The Good Son: The Life of Ray Boom Boom Mancini (2013) - full transcript

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He was the hottest thing
on television.

Everybody was just
in awe of this guy.

I got captivated
watching Raymond Mancini

and hearin' his story about his dad
and watchin' his fights.

His fights were action-packed.

Ray was always great for ratings.
People just ate it up

and he became an icon
on the American sports scene.

Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini was not just
a fighter. He was an attraction.

He was a star. When he fought,
people watched. Big time.

At that time, you know,
the unemployment rate was sky-high.

Nothing was going right
in Youngstown.



People gravitated towards Ray.
Ray was Youngstown.

When we're 12 years old,

we give our dad a tie or
we give him a card or something.

Raymond gave his dad
a promise that

"I will win the title
that you so well deserve."

'Boom Boom' Mancini is the most
marketable fighter in the world

and if they play it right,

he could become the most marketable
athlete in the world.

All he's got to do is go past
this kid Duk-koo Kim.

This father-and-son thing

that has run through
the Mancini family for years

and for him to tragically
have taken the life of a father

and now to meet that son...

that's got to be
a real challenge for Ray.



So this is where it all began.

This is the home,
807 Cambridge Avenue,

south side of Youngstown, Ohio,
the only house I've ever known.

My parents lived in here,
this house, 54 years.

It was Middle America.

You know, playing baseball,
football, in the streets,

and there's so many kids. I mean,
the Secoras lived across the street.

Tank Dicioccio, my buddy,
grew up in this house here

with his brother Jumbo and Bobby
and Lori and his...

and his sister Beany,
five of them.

It was a wonderful life, man,
and I'll never forget it.

You know, it was great.

I love this place, I truly do.
I love these people, love this town.

Yeah, my heart's still here,
that's for sure. Ain't never left.

I grew up 810 Cambridge Avenue.
Ray grew up 807,

which is right across the street.

He was the first friend I had,
first person that I met.

Neighbours had their doors open.
You can hear kids getting lickings.

The Mancinis can hear the Dicioccios
getting lickings.

We can hear them getting lickings.

You get home from school
and get your homework done,

you're out in the streets
and you're playin'.

We couldn't wait for 'Boom Boom',

'cause that's what
we called Ray's dad.

We didn't know why,
'cause we were young then.

We didn't know he was a fighter.

We used to go down in
the basement all the time,

and pull out the scrapbook
of 'Boom Boom', his father.

This one fight in particular
that Ray said he got robbed,

Ray wanted really to avenge that.

I mean, he actually wanted
to be his father.

And he understood this
at a young age of five, six.

He understood that.

Guys used to kid him when we were
playin' baseball, football...

"What are goin' to be
when you grow up?"

"You know,
I'm goin' to be a boxer."

Guys used to say,
"Well, what are you gonna box?

"You gonna box oranges?
You gonna box apples?
What are you gonna box?"

He goes "You'll see.
I'm gonna be a champion.

"I'm gonna be a champion
for my father."

RADIO: BOXING MATCH

September 1913, Nick Mancino
passes through Ellis Island

on his way from Bagheria, Sicily
to Youngstown, Ohio.

1917 he marries a local girl,
Annie Kanazaro.

She's remembered as
something of a flapper

and Nick, he was a...
kind of half a wise guy.

He does a bit for the Cleveland mob
and when he comes back,

Annie has taken up with a guy
named 'Slick' Valentine Bavone.

So he tells his son, Lenny,

he says, "Listen,
I got to go away now."

When my grandfather left to go,
he wanted to go with his father.

But my grandfather told him

"No, you gotta stay and
take care of your mother."

He cried so much that night.
My father was ten years old.

My father said
"I could never cry again."

When the Depression came,

he comes under the influence
of his Uncle Ferpo,

who would take Lenny
out in the street,

almost like his matchmaker,
like his manager.

Fathers and uncles
and older brothers

would meet on the street corner
and they'd say

"Hey, my kid can kick
your kid's ass."

"Oh yeah? No, my kid can kick
your kid's ass."

"How much you want to bet?"
So they put their money down

and to entice the odds
and to entice the drama of it,

Uncle Ferpo would say
"Look at this kid."

Bang! Rake the hand
right across Lenny's mouth.

"Look, he don't even cry!"

My father was a man that, truly,
when I say had no fear, no fear.

He's legendary in Youngstown
for being on the streets.

He ain't never lost
a street fight.

They used to tell stories how he
used to turn joints out, you know.

He'd walk up and they'd say

"Boom, please, whatever you do,
don't wreck the joint tonight."

That was just his thing.

He had no fear in him,
and he was a stand-up guy.

What happens with Lenny is,

he realises there's no way for him
to really be the kind of fighter

he wants to be if he's going
to stay in Youngstown.

He knows the capital of
the fight game is New York City.

He meets the great trainer Ray Arcel
passing through town.

He says "I'm comin' to New York."
He goes "Sure, kid.

"You come to New York,
you look me up at Stillman's Gym."

Couple of weeks later,
Lenny Mancino is in New York City,

hustles a bus ticket,
shows up at Stillman's,

taps Ray Arcel on the shoulder.
"Hey, here I am."

He fights a guy named Charlie Varre
in the Broadway Arena in Brooklyn.

Varre breaks his jaw. He wins
the fight, but with a broken jaw.

Tells Arcel and the rest of the guys
in Stillman's,

"Listen, I'm going home."

They say "Hey, take care, kid.
It was nice."

They don't think
he's gonna show up.

Six months later, "Hey, I'm back."
He's serious.

This is really all he ever
wanted to do, was be a fighter.

My father had a scrapbook.
It was like my Holy Grail.

It was all tattered pages
and every once in a while, I'd say,

"Dad, can I see the scrapbook yet?"
"Aw, Raymond."

I'd hound him all the time. I used
to love lookin' at those pictures.

They had one picture of him
after a Billy Marquette fight.

One eye swollen,
the other was completely closed,

both lips swollen and bloodied

and he's got a cut in the other eye,
and he won.

That picture, man, to me,

it's the most beautiful picture
I ever have of him. He's beautiful.

That picture, it's everything
I wanted to be.

People are paying money. They want
to see, essentially, violence.

They want to know that they're
getting their money's worth.

