The Standing Eight Count-Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini Gets his Just Due and More

By Dave Wilcox

This past week, the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York announced their Inductees for the class of 2015. In a very slow year, the IBHOF did a nice job of making this class a fun one, if nothing else.

The Class of 2015 consists of quite a diverse group of guys. One of them is the very disappointing former heavyweight champion of the world, Riddick “Big Daddy” Bowe. The disappointing thing about Bowe for this scribe is the fact that his skill and potential was that of legend but his dedication and work ethic was not. I guess his two victories over “The Real Deal”, Evander Holyfield were enough to get him in.

Former World Featherweight champion of the world, Prince Naseem Hamed was also given the highest honor. Hamed defended his Featherweight strap fifteen times and that proved to be more than enough qualification for the “Prince” to punch his ticket to Canastota. Personally, I thought Hamed was a bafoon and one of my least favorite fighters in recent memory, but his skill and accomplishments cannot be overlooked, even though I tried my best to ignore him.

In the old-timers category, they inducted my wife. Just kidding, my wife wasn’t even nominated. However, from the looks of how she’s kept my rear end in check for twenty five years, if given the opportunity, Hall of Fame director, Ed Brophy would give her a fist cast just to avoid the “Dave-like” beatings good ole’ Deborah Wilcox can drop on him!

Out of the three old-timers that were nominated two were fighters from Japan, Yoko Gushiken and Masao Ohba. Gushiken won the light flyweight title in 1976 and defended it an incredible 13 times in only four years. He would lose the title in 1981 and retire at the young age of 25.

Ohba won a WBA Flyweight championship in 1970 and three weeks after a title defense against Chartchai Chionoi, Ohba was killed in a car crash. He was only 23 years old and finished his outstanding career at 35-2-1, 16 KO’s.
Ken Overlin was the third in the old-timer category. He was a middleweight champion that ended his career with a record of 135-19-2NC , 23 KO’s. Does that say 135 wins? My god, you could combine the records of all the champions today and they might not equal the number of bouts that old guy had.

Others that were inducted in the Non-Participant category:

Publicist John F.X. Condon
Manager Rafael Mendoza
Referee Steve Smoger (The first question I will ask Steve at the HOF is what should I call that color on his head. Is it redwood? Mahogany? I’m pretty sure it’s a color never before seen in captivity.)

In the observer’s category:

Boxing Writer and Editor Nigel Collins

Announcer Jim Lampley (Lampley is my horse in this race to surpass the great ego maniac and 2012 IBHOF inductee, Michael Buffer for the longest and most self-serving speech of all time. Don’t let me down, Lamps, I’m putting all my money down in Vegas.)

You didn’t think I forgot about the biggest name and most exciting inductee for the Class of 2015, did you?

After twenty-two years, the Hall of Fame finally pulled their collective heads out of their hind quarters and made the call to the Youngstown, Ohio legend of Boxing and beyond, Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini.

I have no idea what took them so long. I understood the knee jerk reaction of letting Gatti in because of his tragic death, but how the hell do guys like Gatti and Barry McGuigan get in and not Mancini? Ray must have really pissed some people off to be ignored for so long. Thank the good lord that it all worked out in the end.

(Picture:  Ray Mancini and RSR Photographer Eric Fleming) Ray Mancini was more than a fighter. He transcended the sport of Boxing. He fought with heart, he fought for his family and he fought for Youngstown, Ohio. As a California boy, I watched his historic rise to fame in my living room because every fight was on television and Mancini pulled us all in to his story as he mesmerized us with his fighting style and unmatched personality and marketability.

Those were glorious days for the sport we love and especially for Ray Mancini.

I have heard all the criticisms on why Ray should not be inducted like his lack of “big wins” or the ridiculous opinion that Mancini “was nothing but a brawler” and his short career and number of fights.

Those are all very arguable points for sure.

As for the “he’s nothing but a brawler” point that I frequently hear. That is an absolute ignorant opinion. Ray Mancini had the heart of a brawler and his very thin skin made it appear he was a brawler, but I assure you, he was far from that.

Go find yourself a copy of the Jose Luis Ramirez fight. In that fight, a young Mancini took the great Mexican warrior to school over fifteen rounds.
He also traded bombs with the great Alexis Arguello as a young fighter and gave the great one fits before falling by knockout in the 14th round.
Arguello had a deep respect for Ray and justifiably so.

I understand the argument about his record, but unfortunately, Mancini’s career took a turn after the tragic title defense against Deuk-Koo Kim on a sunny day in Las Vegas on November 13th, 1982. Deuk Koo-Kim would die from injuries suffered in his grueling bout with the champ and Mancini just was never was quite the same after that.

Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini actually lost his last four contests. The two bouts with Livingstone (don’t call me Rasi) Bramble and the long awaited Hector “Macho” Camacho fight were followed by the very painful and unnecessary KO loss to Greg Haugen in April of 1992.

Those four fights spanned eight full years.

I would argue very strongly that Mancini won the Bramble rematch and the Camacho fight. In those fights, Mancini showed what a good technical boxer he really was.

Whatever your opinion is on Mancini’s career or credentials, I think we can all agree that we need guys like Ray “Boom-Boom” Mancini in Boxing for it to survive past this era of the two guys that claim to be great but won’t fight each other!

Congratulations to almost all the inductees (see Lampley) but especially to Mancini for finally being recognized as he should have many years ago.

Tweet of the week:

After last week’s tweet of the week on Jameis Winston, I decided this twitter thing was much too much for a guy of my limited intelligence to navigate.
In that regard, I commissioned my 17 year old son, Richard to be in charge of finding me the weekly “Tweet of the week”

The “Tweet of the week” will strive to put the spotlight on ignorance and stupidity on a weekly basis.

This week’s head scratcher comes from Actor Will Smith’s son, Jaden Smith, and I quote….

“If everybody in the world dropped out of school, we would have a much more intelligent society”

Huh? I think what young Smith meant to say is that if everyone had two billionaire parents and didn’t have to worry about education or bettering themselves, the world would be a better place.

Random Thoughts:

-Man oh man did I dodge a bullet last night. I planned all day to buy the Jean Pascal pay per-view yesterday and backed out last minute because the college football was getting interesting.

The bullet I dodged wasn’t the horrific card in Canada, but the wrath of the lovely and talented, Deborah Wilcox. I promised the wife no more four hundred dollar Direct TV bills and twenty five bucks for that garbage would have been hard to explain to the boss.

-I have never been more impressed in my entire lifetime as I was last night as I watched Hugo Centeno’s hair. Not one strand moved during his 5th round knockout win last night over James DeLaRosa. It was the stuff of legends. Well done Hugo.

-Shannon Briggs is a kook

-A very Happy Birthday to one of my all-time fighters, Mike “The Body Snatcher” McCallum. You want to talk about underrated fighters? Look no further than “The Body Snatcher”, he was dodged by many and respected by all. His left hook that sent Donald Curry to the Super Middleweight division was one of the most glorious punches that this here guy has ever witnessed.

-Getting back to college football for a minute. What is it with these names? All day, all I heard were references to “Scooby” “Jimbo” or “BoBo”. Whatever happened to “Jim” and “Steve”?

Come on parents, step up you name game.

-One last thing on the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota. This year’s Induction weekend is taking place on June 11th through the 14th and if you have never been there, I encourage all Boxing fans to make it a point to do so.

There is nothing fancy about the town. It’s a friendly little town that welcomes visitors with open arms.

You have basically three choices for food in the quaint town of Canastota. You can go to McDonald’s, Yum-Yum Donuts or the most famous of all Canastota places, Graziano’s Restaurant and Inn.

Did I mention Graziano’s is where everyone goes to hang out, eat, drink and talk?

You will have unbelievable access to fighters, trainers, referees and any time of Boxing personality there is. There are no entourages, no security guards, just you, a guy like Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor sitting next to you at the bar and my old buddy, Pete Coors.

It is a weekend that can’t be missed by any fight fan.

See you there!

Keep punching