“BOOM-BOOM GOES BOOM” and “MARTY’S MARK”
#882/#881
882. RAY MANCINI VS ORLANDO ROMERO
LIGHTWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT
SEPTEMBER 15, 1983
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
QUALITY OF PLAY—6.09
DRAMA—7.34
STAR POWER—8.45
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—7.25
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—6.56
LOCAL IMPACT—7.24
TOTAL: 42.93
“BOOM-BOOM GOES BOOM”
Lenny “Boom Boom” Mancini was a tough, all action, never-take-a-step-backwards lightweight in the late-30s and early-40s. He was an NYC staple in the days when a Friday night fight at the Garden was the biggest thing going. Lenny worked his way up on the smaller stages, mostly confined to outerborough fights on school nights—St. Nicholas Arena at 66th and Columbus, the Bronx Coliseum, Sunnyside Gardens in Queens. In particular, Lenny fought at the Broadway Arena in Brooklyn, which held regular Tuesday night cards. Lenny had just begun to sniff the big time when the war came. He went into the army, was wounded in France, and a promising career was lost.
Lenny’s son, Ray, took up the family trade, grabbed the old man’s nickname and attacking style, and vowed to win the title his father never got the chance to hold. Boom Boom Mancini’s passion and irresistible story, not to mention his white skin and boy next door good looks, made him a top draw in the early-80s, when weekend network telecasts were the evolutionary successor to the Friday Night Fights. Mancini rode his determination all the way to the lightweight title, which he won in stirring fashion over Arturo Frias in May, 1982, and CBS was there every step of the way, making Ray a household name who was beloved and hung out with the likes of Italian-American capos like Frank Sinatra and Sylvester Stallone.
But then Mancini defended his title against a Korean fighter named Duk-Koo Kim, and tragedy ensued. The two staged an all-out war over 14 rounds, when Mancini finally knocked out the incredibly game Kim. Sadly, Kim never regained consciousness, thanks to a hematoma in the brain, and died shortly thereafter. The death cast a pall on the sport and a heavy burden on Mancini, who was (unsurprisingly) never really the same afterward.
He was still champ, however, and continued to fight. One cobblestone of his storybook path was untrodden—a fight at Madison Square Garden, where Lenny had fought just once, a controversial draw in 1940. Then the war interfered before he could return to the Garden and claim a shot at the title.
Now, at last, a Mancini would get a championship fight in the big house. Still dazed from the Kim affair, and nursing an injured shoulder that forced him to cancel his previous fight, Mancini’s management matched him with an obscure Peruvian fighter named Orlando Romero.
Besting Romero figured to be a non-issue. “Romero is the lightweight champion of Peru,” Dick Young wrote in the Daily News. “This means he has beaten a truckload of guys named Luis and six llamas.” But the supposed walkover on Thursday night, September 15, 1983, was anything but easy. Ray wore black pants with red trim, the same colors Lenny wore in his pilgrimage to Mecca back in 1940, but the red he mostly wore was his own blood.
Among the 25,000+ to attend the first lightweight title fight at the Garden since Roberto Duran-Ken Buchanan in 1972 (see #935) were several potential future opponents for Ray, all practically drooling over the potential payday. They included Bobby “Schoolboy” Chacon, Hector “Macho” Camacho, and another Ohio fighter, Aaron “The Hawk” Pryor, who had won a sensational bout over the classy Alexis Arguello the night before Mancini’s fateful match with Kim. As Dick Young wrote, “The line that used to stand in front of Sugar Ray Leonard now stands in front of Mancini. With Sugar gone, Mancini is the glamorpuss who can produce the golden gates.”
A fight between the black Pryor of Cincinnati and the white Mancini of Youngstown was pure box office, too good not to happen—so long as Ray held up his end by winning.
Like Kim, Romero was a southpaw, a style that gave Mancini (which means “lefty” in Italian, and who was a converted southpaw himself) fits. “He was strong and determined,” Ray said after the fight. “We were banging good with elbows and heads.” Romero kept barging in on Mancini, who as usual collected shots as he refused to back away. But the Peruvian was supposed to fold under Boom’s intense pressure.
Instead, Romero kept nailing Mancini, leading Chacon to rue at ringside, “There goes the mortgage.” An eighth-round right exploded open the swelling over Ray’s left eyebrow, and under the eye was a long cut. A large mouse was under the right eye, and that was the one that looked good by comparison. In short, Romero was beating Ray up and rearranging his face.
Just when it seemed the impossible would happen, and the Great White Hope would actually lose to the Guy Who Fought Llamas, Ray reached deep inside for some of that drive that got him the championship belt. Midway through the ninth round he threw a straight right followed immediately by a textbook left hook, which caught Romero flush on the chin. “A lucky punch” the Peruvian deemed it, but fortunes are built on luck, and this piece of it kept the Chacon fight alive and the Pryor superfight viable. Romero was not close to rising before being counted out at 1:58 of the ninth round.
The Garden crown exploded, as much from relief than joy.
