Tragedy in the Ring: Duk Koo Kim vs. Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini

Now, let's face it, most people who watched flyweight champion Vic Darchinyan batter his way toward victory over a game, but very out-classed Jorge Arce last Saturday night couldn't help but wonder if this kid was going to be OK.

Arce had cuts above both eyes and looked to be out on his feet when the Mexican returned to his corner after the end of the 11th round.

The ringside physician's decision to stop this senseless beating was not argued or challenged by anyone in Arce's corner or in attendance.

So it came as no surprise when we heard that he had been taken to the hospital by ambulance. The 29-year-old’s blood pressure was reportedly fluctuating and Arce admitted he felt “unbalanced” following the post-fight press conference.

Arce was checked out by hospital physicians and released from the hospital early Sunday morning. Arce's first statement after leaving the hospital in the early Sunday morning hours is a testament to a fighter with true heart and courage.

"All I really wanted was to go the full 12 rounds," he said.

Thank God that Arce is going to be OK and live to fight another 12 rounds on another day; there have been fighters throughout boxing's long history who haven't been so lucky. Lightweight Boxer Duk Koo Kim is one of of those fighters.

Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini was as tough as they come; he won the WBA lightweight title in May of 1982 against another tough as nails fighter named Arturo Frias. His first defense of his newly acquired title went over without a hitch; Ray scored an impressive sixth-round knockout over Ernesto Espana.

On Nov. 13, 1982, a 21-year-old kid named Ray Mancini faced a 23-year-old South Korean challenger named Duk Koo Kim. This was Mancini's second title defense and it would alter his life forever, and also permanently change the great sport of boxing.

Kim was a fighter with courage, speed, and stamina, and also a worthy opponent, but a powerful right-hand bomb from Mancini during the 14th round sent the young Asian boxer flying backwards; he laid motionless, knocked out cold along the ring ropes.

Kim sustained very traumatic brain injuries that led to his death five days later.

Mancini went to the funeral in South Korea; he has said that the hardest moments in his life came when people in South Korea approached him and asked if he was the boxer who "killed" Duk Koo Kim.

The black cloud of depression followed Mancini from that day forward; he then suffered through a period of soul searching; to this day he still he blames himself for Kim's death.

The South Korean boxer's death also became a terrible omen; Kim's mother committed suicide four months after her sons last fight. Richard Green, who refereed the tragic event, also took his own life, in July of 1983.

The events of that tragic November in 1982 would also mark the beginning of the end for 15-round Championship Boxing matches. The WBC took immediate steps to shorten its title bouts to a maximum of 12 rounds.

The WBA and WBO followed in 1988, and the IBF also changed theirs to 12 rounds in the spring of 1989.

"..hurry home early, hurry on home

boom boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon

when they asked him who was responsible for the death of Duk Koo Kim

he said, "someone should have stopped the fight and told me it was him"

hurry home early, hurry on home

boom boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon"

—Warren Zevon

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