And when you saw Lenny Mancini,
as he was now called,

'cause they figured "Mancini"
was a better name,

you knew you were getting
your money's worth.

'Boom Boom' Mancini meant something.
He kept coming forward.

That becomes an immense source of
pride for Lenny 'Boom Boom' Mancini.

"I never took a step back."

December 7, 1941, world war broke
out. Lenny Mancini gets drafted.

To the draft board he says,
"I'll give you all my money.

"You know, I have to,
I'd like to fight for the title."

But they said no.

He went in a number one contender,
lightweight contender.

November 10, 1944,
a German mortar shell explodes

perilously close to 'Boom Boom'.

He takes it in the left collarbone,
left shoulder,

left arm, left leg, right foot.

Curiously,
what he tells people later is that,

"I was hurt bad,
but I was not knocked out."

He went in 5 foot 2, 135 pounds.
He came back 5 foot 2, 175 pounds,

filled with shrapnel
and everything else.

Well, how do you think he did
against these 175-pound, 6'2", 6'3"?

They used him as a punching-bag.

So, you know, his career when
he came back wasn't too long,

but maybe it was too long.

I had wrote a poem for my father,
Father's Day of 1976.

I was 15 years old and I wanted to
let him know what I thought of him

as a man, as a person, my hero.

And uh, that he was
everything I wanted to be.

And um, it was called
"I Walk in Your Shadow."

And it goes,

"I watch every step
that this man takes.

"Listen to every sound
that this man makes.

"I touch every part
of this man's face.

"I hold this man's body
when we embrace.

"I cry every tear
that this man cries.

"I try every task
that this man tries.

"I keep every memory
that this man keeps.

"I leap every mountain
that this man leaps.

"I love you, Dad. I really want
you to know I want to be like you

"and walk in your shadow.

"I want to be like you
and live with your great name,

"for I am this man's son,
and I'll never bear him shame."

Yeah, I was 15 when I wrote that.
LAUGHS

Wow.

Uh, when I gave it to him,
he read it

and tears welled up in his eyes,
and tears started coming down.

Now, you have to understand,
my father never cried.

I never saw my father cry
before that.

He read it, closed it
and he went in his room

and he just stayed in there
for a while.

I worked in the mills. I can
remember getting a sandwich.

You'd go to the commissary
and get a sandwich.

It was always white bread. There was
no such thing as whole-wheat.

You'd get a white-bread,
say, egg salad, for example,

and you'd come out and you'd
have to eat it really fast,

'cause if you didn't eat it
really fast,

the white bread would
turn grey in the air.

It was what they called graphite.

So you'd just, you know
hey, you're breathing it.

What the fuck difference
would it make, really?

It was in my brain that I was
gonna work in the mill

because my father
and my grandfather retired.

They worked 40 years
in the mills, you know.

And so I just... once you got by,
you accepted it,

that that's what you do
and, you know, you do it.

Youngstown has always had
a lot of labels,

Murder Town USA,
Bomb Town USA.

To understand it, you have to
look at the geography.

Youngstown is between Pittsburgh
and Cleveland,

both of which have a mob presence
and they're rival mobs.

So Youngstown being in the middle,

there's always been a lot of
fighting over Youngstown

and the rackets in Youngstown.

And so over the years from the 40s,
the 50s, the 60s,

we had a number of pretty high-
profile mob killings, bombings,

shootings,
things of that nature.

By 1963, Youngstown is on the cover
of the Saturday Evening Post

as Crimetown USA. It's become
nationally known for car bombings,

otherwise known
as a "Youngstown tune-up",

which means that you go
into your car in the morning,

you turn on the ignition,
it blows sky-high.

You never know who was doing what,

so it was better just to, you know,
mind your own business.

And if you worked in the steel mill,
you put in your eight hours,

every now and then you'd double out,

you'd go cash your cheque at
that trailer with the little window.

You'd go buy yourself a couple
of drinks. That was the life.

And it was a good one,
you could put kids through school.

As long as you
didn't try to move up.

If you tried to get up there

and start swimming around
with those sharks,

you'd better be a shark.

There was a lot of tension between
my mum and dad every day.

I think that has, you know,
my dad liked to drink.

He was a very well-known person
in town.

Everybody knew who
'Boom Boom' Mancini was.

On our side of town, literally,

the main drag that
was three blocks up,

within three blocks,

there had to be twelve bars,
because that's what you did.

When I was eight, nine,
ten years old,

my father, he'd get home
between 4 and 4.30 from work.

If he didn't come home by 4.30,
I'd get a little nervous.

So I'd call the, wondering,
"Is 'Boom Boom' Mancini there?"

"Is Boom Boom here?"
"Tell 'em Boom ain't here."

But he'd be there.
"Tell 'em Boom ain't here."

"No, Boom Boom's not there."
"Okay."

I'd hang up the phone,
I'd ride up the two blocks.

I'd go up there and I'd look
through the window like this.

And I'd see him sittin' at the bar.

I'd come inside. I'd look.

I'd look down the bar,
see if I could see him.

A lot of times I immediately saw him
or I could hear him.

You know, and I'd come over to him.
He'd be sittin' there.

A lot of times, I'd hear people say,
"Hey, Boom, you gonna have a drink?"

And I was a little kid. I'd say,
"Boom ain't havin' no drink."

The bartender would look at him and
go, "You're gonna listen to him?"

He'd say, "Eh, what do you want me
to do? He's my baby."

So I'd grab him by the hand. I'd
literally I'd hold him by the hand

'cause, you know, it depends how
many drinks he had,

and uh, I'd hold his hand
and walk out the door.

RONALD REAGAN: "Good evening.
Tonight, Thomas Mitchell

"and Vincent Price star
on the General Electric Theatre."

My sister and me
are 13? years apart.

She was born November 14, 1948.

When she was 18, she moved out.
I was five years old at the time,

so I don't remember her
in this house growing up so much

as me and my brother.

Lenny was 5? years older than me.
His birthday is September 21, 1955.

Now, growing up,
my parents couldn't leave us alone

'cause he liked to slap me around
a little bit.

I used to be scared
to death of him.

So, and then when my parents
would come home,

I'd hide behind my mother
and my father

and agitate him.

