Kenny "Bang Bang" Bogner vs Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini

A co-worker of mine was friends with Bogner back in high school up in Trenton, NJ... Bogner ended up in trouble and incarcerated and the propossed fight with Mancini never took place... The first meeting was supposed to take place in South Africa on May 27th, 1983.... This awesome double-bill would have seen Mancini-Bogner share top billing with Duran-Moore... The chairman of the board himself, Frank Sinatra, was going to sing in this proposed extravanganza.... After the Mancini-Bogner fight was scraped Duran-Moore became one headliner in the Garden on Roberto's 32nd birthday - June 16th, 1983... My buddy from work said Bogner became a very sinister character later becoming involved in drugs, robbery, extortion, would rough up and beat his girlfriend... Would he have had a realistic chance against the then very formidable "Boom Boom?" Bogner, like Mancini, was beaten by Livingston Bramble, Kenny in 1981 when he was 12-0 and Bramble was 6-0, Mancini in june 1984 and later in early 1985 where Ray fought very well in a losing effort.... An October 1984 fight between these two men was discussed but lost most of it's luster and championship implications when Ray lost to bramble.

 

Bogner was set make a huge purse for fighting Mancini... I'm not sure exactly why the fight never took place... I believe I read something at the time about the proposed card being cancelled because Arum got cold feet about putting it in South Africa which had apartheid at the time... By the time the fight was going to be re-sheduled Mancini lost the title and Bogner got arrested.