Certain celebrity names and words then attached to them just do not fit.
For example, Charlie Sheen and “abstinence” do not seem to belong paired in the same sentence, paraggraph or story. Radio bloviator Rush Limbaugh and “subtlety” would be another. A third would be Halle Berry and “man troubles.”
How about boxing legend Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini and “yoga?”
I was briefly knocked for a loop when I spoke at length Friday with the Birthday Boy, being feted by “about 50” of his closest friends along with his ex-wife and their three children this evening at a swanky Santa Monica dinner party. (His kids are Carmenina, age 21, 19 year old Leonardo and Raymond or “Ray Ray,” 15.)
I’ve been blessed with a great life,” Manicni said. “And the future is bright. I feel great, i just had my yoga class.”
Mancini was born a half century ago in quintessential blue collar city Youngstown, Ohio, I guess his therapeutic morning yoga habit is one indication that the aggressive slugger has adapted to living in laid back LA.
And, Mancini revealed, he thinks he’s about to become in vogue again.
“My father (former top contender of the 1930s whose ring career was kiboshed by World War II injuries) used to tell me, one day you get headlines, the next day breadlines,” Mancini said. “I had fun with it, being known as the Pride Of Youngstown and all that. I was kind of like what Manny Pacquiao is to his country only on a smaller scale.”
Why is Mancini about to go high profile again?
One, Fox Sports ace columnist Mark Kriegel is finishing up a massive book about Mancini’s life which the fighter said will be more of “a father and son story” than just another boxer bio.
Kriegel, who did wonderful work on past subjects Broadway Joe Namath and basketball icon Pistol Pete Maravich, won’t let Mancini see his completed project but actor Ed O’Neill, a pal of the scribe and Mancini, has enjoyed a literary preview.
“Ed is a very dear friend and he told me about Mark, ‘That mfer can write, you’ll be proud of this book when it comes out next year.’
“I’d be a presumptuous son of a gun to think people want to read about me or some studio wants a movie about me. But, when it comes to the father and son aspect of it, I buy the great interest in that,” Mancini said.
(There was a made for TV biopic in 1985 entitled “Heart Of A Champion.”)
“It’s all about the legacy my father handed down to me. I fought once in Madison Square Garden in the very same ring my father, Joe Louis, Henry Armstrong and Sugar Ray Robinson had boxed in. That’s one of my three biggest thrills, doing that.”
Two, the people who put together the “Facing Ali” documentary about Muhammad’s ring foes, are discussing doing something based on the book.
“Another good friend of mine, the playwright David Mamet, is interested in doing something as well. It’s so crazy. “
If you’re hearing a familiar hit song in the background at this point, it must be the late Warren Zevon’s classic tune named after Mancini.
Mancini spoke about how he came a Zevon musical subject, the song which speaks of “rushing home to watch Boom Boom Mancini fighting Bobby Chacon tonight on TV…”
“It was 1985,” Mancini said, “and I got a call from (unrelated) Chris Mancini, son of the great Henry Mancini. I knew who Zevon was, I knew ‘Send Lawyers, Guns and Money’ and ‘Werewolves of London .’
“Chris told me Warren wanted to meet me, that they were doing a video and I said sure. I think it was for ‘Leave My Monkey’ alone. I go there and he’s working with (funkmaster) George Clinton and the choreographer was Paula Abdul.
“Warren was a big fan of mine and I was honored by the song. It was the Number One radio request in New York and New Jersey for the longest.”
Three, with the possibility now through former Mancini promoter Bob Arum that CBS may get back into televising fights, an obvious sidebar would be the Big Eye network’s boxing superstar of yore, meaning “Boom Boom.”
They used to joke that Mancini got more airtime on CBS than Captain Kangaroo and Mike Wallace combined. Only Walter Cronkite seemed to get more face time on the network.
“Boxing back on network TV would be an absolute boost,” Mancini said. “When I fought on CBS, 60 million Americans saw me. Worldwide, they said 100 million saw me. I had a style the fans liked.”
You can’t write a Mancini story without mentioning his darkest hour of Nov. 13, 1982.
In the 13th round of a brisk Las Vegas title against South Korea’s Deuk Koo Kim, the swarming Mancini landed 39 successive punches. The bout was stopped in round 14 but the damage was done.
Kim suffered brain injuries which caused his death five days later.
In reaction, the WBC immediately dropped 15 round title bouts and reduced them to 12 rounds maximum. What;s often (Coincidentally or not, boxing on the three networks began fading also.) Often overlooked is how Kim went into the bout badly dehydrated from straining to make weight.
“I’ve made my peace with God on this,” Mancini said. “I’m over it but I never knew people could be so thoughtless. People on the street would come up to me and say, ‘What’s it like to kill a man?’ Then they would say, ‘We know you didn’t mean it.'”
Mancini has always been properly respectful of his fallen foe, saying, “Nov. 13 has always been a grieving day for me.”
This night, in Santa Monica, is to celebrate the life and times of one of America’s most colorful and crowdpleasing fighters ever.
I wish I could be there to watch the effusive “Boom Boom” work the room room.
More to follow on the life and times of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini.
