Boom posted 8/13/2009 10:05:37 PM | 5 kudos what's this?     report abuse

PsychoMagnet

Champions never fight for country boys. I can remember as a young boy trying to tune in the AM radio to hear the really big heavyweight championship bouts. I remember a fellow from my home state being a fighter in those bouts and I recall when my dad stopped liking him when he changed his name. Those fights were for the Las Vegas folks and upper-class people who had access to close circuit TVs. And although it was a given that they would replay those contests on ABC's Wide World of Sports at some point in the future, I eaves dropped through the AM static to hear the contests that were never fought for little country boys and the chants of my fighter's new name.

Boxing was, by far, my favorite sport when I was young. As I grew older, I broadened my interest in the sport by following weight divisions other than heavyweights. I became a fan of a lightweight boxer by the name of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini. I suppose I identified with Mancini because we were about the same age and both of us were products of the working class. I was 20 and Mancini was 21 when he defended his WBA lightweight title against a South Korean boxer named Duk Koo Kim. It was televised live on CBS and I recall watching the match in its entirety. It was the greatest match I'd ever seen. It was my last week as a boxing fan.

I spent the next couple of days recounting the great match to anyone who would listen. I recalled how surprisingly even the fight was all the way up to the 14th round when referee Richard Green stopped the fight during a Mancini flurry.

It wasn't until the next week that I learned that Duk Koo Kim died four days after the fight from brain injuries. I was done with boxing. I felt complicit and ashamed that I cheered while a man was literally beaten to death. I later learned that Kim's grief-stricken mother committed suicide four months after the fight. Mancini stated he felt responsible for Kim's death and was never the same fighter after that. Richard Green, the referee, also felt responsible for not having stopped the fight sooner. Richard Green committed suicide seven months after the fight.

It's a tragic and extraordinary story. I think about the mother and what she couldn't live without. I think about the referee and what he couldn't live with. But that's where it ends. I get no farther in my thinking.

Moments before the fight began a reporter interviewed Duk Koo Kim in his hotel room. As the reporter was packing up after the interview, he noticed some Korean writing on a lamp shade. He asked Kim what it meant and Kim simply replied “Live or die”. I suppose that's plain enough. Even for a country boy.

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Blogs by PsychoMagnet: The Final Post (part 6) The Final Post (part 5) The Final Post (An Introduction) The Final Post (part 4) The Final Post (part 3) The Final Post (part 2) The Final Post (part 1) MacPsycho's Park My Girl Why Can't We Be Friends? Boom A Blog Longer* Than Misschoos** Untitled My Blog, My Friend My Blog, My Bitch Code (end) Code (part 2) Code (part 1) The Rat Pack & Pack Rats T & A . . . gone tomorrow Blogging is Very Sweet, Brother . . . An Open Letter to the President of the United States Everyone Has One . . . Here's Mine 12 Days of Psycho (Day 12)