Boom Boom rooting for Pacquiao

LAS VEGAS – Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, the great champion who figured in one of boxing’s tragic moments, is rooting for Manny Pacquiao, who fights Keith Thurman here on Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

“I see Manny being victorious,” said the 58-year-old, who held the WBA lightweight crown for two years until 1984.

Mancini, born in Youngstown, Ohio, dropped by the main press center of the MGM Grand two days before the big event featuring Pacquiao and Thurman.

He gazed at his crystal ball.

“I don’t think it goes the distance. I don’t think so. I think somebody has got to go,” said Mancini, who turned to acting and commentating following his retirement from boxing in 1992.

Mancini observed that Thurman being inactive for 22 months leading to his comeback last January may be fighting the wrong guy.

“It’s his second fight in two years. This is not the guy (Pacquiao) you want to come back against,” said Mancini.

But he acknowledged Thurman’s power and speed, and his size, and the possibility that Pacquiao, pushing 41, may have grown older without him knowing it.

“A fighter can grow old overnight,” said Mancini.

“But overall I think Manny will look sharp. He’s still at the top of his game. I think he comes out winning. I think there will be a stoppage somewhere along the way,” he added.

Reporters circled around the flamboyant boxer, who figured in a forgettable fight against South Korean Duk Koo Kim on Nov. 13, 1982 at Caesars Palace here.

It was a fight that everybody wants to forget, a brutal encounter that ended with a TKO win for Mancini in the 14th round. Afterwards, Kim collapsed and fell into a coma. Four days later, he was dead at 23.

Mancini blamed himself for the tragedy and fell into depression. Worse, Kim’s mother committed suicide three months after the tragic fight, and the referee, Richard Green, also took his own life eight months later.

Mancini went on to fight eight more times, losing the last four, until he retired in 1992 with a ring record of 29 wins (23 knockouts) and five defeats. 

The rest is history.