ESPN Classic on Mancini vs. Kim '82

Wow. What an hour on Triumph & Tragedy.

I remember being 8, watching the fight on CBS Sports Saturday (might have been Sunday). I didn't grasp exactly what I was watching until I heard, later on the news, that Kim was probably going to die. I still remember reading about the fight in the SI that week, when it arrived, and seeing pictures of that fight still get to me even after all the years.

As much as ESPN may get ripped, I was very impressed with the documentary, 25 years later. That was such a different era in sport, where boxing was still a big deal.

Anyone here cover that fight at Caesars or see the show last night?

 

I forgot to watch it, but I set the TIVO for a rerun tomorrow or Friday (there are four airings scheduled over the two days).

I was eight or nine then, too, and it was definitely a late Saturday afternoon fight. And you're right...boxing was such a big deal. Seemed like my dad and I would watch a great title bout every week. I remember Howard Cosell saying he was never going to cover boxing again after Larry Holmes beat the ever holy shit out of Tex Cobb on a Friday night,

 

One of the few connections my dad and I had was boxing... although I never totally got into it, his interest piqued mine...

Boom Boom Mancini was my favorite boxer back then, and man did I ever learn to hate Livingstone Bramble... but anyway...

This fight, and its aftermath, was one of the defining sports moments of my childhood...

 

The night before Mancini/Kim was Pryor/Arguello, an all-time classic that was almost as brutal. Arguello was my favorite fighter.
I was 16. I spent the morning at a wrestling clinic at BC that featured former Olympic Gold medalist Ben Peterson. Caught the rest of the BC/Syracuse game (free tickets came with the price of the clinic) and caught the rest of the fight when I got home.
I remember seeing Kim carried out of the ring at the end of the show and keeping track of what was going on with him for the rest of the week. The girl I was seeing at the time was a big Mancini fan.
Sorry if none of that made any sense. It was just one of those things in my life that I remember all too vividly.

 

The fight inspired a Warren Zevon song

"Hurry Home Early - Hurry on Home"

 

Really good show, and a lot of memories. Growing up in Mancini's neighborhood, you could feel a kind of collective sadness after this fight.

 

That was Mancini vs. Bobby Chacon not Mancini-Kim.

"Hurry home early, hurry on home
Boom Boom Mancini's fighting Bobby Chacon."

 

Yeah, but there are a few lines devoted to the Kim fight: "... In a hypocrite judgment, after the fact ..."

 

Someone asked Cobb about that and he said he'd do it all again if it would get Cosell the hell off of Monday Night Football, too.

 

On that You Tube clip of Hurry Home Early, it looks like Paul Schaefer on piano.
He appears clearly in the last minute-and-a-half of the vid.
Schaefer had sporadic dealings with Zevon through the years, but not sure if it's actually him in the vid clip.