Lenny and Raymond, when someone says
"They'll kill each other",

I truly, truly believed one of 'em
would have been very seriously hurt

if they were ever left alone
together, and it would go to blows.

It would go to physical blows.

How I can sum it up about Lenny,
like when we used to play Release,

we had boundaries,
maybe two blocks of boundaries.

You couldn't leave those boundaries,
and when people were caught

and the game was over
and we...

we would have to
call a new game,

we would say, "Alli, alli, in free."
You know, "Everybody in."

Well, Lenny never came in.

Even though Ray and his brother
Lenny are kind of opposites,

Ray follows Lenny wherever he goes.
He loves his older brother.

And of course, where does Lenny go?
Into the ring.

He trains at a Navy Reserve gym

under a trainer of some renown
in Youngstown called Eddie Sullivan.

And Lenny's a really good boxer.

Lenny's not just a puncher,
but he can move.

Ray follows his big brother
into the gym

When he's a kid, 13 years old,
he tells Eddie Sullivan

"I'm going to be the best
fighter you ever have."

"Hey, thanks kid. See you later."

Sure enough, he comes back
about 16 years old.

Ray had been
an excellent local athlete.

There was a point at which,

freshman year
at Cardinal Mooning,

his coaches say, "Listen,
you can't play running back

at 130, 135 pounds.

"We need you to gain weight.
You're good, you have talent.

"We can get you a full boat ride
to college."

And he says "Gain weight?
I've got to make weight!

"I've got to fight
at 126, 130 pounds."

"Well, kid,
what's the matter with you?

"What do you want to be
a fighter for?"

"My dad."

Neither one of my parents
wanted me to fight, per se,

but my father used to set me down
and tell me how painful it was,

not only physically,
but mentally and emotionally,

that you have to sacrifice your
family life, your social life,

to focus on fighting.

But my mother supported me.

She never wanted me to be
a fighter, obviously,

but she always supported me

and no matter what I wanted,
she believed in me.

Ray wasn't a normal kid and he
wouldn't be a normal fighter.

He wasn't really fuelled
by economic circumstance.

His whole construct was desire.

It was his kind of
personal religion.

TV: "They stopped taking orders
at midnight

"at Youngstown Steel Sheet
and Tube Company

"and by the end of the year,
5,000 workers will be jobless."

September 19, 1977, which is known
around here as Black Monday,

it decimated this whole town

and I don't think
we've ever recovered.

After the mills closed, those jobs
weren't available any more

and young men that would ordinarily
have gone to the mills

had to look for other opportunities
to make money

and I think, you know,
a lot of them turned to crime.

Youngstown did get meaner
after the mills closed because, uh,

you had to compete.

A fallout of Black Monday is that
Lenny eventually loses his mill job.

What does he do? He goes back to
the gym, he starts fighting again.

He tells Ray
"I have unfinished business."

Him and Ray start sparring

and really initiates Ray into
a new level of physical endurance.

It takes him to a place he really
didn't know he could go.

Ray and Lenny would have some wars
in there.

I think Ray appreciated
Lenny more

because now Lenny was
in his world now,

where Lenny was never really
in Ray's world, ever.

You know, he was in his own world.

I would say out of all the kids
in the neighbourhood,

we were in one world,
Ray was in another world.

We got very close. Lenny was able
to find himself again,

regain himself,
by coming to the gym.

Everyone around in the gym
will tell you,

he was a better fighter than me.

He hit harder, a better boxer.

The one thing he lacked
that I did have is discipline.

Well, I remember the first time
I went to the Struthers Fieldhouse,

my father took me.

And the Golden Gloves
was tremendous.

It was sold out every night.

It was pretty much black and white.
You'd root for the white guy

and there were some real good
black fighters, always,

and there were some pretty good
white fighters.

And the Mancinis,
they were tough guys.

We used to love to see those kids
come in because it was pure carnage.

You know, the bell would ring and
they were like pitbulls, you know,

right out after guys.

Always got your money's worth
with the Mancini brothers.

Youngstown Golden Gloves
was very popular.

It was the only thing
in town for fighters.

And this place here was jammed
to the rafters with people.

You couldn't get a seat.

People who had the ringside seats
were like people from Youngstown,

the politicians and stuff,
people who had money,

don't want to flash,
so they sit in ringside.

I'll tell you this,
I wouldn't want to be any fighter

that was comin' in to fight me here.

You know, to be an opponent
in this place wasn't good.

Ray thought "Well, maybe I don't
have all the natural gifts

"that some of these guys I'm going
to have to fight are going to have",

you know, length, tall, speed,
something, you know.

But he thought "If I outwork them,
I'll take more, I'll do more."

He just never, would never back up.

If Ray backed up, he was going to
lose the fight.

You'll hear a bunch of guys
in Youngstown

talk about seeing Lenny fight in
the amateurs at Struthers Fieldhouse

and all the things
he could do in the ring.

What he lacks is Ray's desire,
and desire is a talent too.

When it comes to that,
no one is more talented than Ray.

So eventually, Lenny drops out.
Ray keeps going.

Lenny becomes basically
a collections guy

for bookmakers,
for loan sharks.

Ray keeps on as a fighter.

Ray wins amateur titles. Ray thinks
he's going to the Olympics,

but really,
the type of style he has,

you can see from the beginning,
is suited to the pros.

He loses to a guy named Melvin Paul
in the amateurs

and like some of the guys
that Ray lost to as an amateur,

it was a question of style.

After the fight with Melvin Paul,
I was sitting in the dressing room,

dejected.

Murphy Griffith came walking in.

He just told me, like,
"Look, man,

"you ain't gonna never win
no amateur titles

"'cause you got a pro style, but you
could be a very, very good pro."

And he said "I work with a manager
named Dave Wolf.

"So, you know, I'll put Dave in
touch with you in a couple of days."

And what Griffith tells Wolf is,

"I found a kid who is like
a little Rocky Graziano."

Now what that means is,
number one, he'll fight.

He won't be cute.

Dave said "Look, I'm not
offering you anything up front.

"I'm not going to pay you
a weekly salary."

He says "You're going to
have to move to New York,

"pay your own rent

"'cause I don't want you
to have to owe me anything

"and I don't want to owe you
anything."

