Forty years ago today Ray Mancini defeated Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kim’s subsequent death (on November 17) lead to significant changes in the sport. One of the most significant was the WBC’s reduction of title fights from fifteen rounds to twelve. The WBA and the IBF followed the WBC in 1987, as Kim was knocked down in the fourteenth round. Kim had never fought a 15-round bout before.
In the years after Kim’s death new medical procedures were introduced to fighters’ pre-fight checkups, such as electrocardiograms, brain tests, and lung tests. 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, committed suicide July 1, 1983.
Kim left behind a fiancée, Lee Young-Mee, despite rules against Korean boxers having girlfriends. At the time of Kim’s death Lee was pregnant with their son, Kim Chi-Wan, who was born in July 1983. Kim Chi-Wan became a dentist. In 2011 mother and son had a meeting with Ray Mancini as part of a documentary on the life of Mancini called The Good Son.
DODELIJKE SLACHTOFFERS IN DE BOKSSPORT VANAF 8/12/2011
08/12/2011 Roman Simakov (Rusland, 27)
06/05/2012 Willman Rodriguez Gomez (kickbokser, Peru, 29)
Op 8/12/2016 (vijf jaar na de dood van Simakov dus) moet ik vaststellen dat er dus inderdaad weinig dodelijke slachtoffers vallen in het boksen (de “inderdaad” slaat op wat Freddy De Kerpel me destijds heeft verteld) of… ik ben gewoonweg vergeten dat ik hiervoor plaats had ingeruimd op mijn blog (in de sportbladzijden van de krant lees ik alleen het nieuws over wielrennen, al de rest sla ik over).
dagelijks iets degelijks 