D.K.K. - R.I.P.
Duk Koo Kim died on this day 24 years ago at the age of 23, five days after a brutal beating in the ring from Boom Boom Mancini. Days before the fight, Kim had written "kill or be killed" on the mirror of his Las Vegas hotel room.
The fight led to a number of reforms in boxing - most notably, the reduction of title bouts from 15 to 12 rounds.
Kim's death haunted Mancini for the rest of his career and continues to haunt him to this day. As for the fight's referee, Richard Greene, he killed himself three months after Kim died. Kim's mother killed herself soon after that.
2 Comments:
Jesus,
this was a bit before my time. I have never heard this story before now, so thanks for posting it. It reminds me of the tragic Leavander Johnson death last year. It also reminds me that boxing is a brutal sport that is essentially legalized assault. Two men beating the fuck out of each other until one can't stand anymore. But still, no man should ever die in the ring.
Yeah, Chief - but for Benny Paret this is probably the most famous ring death ever. Mostly because the shit was on Wide World of Sports. Twelve-year-old little Large watched it - I remember it well. I loved Mancini, and the Kim fight was a brawl of brawls. The subsequent death turned the whole sport upside down.
Basically, it was on the ref. Kim was a hair away from death when he went out for the 14th - he never should have been allowed to continue. He was a standing corpse in there. It wasn't like the Paret death, where it happened so suddenly, in the space of like eight punches.
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