He said "But the bottom line is,
you do your job,

"and I'll do mine and I'll get you
to a world championship."

Meanwhile back in Youngstown,

there is a consortium of
local guys,

some of whom are Youngstown
wise guys, who want Ray.

Ray and his father discuss it,
and Griffith keeps calling Ray.

Boom says to Ray, "You know,
all the years I was a fighter,

"I never had my trainer call me."

My father said "If you stay here,
you're going to starve."

He said, "Raymond, I starved.
That's why I had to leave.

"You stay here, you're gonna starve.
You've got to go."

Dave Wolf understands what he has.
The networks, ABC, NBC, CBS

are still fully into
the boxing business.

Saturday and Sunday afternoons,
there are network fights.

And the networks become specialty
houses for certain weight divisions.

Ray is going to be a lightweight.
That means CBS.

As we come into the 80s in America's
great postwar industrial recession,

the beginning of Reagan,
after America has seen "Rocky",

Ray Mancini is
demographically perfect.

So Dave Wolf starts putting out
these great press kits.

Hey, the father was named
'Boom Boom' Mancini.

He takes pictures of Ray. He takes
pictures of Ray and his father.

He puts out the old press kit photos
of the original 'Boom Boom'.

Now you have a new 'Boom Boom'.

Listen, you've got a Jewish manager,
a black trainer

and an Italian stallion from
Youngstown, Ohio. It's perfect.

Who could write this stuff? Stallone
couldn't write this. Not only that,

there's a new cable station, ESPN,
which features a once-a-week show,

"Top Rank Boxing", which is run by
the promoter Bob Arum.

When I first started in boxing
in the mid-sixties,

the only thing that mattered
was the heavyweight division.

It was Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier,
Ken Norton,

and that really didn't change
in America until 1976

when the Olympiad
was held in Montreal

and the United States
had this boxing team

headed by Sugar Ray Leonard.

1976 Olympics was really

the door opening
for the lighter weights

and we brought home
five gold medals.

That was such a major
accomplishment.

And then the networks
grabbed on to us

and all of a sudden
now the smaller weights,

because they were more entertaining,
there was more punches,

there was more excitement,
that we took over.

Ray draws some notice from Arum.
Arum asks his matchmaker,

Teddy Brenner, one of the great
matchmakers of all time,

"What do you think about this kid
Mancini?" "I saw his father fight."

Those are magic words.

So they decide "Let's put Ray
on one of our top-ranked shows,

"an ESPN card, put him on
television, see how he does."

ANNOUNCER: Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini!

At that time, Ray was knocking
most of the fighters out

in the first or second round,
you know.

Ray's brother Lenny would be in that
corner any way he could get there.

He was always one of the first,
if not the first person in the ring,

from wherever he was sitting.

He'd be the first one there
to hold Ray's hand up.

APPLAUSE

It was Valentine's Day 1981
and we were out as we usually were.

When I came home that night,
it was quite late.

All the lights were on in my house

and all the lights were on
in Ray's house.

I thought I was in trouble
for doing something

and I walked in and my brother,

at the time he was supervisor at
the Southside Hospital and he said,

"Tank," he goes,
"I got something to tell you."

I says, "Well, what's the matter?
You know, am I in trouble?

"What happened? Somebody get hurt?
Mum, Dad, you know?"

He says "No, Lenny got shot."

We didn't know his condition.
We knew it was serious

and I remember going into
the emergency room

and the nurse was telling us
"He's gone"

but you hear the words and it
doesn't register, "He's gone."

I mean, it's just like, I...

it took me,
I bet you almost five minutes

to realise she's telling me
he's passed away.

And I remember my first reaction
was, "How could you do this to us?"

I got that call on Saturday
from my sister.

When I answered the phone, she said,
"Raymond, I got bad news."

"What?"
She said "It's Lenny."

I said "Is he okay? What happened?"
She goes "He got shot."

She said "Raymond, he's dead."
And, um...

when I heard that, I, um...
I don't know, man, I...

all I remember is I broke...
I just fell to the floor.

I don't, um, I don't remember
everything that was said.

I don't remember
everything that was done.

All I do remember is, though,
is my roommate,

Randy Stevens, was a great fighter
in his own right,

who I'll love forever, he was there

and he just came over
and grabbed me.

Everything was moving
in slow motion.

I don't know if it was because
I couldn't comprehend everything.

I chose not to. But when
I finally got to the hospital,

there was cars, people there
and when I saw my mother and father,

I just hugged them, you know,

and my mother broke down,
my father broke down.

That, you know, everyone
was crying in the house

and, um, all I remember saying
is that,

"I got to see him,
I got to see him."

I went to the morgue with him
and it was a very eerie...

eerie feeling.

I don't know, it was...
You could see the agony in Ray.

His body was cold,
touching his face.

I wanted to see where the bullet
went in and...

but I realised, I said,
"Hey, that ain't my brother, man.

"That's just his, you know,
mortal remains, that was him."

And, um...

Finally,
I kissed him on the cheek

and told him I loved him
and, uh, walked out.

The circumstances surrounding
the situation are a little murky.

First of all, the young lady
that was involved

was a juvenile at the time,

but she gave a false name
and a false age

and it took the detectives
three or four days

to actually discover
who she was.

She was dancing
at a number of bars

and she had just escaped
a motorcycle gang in another town

that had basically been
prostituting her out.

She was a runaway.

She had been living on her own
for some time

and the biker gang went to Lenny
and said

"You want the girl, that's great,
but it's gonna cost you."

Basically, Lenny says, being Lenny,

"Go fuck yourself.
I ain't paying you."

The girl gets roughed up.

Lenny tells her, "Listen, I'm not
gonna let them do this to you,"

buys a gun, a 38 snubnose,

and in the course of showing her
how to use it, he gets shot.

The fatal wound from the 38-calibre
snubnose revolver is,

according to the autopsy,

an inch-and-a-half
behind the right ear

and an inch-and-a-half above.

It's hard to have an
accidental shooting back there.

She admitted that she had done it,

but the facts just didn't reconcile
with the physical evidence

and that's always been
kind of a difficult situation

and I know, I'm certain,
was difficult for the family.

Did this girl kill Lenny
on behalf of the outlaws

or did she let them in,
or was it an accident?