AFTERMATH:
Instead of an Italian feast with the old man, Boom Boom went to Lenox Hill hospital for treatment of his badly bruised face, neck and hands. It wasn’t as brutal a beating as he got from Kim, but it got Ray to thinking about quitting nonetheless. Lenny was blind in one eye from the accumulated punches he absorbed half a century earlier, and his career had been cut short. Ray, with the likes of Stallone and Sinatra throwing their arms around him, had options outside the ring.
But of course, Ray was a fighter first and foremost, and he kept lacing up the gloves. He took on and demolished “Schoolboy” Chacon, but then lost his title to a nondescript fighter named Livingstone Bramble, who adopted a Caribbean trickster persona to psyche out Mancini. The Pryor fight disappeared after that. Bramble won the rematch as well. Macho Camacho and Greg Haugen also took Ray down, and at last, he was finished. The four straight losses left Mancini with a 29-5 career record, but he (mostly) kept his senses. Romero did as well, moving to Spain after the end of his quality if lackluster career and opening a successful Peruvian restaurant.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“You can’t buy a face.”
—Ray Mancini, gazing at his image after the fight and contemplating retirement.
FURTHER READING:
The Good Son: The Life of Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini by Mark Kriegel
VIDEO:
881.NEW JERSEY DEVILS VS CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS
MARCH 17, 2009
PRUDENTIAL CENTER
QUALITY OF PLAY—7.09
DRAMA—7.63
STAR POWER—7.76
CONTEMPORARY IMPORT—6.05
HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE—7.40
LOCAL IMPACT—7.01
TOTAL: 42.94
“MARTY’S MARK”
Winning games between the pipes was what Martin Brodeur was all about. The legendary New Jersey Devils goalie set an NHL record for most wins (48) in a season in 2006-07, reeled off a dozen straight 30-win seasons between ’95-’96 and ’07-08, won 40+ games eight different times, and had more shutout wins, overtime wins, and shootout wins than any other goalie.
So it stands to reason that Marty won more career games than any other goalie as well. On a chilly Tuesday night at the Prudential Center in Newark, March 17, 2009, Brodeur thrilled the home fans by moving into first place on the all-time list. Three nights before, Marty had bested Montreal to tie the record at 551, held by longtime Canadians goalie Patrick Roy. Brodeur had cut school in Montreal to watch Roy and the Habs in their victory parade after winning the Stanley Cup, and his father was a team photographer for the Canadians, so passing his boyhood idol in front of the legendary Montreal great in Quebec was a dream come true. He even received a standing ovation from the Montreal fans.
“The fans over there, I never had issues with them and people always really liked me, but I still was not a Hab,” Brodeur said. “But they were unbelievable after the game with the standing ovation I got from them.”
Even better was the chance to break Roy’s record at home. That chance came with the Chicago Blackhawks visiting New Jersey. The Devils were in first place in the Atlantic Division, the Hawks ensconced in second in the Central, so the game meant little in terms of warming up for the playoffs that would start in a few weeks. Appropriately enough, it was St. Patrick’s Day, although Roy was not among the 17,625 in the house for the momentous evening. Fans lined up early in the morning to purchase $10 standing room tickets just to say they were there.
“People expect me to do it,” Brodeur said before the game. “I don’t want to disappoint them. I don’t want to drag it out too long. It’s definitely nerve-wracking.”
The tone was set just 38 seconds into the game, when Jamie Langenbrunner scored for the Devils. The night was supposed to be all about Brodeur, but first his team had to win, and helping that along was another record-setter. Patrik Elias became the new franchise leader in points, usually an enormous moment inside the building but mainly overlooked on this night. Elias got his 702nd all-time point with an assist, a set up for Brian Gionta, who finished while shorthanded to give the Devils a 3-0 lead in the second. It appeared Brodeur would cruise to the record.
But things got nervy. Chicago got one back in the second, and with just over two minutes to play, Dustin Byfuglien got one past Brodeur to make it 3-2. “I was a clock-watcher for a little bit,” Brodeur admitted.
Fortunately for everyone in the rink, Brodeur stopped a late shot for his 30th save, one last shot was blocked at the horn, and the final was recorded—3-2, New Jersey. Brodeur leapt off the ice and was mobbed by his teammates, all celebrating his 552nd career win, the most all-time for any goaltender.
AFTERMATH:
Brodeur spent the next several minutes basking in a prolonged standing ovation, took a lap of honor, and cut the net from the pipes for a keepsake.
Brodeur wasn’t close to finished. He racked up 139 more victories to end up with 691 wins in 1,266 career games. An obvious Hall of Famer, Brodeur was immortalized in 2018 after a career that saw three Stanley Cups, two Olympic gold medals, four Vezina Trophies, and the Calder Trophy for being rookie of the year way back in 1994. Elias wound up his career with the most goals (408) and points (1025) of any Devils player in history.
WHAT THEY SAID:
“It’s finally over. I thought it was cool in Montreal, but this was better.”
—Martin Brodeur
FURTHER READING:
“Chance to Pass Roy Made Wins Record Special for Brodeur” by Dan Rosen, NHL.com
VIDEO: