"I jump into a sand pit for a living"
The Good Son
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(Life of Ray Mancini) Mark Kriegel, New York, Free Press, 2012. ISBN978-0-7432-8635-0
Ray Mancini was a world champion boxer who was involved in a fight in which his opponent (Duk Koo) died. The book described his career, the fatal fight and how he dealt with it.
Mancini was Catholic and there are lots of references to attending Mass, receiving a blessing from a priest after every fight and praying for Duk Koo and his family. Duk Koo’s
Ironically Duk Koo’s family were Christians too
Mancini expressed the dilemma of boxing: “You feel like Hercules. Of course, after the fact you always want a guy to get up after the count of 10. But when you knock him down, is the greatest feeling in the world”.
Yet after the fatal fight, he said: ““I fought for the love of the game. I fought to win the world title for my father. I fault for religious reasons. But after the Duk Koo fight there was nothing righteous about it anymore.”
The fact that death is always present is illustrated by the following three comments:
Ray’s father said after the fight: “Thank God, it could have been you”.
Before the fight Duk Koo had said that he would beat Mancini, that only one of them would return home alive. “either he dies, said Duk Koo. “or I die”.
Ray’s own comment after the fight was: “it was a terrific fight and I saved my title but what am I, a hero?” he asked Alfano. “I was in there with them, and who’s to say it couldn’t be me/and yet, how can I say, ‘it’s better him than me’?”