NOVEMBER 13 1982, LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - In a arena outside of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, World Lightweight Champion Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini stepped into the ring with the world’s #1 challanger, Duk Koo Kim of South Korea.

Kim carried a professional career record of 17-1-1 and had won 12 straight bouts coming into the fight. However, he had only fought outside of South Korea once before, and never against the likes of Mancini. Needless to say, he was not very highly regarded by the American boxing establishment.

The days leading up to the fight were strange indeed for the 23 year old southpaw. He struggled to lose weight prior to the bout so that he could weigh in under the lightweight’s 135-pound limit. Prophetically, he wrote the message “live or die” on his Las Vegas hotel lamp shade only days before the bout (Kim wrote “live or die” but a mistaken translation led to “kill or be killed” being reported in the media). He even had a mini-coffin brought to his hotel room.

Once the fight started, Mancini and Kim went toe to toe for a good portion of it, to the point that Mancini briefly considered quitting. Kim tore open Mancini’s left ear and puffed up his left eye, and Mancini’s left hand swelled to twice its normal size. However, by the latter rounds, Mancini began to dominate the young challenger, landing many more punches than Kim did. In the 11th he buckled Kim’s knees. One sequence in the 13th round featured Mancini punching Kim 39 times in a row. Still, Kim rallied and landed a few weak punches by the end of the round, and referee Richard Green did not stop the fight. When the fighters came out for the 14th round, Mancini charged forward and hit Kim with a right. Kim reeled back, Mancini missed with a left, and then Mancini hit Kim with another hard right hand. Kim went flying into the ropes, his head hitting the canvas hard. Kim managed to rise unsteadily to his feet, but Green stopped the fight and Mancini was declared the winner by TKO nineteen seconds into the 14th round.

Minutes after the fight was over, Kim collapsed into a coma, and was taken out of the arena on a stretcher. Emergency brain surgery was performed at the hospital to try to save him, but Kim died 4 days later.

Mancini was haunted by the fighters death, and considered quitting fighting all together. Friends managed to convince him that the death was just a tragic accident, and he decided to continue on with his career. His promoter, Bob Arum, said Mancini “was never the same” after Kim’s death. Two years later, Mancini lost his title to Livingstone Bramble.

Kim’s mother flew from Korea to Las Vegas to be with her son before the life support equipment was turned off. Three months later, she took her own life by drinking a bottle of pesticide. The bout’s referee, Richard Green, blamed himself for allowing the fight to go on and committed suicide July 1, 1983.

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