We'll never know for sure.

After the funeral, my parents
drove me to Chuck Fagan's house.

so he could drive me
to the airport.

And, I remember
saying goodbye to them

and I'm hugging
and kissing my mother.

She's crying and I went to hug
my father, kiss my father

and he broke down.

I just heard a strange noise,
and it was a wailing.

It was terrible
and I looked,

and I turned around
and it was, Lenny lost it.

It just all came out right there.

I said "I ain't gotta go."
And he said "No, you gotta go.

"You gotta go and get on
with your life. You gotta go."

Finally when I left there
to go to the airport,

man, that was the
longest drive of my life.

And at that moment, Chuck,
who was a wonderful guy,

I mean, you can't get no better
person that Chuck Fagan,

can't get no better than him.

That moment,
he became my big brother.

He became...
Again, God takes, God gives.

He took Lenny,
but he gave me Chuck.

He looked vulnerable to me
for the first time.

You know,
he'd just lost his brother.

He was going back to New York
by himself.

You could see that this was
taking a great toll on him.

Not long afterwards,
he came to me in my dreams.

Came to me 'cause I talked to him

and we'd have a conversation
and he'd let me know

"I'm okay, Ray, I'm okay.
I'm fine. Don't worry.

"Everything's gonna be fine."

And I, it gave me
some kind of solace,

some type of peace, but, um...
I knew for me,

I had to move on quickly
or I'd never get on with my life.

And I told my trainer,

"Griff, I've got to get back
in the ring."

I told Dave Wolf, "Get me a fight
as soon as possible."

Even the death of his brother,
my man was not going to be stopped.

He was not going to be detoured by
anything that happened in his life.

This kid wanted this so bad

that nothing was going to stop
his progression

to getting to that title,
nothing.

When I fought Stormin'
Norman Goins, March of 1981,

it was only a month removed
from my brother's death.

A lot of people were nervous.

Didn't know how I was going
to react emotionally and mentally,

being so close to my brother's
death, but I knew for myself,

I wanted to get in there
as soon as possible.

Soon as the bell rang, like every
other fight, I'd jump on my guy.

It was a lot of action
right from the get-go.

He's trying to come over the top
with the right hand.

I'm making him miss,

but eventually, he landed
that one punch on the chin

and everyone kind of gasped.

I came right back and
countered with a couple of punches

and everyone knew then
that I was going to be okay.

A guy like Morales
was a pleasure to fight.

You've got to be able
to back these guys up.

First round, I backed him up
with a series of shots

and I backed him into the corner,
I didn't let him off the ropes.

I kept him there and I stayed there
and I kept banging him

and banging him with body shots
and all kind of punches,

lefts and rights.

And I wouldn't let him out
of the corner.

And I let him know right from
the get-go, this was my night.

ANNOUNCER: ...the new North American
Boxing Federation champion!

The next step, to me,
this was the World title.

You know, there's only one higher,
which is the World title,

but to me, this is it
and I'm gona keep this belt

because the World title
goes to my father.

ANNOUNCER: The champion
from Youngstown, Ohio!

Ramirez was very crafty,
very experienced,

so I had to jump on him.

You gotta back a southpaw up.

If you don't,
you're in for a long night.

Always bang the body first,
then come up to the chin.

They're trying to jab me,
I stay close, move, bang that body.

Boom, and come up to the chin.

It was very difficult in
those days when Ray was coming up

to deal with the WBA,

because essentially it was
a very corrupt organisation.

Ray was getting ready
to fight for a World title

and before he could, a fighter named
Arturo Frias had to fight Espana.

Frias won the fight

and they came up with some
crazy reason to do the rematch,

but the only reason they
came up with that crazy reason

to do the rematch

is so that they could get money
from me to waive the rematch,

to let Mancini go in
directly with Frias.

But it cost $300,000
in step-aside money,

but it enabled Ray
to fight Frias for the title,

which he was
absolutely entitled to do.

We decided we're going
to train in Tucson.

We had great sparring going on.

I'm standing in there one day,
Ray's shadow boxing,

and I get a tap on my shoulder
and it's a policeman.

And he said
"Are you with Mancini?"

And I said,
"Yeah, I'm with Mancini."

He said
"Well, we got a little problem."

The chambermaid at the hotel
said these two gentlemen

that looked like they were Mexican
wanted to know where Mancini was.

And she said they both had guns
and they were lookin' around.

The policeman told me "I asked her
what she thought they wanted."

And she told the policeman
"To kill Mancini."

Now myself,
thinking back on it,

I think it was somebody from
the WBA trying to shake Ray up

and screw up the training.

We moved up into the fifth or
sixth floor of the main hotel

and we stayed there for a while.

And I kept arguing with Ray
a little bit

that we need to tell Wolf.

And he said,
"No, everything's going good.

"We're gonna get Frias
and win this championship.

"I don't want
anything screwing it up."

And Ray was so focused.
"All we need is Round One to happen

"and Ray's gonna be the
lightweight champ of the world."

I came out and he threw
a right hand over the top.

I slipped it, but he came up
and followed with a left hook

and he caught me on the chin.

I was able to spin
right into the ropes and turn,

get his back on the ropes, and
then I just kept throwing punches.

Punches and punches,
just kept throwin' 'em.

Nothing was going to stop him.

He was like a whirlwind
from start to finish,

he just kept throwing punches.

It was absolutely amazing.

People got out of their seats
because they was just letting go.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

And Ray hurt him, he hurt Ray.

It was dynamite.
I could never fight that way.

I threw a right hand
and slipped,

but I came up and hit him
with a left hook on the chin.

I saw him go down. I was like
a shark smelling blood.

When he got up,
I jumped right on him.

The referee, Richard Green,
jumped in and stopped the fight.

The greatest single moment
in the history of my life.

Nothing in my life will ever
compare to that moment.

I just want to thank God
for having my...

all the beautiful people of
Youngstown here to cheer me on.

My beautiful family here
to share this with me.

Thank God for all the people
back in Youngstown and watching,

for my grandmother watching
in Youngstown,

my grandfather up in the mountains,

just for all the Easter Seal kids
back whom I love, everything.

This is theirs.

Lenny, your son promised you

when he was a youngster
starting out

that he would win
this World title.

Did you believe
the first time he said

"Dad, I'm going to win that title
for you," did you believe him?

Well, that was his dream. I always
had to believe what he said

because he dreamt that he was
going to be the champion.

That was all right with me.

He told his dad
when he won the NABF title,

"This one's for me.
The next one's for you, Dad."

And then he had it for his dad

and there was a moment where he's
hugging his mum and dad

and he's crying
and he's kissing his dad

and he's kissing his mum and,
you know, just stand back

and let that happen because that's
been coming for 20 years. You know,

that's what he's wanted to do
since he was a baby and he did it.

At that time, nothing was
going right in Youngstown.

You know, the unemployment rate
was sky high.

Nobody was working.
People were down on their luck.

People gravitated towards Ray.
Ray was Youngstown.

Ray was always great for ratings.
People just ate it up

and he became an icon
on the American sports scene.

Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini
was not just a fighter.

He was an attraction. He was a star.
When he fought, people watched.

Big time.

He was the hottest thing
on television.

Everybody was just in awe
of this guy from,

you know,
where he came from.

I got captivated
watching Raymond Mancini

and hearing his story about his dad,
and watching his fights.

His fights were action-packed.
Raymond could bang with both hands.

You'd hear him talking afterwards,
you know,

and he was a very likable guy.

He was a very honest kind of guy.
Reminded you of like, you know,

"Oh, that guy could live
down the street from me."

He reminded you
of somebody you knew.

We all used to go to this one place
on Saturday

and I'd see Stallone there,
and Raymond,

and everybody had a certain type
of respect for Raymond.

Stallone had
a certain type of respect

or you'd see Schwarzenegger

or all these other guys
that knew who Raymond was.

They get on the cover of
"Sports Illustrated"

for a lightweight.

This wasn't a heavyweight.
This wasn't Muhammad Ali.

Everything has broken right
for Ray Mancini.

Dave Wolf is besieged
with million-dollar offers.

Everybody wants to fight Ray.

The road to the money
goes through Ray Mancini.

Days before he fights Duk-koo Kim,

the most marketable fighter
in the world,

arguably the most marketable
athlete,

Sugar Ray Leonard,
announces his retirement.

You know who that leaves?
That leaves Ray Mancini,

'Boom Boom' Mancini,
he's set up perfect.

He can run the table right now.

All he's got to do is go past
this kid Duk-koo Kim.

Duk-koo Kim is born to thankless
circumstances in Korea.

He's dark skinned, he's dirt poor
and he's fatherless.

He had no advantages.

He grows up in a town called Banam
on the coast

not far from the border
with North Korea.

He's so poor, he shares an outhouse
with a cow.

His mother had married
his latest stepfather

when he met her
begging on the streets.

He finds his way to Seoul,
takes a bunch of odd jobs.

He's selling pencils on a bus,
he's a waiter...

Eventually, he finds his way
into a gym.

He's not a very good fighter,
but he has no other alternatives.

In a certain way,
he hearkens back

to fighters from Lenny Mancini's,
'Boom Boom's' generation.

He's fighting because he's hungry.

He has more confidence,
he has more grace,

and in the ring,
he's begun a transformation.

After he found some love,
he also found a bit of courage.

And then he gets more courage

until finally,
he's the number one contender

through the graces of the WBA,
a thoroughly corrupt organisation,

but he's got this shot.

He fought like Ray, straightforward,
giving shots and taking shots.

It was going to be a test of wills.

A lot of the critics and writers,

they didn't give Duk-koo Kim
a chance.

When Tank and I went to
see him train a couple days before,

I didn't want to tell Ray anything.

I didn't want to say
"This kid's a fucking animal."

I didn't want to tell him that,

but you could see
he was in great shape,

you could see
that he was determined.

When we were in the locker rooms
before the fight,

sometimes we can hear the other
opponents, sometimes we couldn't,

but this particular night
we heard a do-or-die chant,

whatever they were saying,

and it was loud
and it was purposeful.

They were like war cries.
He just, "Ahhh, ahhh!"

Bang, bang and the way he was
hitting them lockers, it just...

if I wasn't in that zone
preparing a fight,

you know, I might have
never entered the ring

because it was truly bloodcurdling,
the screams.

Frank Sinatra
was in the first row

with the owner of Caesar's
back then,

along with his buddy 'Jilly' Rizzo.

Frank Sinatra couldn't wait
to meet Ray Mancini.

Did you hear what I just said?
Frank Sinatra, THE man,

couldn't wait to meet Ray Mancini
from 807 Cambridge Avenue.

ANNOUNCER: Ray Mancini, led in
by his manager Dave Wolf,

his trainer Murphy Griffith
entering the ring...

The mindset of a fighter
is a very intricate thing.

How we prepare a fight,
going into battle.

I used to look at it
as going to war.

ANNOUNCER: Richard Green with
the final instructions here.

What I didn't know about Kim
before the fight

is that he wrote on his lampshade,
"Kill or be killed."

ANNOUNCER: Now there is the bell
and we are under way

and the Korean comes out swinging.

I had mixed emotions
about the fight

because of the fact that
I thought "Who is this kid?"

I'd never heard of him.

So I wasn't excited
about the fight itself,

but as I started to watch it,

it started to become
a very interesting fight.

I thought
"Gee, Ray, you know,

"Ray's got his hands full
with this guy."

ANNOUNCER: This is
a tough, tough fight.

Duk-koo Kim came to fight.

He was also, the same as Ray,
he was a pressure fighter.

Ray had more technique than him

and was a bit more polished
than Duk-koo Kim

and perhaps hit a little harder.

Ray is railing on him and
hitting him with some great shots,

but the last 30 seconds of
the round, he would turn it around.

It was just a war
from the first round.

And Ray had
that little moment

where he hit Kim
three or four times

and Kim raises his hands
up in the air.

ANNOUNCER: It is raise his hands
and say, "Let's go!"

I kept thinking it's
one of those things you say

and you don't mean,

"You're gonna have to
kill this kid to stop."

In the eleventh round of that fight,
we noticed the momentum changing

and we saw Kim slowing down, but
still he would flurry at the end.

At one point,
I looked at Duk-koo Kim

and he was, to me,
almost spiritually beaten

and physically beaten.

But then, he would come back.

