Boom Boom Mancini and the Blue Horizon Tragedy
Posted by Johnny Goodtimes on November 24th, 2009
For those of us in our 30s and up, the tragic death of Francisco Rodriguez at the Blue Horizon brings to mind the Boom Boom Mancini-Duk Koo Kim fight. (Part 4 of Mancini bio, part that covers the Duk Koo Kim, above. Part 5, which also discusses the fallout, is here.)Mancini went from being a rising star to “The guy who killed Duk Koo Kim.” The above video gives some background of the fight, and how it wrecked the lives of everyone involved: Mancini went into a deep depression, and his career was never the same. Kim’s mother committed suicide a few months after the fight, and the referee of the fight, Richard Green, killed himself within the year.
There can be few jobs in the world more pressure packed than being a boxing referee. Stop it too soon and the loser declares the fight a fraud. Stop it too late and someone could suffer brain damage or in this case death. Certainly, the referee in this fight will be haunted by his decision for the remainder of his life, as will the ringside doctor.
Ring physician Jonathan Levyn checked in on Rodriguez several times to monitor his condition and said that he saw no evidence that the fighter was in particular distress.
“I’ve replayed it over and over in my mind – the fight itself, the time between rounds,” Levyn said. “He was coherent. He answered all my questions – simple questions like, ‘Where are you? What’s your name?’ And his eyes were reactive. It seemed like he was OK.
“A few minutes later, I was being called back into the ring [to attend to Rodriguez].”
Our thoughts are not only with the family of the deceased and of Teon Kennedy, but our hearts also go out to all of the people who will be second guessing their own decisions on that night for the rest of their lives; the referee, the fight doctor, and Rodriguez’s cornermen.
RELATED: Excellent article by Bernard Fernandez in today’s Daily News in which he talks to Mancini.
RECOMMENDED READING: A fascinating article about Emile Griffith, whose continued blows to the head of Bennie Paret caused his death in 1962.