties to the military, how Dook Kuh Kim never quite died because he is remembered to this day as giving it all.

vagabundo55 wrote:Won't be forgotten by me as long as I live. How my father told me he was yelling at the ref to stop the fight. How Mancini held his ancestor's hatred because of ties to the military, how Dook Kuh Kim never quite died because he is remembered to this day as giving it all.

His ancestors' hatred?
Please. It was a savage fight. No need to bring race into it. Absurd.

Didn't remember that Kim's fiancee killed herself. I know they were married posthumously and that she delivered his child.

Rover wrote:

vagabundo55 wrote:Won't be forgotten by me as long as I live. How my father told me he was yelling at the ref to stop the fight. How Mancini held his ancestor's hatred because of ties to the military, how Dook Kuh Kim never quite died because he is remembered to this day as giving it all.

His ancestors' hatred?
Please. It was a savage fight. No need to bring race into it. Absurd.

Sad part is like with Benny Paret calling Emile Griffith a maricon, Mancini had family members and friends who were veterans of the Korean war. I think he became a better man when he delivered Doo, never again would he fight with the same tenacity. Still he must cry from time to time.

vagabundo55 wrote:

Rover wrote:

vagabundo55 wrote:Won't be forgotten by me as long as I live. How my father told me he was yelling at the ref to stop the fight. How Mancini held his ancestor's hatred because of ties to the military, how Dook Kuh Kim never quite died because he is remembered to this day as giving it all.

His ancestors' hatred?
Please. It was a savage fight. No need to bring race into it. Absurd.

Sad part is like with Benny Paret calling Emile Griffith a maricon, Mancini had family members and friends who were veterans of the Korean war. I think he became a better man when he delivered Doo, never again would he fight with the same tenacity. Still he must cry from time to time.

Kim had a makeshift coffin in his hotel room.
He was going to fight to the death.
He did.
The Korean War had nothing to do with it.
Neither did Paret's comments before the Griffith fight.
In those days, Griffith was a terrific finisher, and Paret had taken some bad beatings in his career.
No need to bring race into this.
Mancini and Kim fought at a level where someone was going to die.
That simple.

The ref could have stopped it. :(

vagabundo55 wrote:The ref could have stopped it. :(

No reason to have stopped it, as others have said, and that (the ref) had nothing to do with Mancini and the Korean War.

Rover wrote:

vagabundo55 wrote:The ref could have stopped it. :(

No reason to have stopped it, as others have said, and that (the ref) had nothing to do with Mancini and the Korean War.

I was simply answering your last line about how they were to fight to the death.

vagabundo55 wrote:

Rover wrote:

vagabundo55 wrote:The ref could have stopped it. :(

No reason to have stopped it, as others have said, and that (the ref) had nothing to do with Mancini and the Korean War.

I was simply answering your last line about how they were to fight to the death.

I was saying they both fought at that level; the Korean War is irrelevant.
Mancini fought the same way against Frias; Art just fell much, much sooner fortunately.
He fought the same way against Arguello; Alexis was a superior fighter to Kim, however.

You know you're absolutely right about the way it should be boxing I mean, race not mattering but we know how it is sometimes.

vagabundo55 wrote:You know you're absolutely right about the way it should be boxing I mean, race not mattering but we know how it is sometimes.

And you've shown nothing to indicate that race had anything to do with that fight.
Both of them fought viciously. One died. That's it.
And the ref's not having stopped it has nothing to do with Mancini's relatives in the Korean War.

I'm not sure where this underlying racial war was invented, but Ray's Dad served in WWII anyway. Was there another family tragedy that I'm not recalling?

Rover wrote:

vagabundo55 wrote:You know you're absolutely right about the way it should be boxing I mean, race not mattering but we know how it is sometimes.

And you've shown nothing to indicate that race had anything to do with that fight.
Both of them fought viciously. One died. That's it.
And the ref's not having stopped it has nothing to do with Mancini's relatives in the Korean War.

I was referring to Mancini, in any case, he fought ferociously against everyone.