I mean, it was a most amazing
display of heart,

of soul, spirit.

This guy didn't give up.

There's something
hauntingly fraternal

about the confrontation
between Ray and Kim.

Kim's a southpaw.
Ray's a natural southpaw.

Ray's name, Mancino,
means "southpaw".

The only thing, the only agony,

that Ray has to compare this to

is fighting his own brother
in the Navy Reserve gym.

That's the closest Ray's come to
this type of violence in the ring.

Ray thought he could come out
and take him out in the 13th.

Forty-five unanswered punches
that were landing,

just not shots that were thrown
that weren't landing,

they were landing
and they were landing hard.

I was banging him pretty good
and I'm thinking,

"Referee's going to step in
and stop the fight,"

but I'm getting arm-weary now
and he comes right back.

So Richard Green obviously
couldn't stop it then.

And at this point, I just threw
47 unanswered punches.

By the end of the round, he's got me
backing up. It's just incredible,

his resiliency, his strength of body
and spirit, it's just incredible.

After the fight, I was laying on my
bed and my eyes were swelled up

and my hands were all swollen

and my mother had a ice-pack
on one eye here, on my hand here.

My sister had it on the other eye,
on the other hand,

and my mother's crying over me.

She's weeping and I'm looking at her,
"Mum, Mum, don't cry.

"It's okay. We won, we won!"

Not long afterwards, my trainer,
Murphy Griffith, came to the room.

He said "Ray, we've got to talk,
man. We've got to talk."

And I said "Griff, what's up?"
He said "Man, it don't look good."

He said "This boy Kim,
don't look like he's gonna make it."

The day after the fight,
I went home.

When I got into
the Cleveland Airport,

we got met off the plane
by reporters and cameramen,

and friends of mine
from Youngstown

tried to protect me
from the questions.

They kept asking, you know,
"How do you feel about Kim?

"How do you feel that
he's on life support?"

How do I feel?
How am I supposed to feel?

How am I supposed to...
I'm dying inside.

I didn't leave my home
for a couple of days.

I couldn't get out of the house,
I just was so depressed.

I was losing my mind.
I had to get out.

So I went to a place and
they put me in a corner table.

Kind of stayed out of the way, but
soon as people heard I was there,

they come up to the table

and one guy came up and said
"Boom, hey, man,

"I'm proud of you. Hey,
what's it like to kill a guy?"

"He's not dead, he's..."

"Yeah, Boom, but you know
it's gonna happen, so..."

I mean, I couldn't believe
the things I was hearing.

You know, "What's it like
to see that guy go down

"and know that he's
never gonna get up again?"

Dr Lonnie Hammergren
is the neurosurgeon on call

and what he has in his notes

is a haemorrhage
that is really quite fresh.

The haemorrhage causes enormous
pressure in the brain.

His theory is that it was caused,

if not by the last blow,
then one of the last blows

'cause there's no way
he could have fought

with a blood clot
of that magnitude.

I remember my father hugging me
and just said

"Just be thankful.
Could have been you."

And that really struck me,
because it could have been.

It truly could have been.

And who's to say
it wouldn't be me next time?

You know, my style of fighting
was not going to change.

You know, my style was to come in
and take punches to give punches.

That bothered me. It stuck with me
for the longest time.

Before I could move on and decide
whether I wanted to fight again,

I had to come to grips with that.

When I fought,
I fought for righteous reasons.

I fought to be a world champion
for my father,

to fight for the honour of my city,
of Youngstown, Ohio.

But after that fight,
it took the love away from me,

it took the honour away from me.

To me, there was
nothing righteous about it.

But it's an honourable sport.

You know, to me, it's nothing
more pure than you have one man

facing another man the same weight
class and challenging himself

physically, mentally, spiritually,
emotionally, every which way.

But that night,
it took all the honour.

It took all the love. It took
everything away from me, that night.

Ray was such a big, big draw.

This fight was shown live on CBS
and Saturday afternoon.

Millions and millions of people
were watching

as a man died, in effect,
in the ring.

That's something
that changes everybody.

Three things happened in boxing
in November 1982.

First, Aaron Pryor knocks out
Alexis Arguello,

makes him unconscious,

and there were a few very, very
horrifying seconds

at the end of that bout.

Second, Randall 'Tex' Cobb

takes a hell of a beating
from Larry Holms,

and Howard Cosell,
who's announcing the fight,

announces that this is
an absolute disgrace

and he's finished with boxing.

Third, most dramatic, most tragic,
is Mancini-Kim.

And what happens is that the guy
who had been the representative

of everything that was virtuous
in boxing

now becomes an argument, Exhibit A,
for its banishment.

Suddenly, it became a matter
of great national importance.

And so much on the horizon for me.

Right before the Kim fight

I was being offered a national
soft drink commercial,

a national cereal commercial.

I was on top of the world, man.
I was riding the wave.

And then after that,
it all came crashing down.

I was avoided like I was the plague.

Every deal went away.

I was a 21-year-old boy.

The WBC immediately announces

they're going to make
championship fights

that were 15 rounds, 12 rounds.

It's not until much later
that the WBA follows suit

and by then
it's a matter of convention,

but everything leads back
to Ray.

After the Kim fight, I got in touch
with my manager, David Wolf,

and I said, "Dave, you know, let's
get a fight as soon as possible."

For me, I had to move on.
I have to move on quickly.

February 6, 1983, we got offered
the fight in San Vicente, Italy.

I was so looking forward
to going to Europe

and fighting in front of
the Italian people.

They've always showed
a lot of love for me

and a lot of support.

But the press...

I was fighting George Feeney,

who was the European champion
from England

and you know,
very tough fighter,

but no matter what,
it was always about Kim.

On the eve of Ray's comeback fight
in Italy,

Duk-koo's mother takes her life.
She ingests a bottle of pesticide.

She's ashamed because the family
has become embroiled

in the battle over Kim's
insurance money.

She's ashamed because her own past

as a woman with multiple marriages
has come out.

Later on,
Richard Green kills himself.

There's almost no evidence

to think that Richard Green
takes his life

because he's despondent about Kim.

I'm not saying that he was happy
about it, but he didn't screw up.

The great irony of the Mancini-Kim
fight is that, but for the ending,

it's a great fight.

