Ray ‘Boom Boom’ Mancini won the WBA Lightweight title on May 8,1982 with a first round knockout of Art Frias in Las Vegas. He had already become of one boxing’s favorites because of his aggressive style and his heart warming story of wanting to win the championship for his father Lenny. He defended his title six times over two years before signing to fight the number one contender Livingstone ‘Pit Bull’ Bramble on June 1, 1984 in Buffalo, New York.
Mancini was a 4-1 favorite going into the bout, which got ugly in pre-fight press conferences when Bramble cursed in front of Ray’s little kids and called him a murderer after the awful Deuk Koo Kim in November 1982 in which Kim died from head injuries suffered during the brawl. Ray vowed revenge against Bramble at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo and I was rooting hard for him myself.
After getting home from my second shift at my airline job outside of Philadelphia, I ran up to my bedroom to watch the fight I had taped on my brand new $650 VCR. The undercard for the main event was interesting but the main event was what I was staying up late into the night for. I was always impressed with what tremendous physical condition Mancini got himself into for his bouts and how hard he trained. Knowing nothing about Bramble, when the first round bell rang, I didn’t know what to expect.
Ray was the aggressor from the start, but the ambidextrous Bramble was impressive to watch counter Mancini and land his own hard shots. Ray suffered a cut over his eye from a head butt in the first round, but kept his composure and went back to work. The rounds were competitive and close but Bramble continued to surprise me by how good he was. As the fight approached the tenth round, Bramble was in control and landing hard shots over and over. Ray rallied in the eleventh but Bramble took over in the twelfth again. Finally in the fourteenth, he hammered Mancini until referee Marty Denkin called a halt to the action, making Bramble the new lightweight champ.
My tape cut off just as the fight ended, but I had seen enough to realize how tough and talented Bramble was. I may not have liked him but it didn’t take away from the fact that the guy was good and I didn’t see anyone at lightweight that could beat him off of this performance.
When I got up the next morning to go for my run, the fight played over in my mind over and over. While I was sad Ray had lost, I was glad I got a chance to see it because of new VCR, which would become a huge part of my life for years as I amassed a huge collection of fights I taped. Another amazing thing was that the fight was on free television, hard for anyone to believe that is younger than 30. Nowadays if you want to watch a fight, no matter how mediocre it is, you’re going to pay to see it.
As each year passes, I am more and more grateful I got to grow up in ‘Boxing’s Modern Golden Era’, and appreciate that fact more every day. On June 1, 1984, Ray Mancini and Livingstone Bramble fought in a war in Buffalo, New York that made it one of ‘Boxing’s Classics’.
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