Speaking of boxing, Boom Boom Mancini elected to the hall today. 2 years after essentially killing Kim Du Koo in a 14th round blow, he fought into the 14th in Buffalo, NY. I remember my cousin showing me the video on VHS when I was a kid. (how old does that make you feel?) The Great Lakes crowd in Buff LOVED seeing a Youngstown, Ohio fighter.
Older than dirt. November of '82. I was 23 years old, and I remember watching it like it was yesterday. Boxing was still on almost every Saturday back then. ABC Sports had the contract.
Don't get me wrong, the really big fights had already gone the closed circuit route. They used to show them on a giant screen at Yonkers Raceway. But the smaller fights were still on all the time well into the '80s. It's a shame what happened to boxing (and please, I don't want to hear about the MMA right now).
Were you even born yet?
So you're about 2 years older than Ray, who saw everything dwindle at 23 but still made it into the hall. The way my cousins tell it, that fight 2 years later in Buffalo was his last chance to get out of the funk from killing Kim. Didn't happen and was the beginning of the end. 70-some-odd stitches to the eye. Was it as dark a time as people make it out to be? Something changed in boxing, but I blame Arum and Schaefer. No one wants to see their up-and-coming star lose to the opponent's product. That's why as much as I loved watching Terrence Crawford last week, I have no reason to believe his next fight at 140 will be anything too interesting. And there you go, that momentum dies for the fans. Christ. Too much. I guess we shoulda taken this somewhere else.