Every fight after the Feeney fight,

no matter who it was
that I was training for,

always it would come back
to the Kim fight.

I couldn't get away from it.

I learned to deal with it,
but it wore thin on me.

It wore thin and I just...

I wondered were they
ever going to let it go.

I mean, I couldn't move forward
in my career

because they were always
trying to pull me back.

There's a lot of moral issues
for him, I think.

And then he said he never wanted
to talk about it.

He never wanted to hear his name,
and we never did.

We never even brought it up,
nothing.

We were not allowed
to talk about it.

He didn't say like,
he didn't treat us like boys,

"You're not allowed
to talk about that."

He just asked us,
"Please, do not mention that fight.

"We don't talk about that fight.
Or if a reporter asks you,

"you just say, 'No comment.'"

They were relentless.
They never let it go away,

no matter when Ray fought next
and he won, when Ray fought Bramble,

Duk-koo Kim came up.
They still talk about it now.

You know, and it's never
going to go away

and it's never going to go away
for Ray.

Raymond being the soul that I know,

I'm sure he was greatly affected
by Duk-koo Kim's death.

I also know Ray's an intelligent guy

and he knows that he wasn't
100 percent responsible for that.

It wasn't anything maliciously
it happened.

It was two warriors got in there.

Just as easily,
that could have happened to Raymond.

I think Ray never was a fighter
after the Duk-koo Kim fight

that he was before.

The exuberance and the joy that
he went into a fight was gone.

What hurt Ray so badly
after the Kim tragedy

was the fact that he was seen
as this all-American boy,

wanted him in our living rooms,
you know,

would have dated our daughters.

And then it was a certain betrayal.

"Oh, he's a killer.
He killed a guy."

Other fighters have
killed fighters in the ring

and went on, you know,
without that stigma.

It's been talked to death, man.
It's been talked over and over,

so much there's
nothing more to say.

I've answered every question
every possible way.

I'm strong. I'm good.

What bothers me more than anything
is that, you know,

things that have been said
to my children.

My daughter was in fourth grade
when a young boy called,

said, "Your father's a murderer."

And she'd come home crying to me,

saying, "Poppy, why do they
say these things?"

Not long ago,
a boy said to my son,

he said, "Hey, I heard
your father killed somebody."

I can deal with it.

I've dealt with it.

But my children,

they shouldn't
have to deal with it.

It hurts. I mean,
my father is not a murderer.

It affects me sometimes,
but now, I think, being older,

it will have less effect on me,
but I'm still hurt by it,

that people say it. So...

Growing up it was hard,
'cause you...

I didn't really understand people
always coming up to me

and telling me this,
telling me that.

I didn't know. But growing up,
I understood.

You know, it was part of his job.
It's what you had to do.

It's unfortunate what happened,
but um, my dad did his job.

And, I mean,
I accepted what happened.

My father is very compassionate
and cares a lot about other people.

You know, he's always nice to people
even when they're rude.

He's always the nice guy,

tries to be, you know,
the Good Samaritan,

so something like that
deeply affected him.

When I was doing my research
and reporting in Korea,

Jaiwan told me
that he wanted to meet Ray.

So I asked Ray
"How do you feel about it?"

Ray wanted to meet him.

I think he felt and still feels
some ambivalence about it,

but I think Ray thinks
it's something he needs to do,

if only because this boy,
now a man, wants it.

And I think like most things
with Ray, most good things with Ray,

it's done out of
a very virtuous sense of duty.

I also think he wants some closure.

You know, it's peculiar, because
Ray starts out as the good son.

He's going to redeem his father.

And now, what he finds himself
at some level needing...

is the blessing of a son

and it's not just any son,

it's the son

of a man he killed.

Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you.

Yes, please.

Nice to meet you.

If...

I wish I had more things to say.

But my heart is full.

My heart is full. I'm so happy
to finally meet you.

If it's okay, can I introduce
you to my children?

Yes.

Hello.

My daughter Nina.
Nice to meet you.

This is my son Ray
and my son Leo.

Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.

So, this is Jaiwan.

Well, I will tell you
everything you want to know.

I will tell you everything
about when I was...

when they asked me
to fight your father.

I will tell you everything
about before the fight.

I'll tell you everything
you want to know.

Yeah, I remember.
The only time I met your father

was here before the fight,
the press conference and in the ring.

That's it.

But I felt I knew him better than
anybody, better than your mother,

better than his best friend,
because I knew what was in his heart.

You know, he was a warrior,
and in the boxing game,

you may never see each other before
and never see each other after,

but for those moments, you know
each other better than anybody.

I never thought of ever quitting
in any fight, of course.

The only fight
I ever thought of quitting

was in the fight against your father.

I was very proud and very honoured

to have been in the ring
with your father.

He's a true warrior,
and he brought the best out in me.

He brought the best out in me.

I appreciate that. Thank you.

I... you know, Jaiwan,
I felt guilty about his...

about what happened,
for a long time.

I felt guilty because your mother,

and then, of course,
when you were born,

I felt guilty that you would
never meet your father.

But I was able
to make peace with it.

Your father is always going
to be a part of me now

and I'm always going to be
part of his memory

and the Korean people
have treated me wonderful.

They've shown me nothing but love,

so I appreciate that very much

and the fact that you
and your mother come here

and um, to share this with me
and my family,

it, uh, it does...
it's a very...

I appreciate it very much.

I think it was important
for Jaiwan to meet the man

that was the last man to be
in the ring with his father.

It was important for him
to let me know

how he felt early in his life
and how he feels now.

I wanted him to know what type of
man his father was.

It was very hard for me
to meet Young Mi,

only because the man

that she was hoping to spend
the rest of her life with

died at my hands.

I couldn't have asked
for a better meeting.

It's put closure for me
in so many aspects

and the fact that they got
to meet my children,

that's helped me in a tremendous way

and I believe it'll help my children.

I've had times my brother has come
to me in my dreams, and so has Kim.

I do believe I've been able
to make peace with my brother

and make peace with Kim.

I lived with guilt about
the Kim incident for so long.

I've made peace with things.

I've come to grips, come to terms
and I move on.

You know, life's too short, man.
Life's too short.

You got to enjoy every day.

Captions (c) SBS Australia 2013