Argüello interview days before death

I wonder if they found out who murdured him.

 

The obvious weight gain could be a telltale sign of some distress. A few years earlier, my father said he still looked great at the IBHOF.

Naturally, I like how he lays into the elimination of the championship distance, although he pulls his punches a bit one the issue with characteristic diplomacy.

 

He doesn't sound like someone about to off himself. He sounds pretty logical.

 

Thanks for this.

Love reading and hearing about Arguello. The man was so wise.

 

It can be hard to tell with someone who has long standing, strong, clinical depression, many having decided to live and endure as long as they can with it can compartmentize and often be sharp and focused as a tack,,,but the dangerous times to themselves are also often. I was deeply saddened and shocked by his death, but also not totally suprised.

 

Great, thanks OP. Isn't Mayorga married to Alexis's daughter? I think I remember reading about some argument a few years ago

 

Very well said, I couldn't add one thing to how you put things down.

 

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I think he was, a while back. I don't think Alexis really liked him that much though.

 

Gentleman and protective father Alexis with street hoodlum cussing thug at his dinner table sitting next to his daughter. I'd love to be a spectator if Alexis offered him out Mayorga probably isn't really a bad guy under all that, just the type to get the blood boiling

What do we think Arguello of Pryor 1 verses Mayorga of Forrest 1. I think Mayorga is underrated but gets a beating here

 

It's horrible to contemplate, but he did actually quit at the end of the Pryor rematch, pounding the canvas with his glove in frustration as the tears welled up in his eyes while listening to Richard Steele toll off the count. Years later in a candid interview, he made light of the fact that he actually did give up in that situation.

A myriad of personal demons after his retirement was very much public knowledge. Reportedly, a drugs, sex and rock 'n roll binge of unrestrained self indulgence was very much a part of his nightlife during participation in Canastota's induction weekends. He had aspirations of being a good Catholic, habitually crossing himself at the outset of rounds during competition, yet couldn't help yielding to the temptation of excesses available to him as a major celebrity. Certainly I don't want to believe he pulled the trigger, but the forces tearing him apart would have been formidable. He watched what happened to Pryor in horror, knowing he was subject to those same pitfalls.

How he publicly presented himself right to the end must be tempered with the realization that his mentor Eduardo Roman had him reading Dale Carnegie and tutored him in gentlemanly conduct. By the time he died, he had over 35 years of public relations experience on top of that. I don't know that we can read anything at all into his nuance and content here. At this stage of his life, he was so polished that he could have tutored celebrity train wrecks born decades after his prime on the art of image rehabilitation. (It's not just that Dr. Roman had him read Carnegie at a young age, but that those concepts work when understood and applied, and have worked for nearly a century now, ever since Carnegie began teaching them in 1912.)

The championship distance is a pet issue for many, but some of my tirades about the subject have been particularly venomous. Over a quarter century since Mancini-Kim provided the excuse to begin eliminating the championship distance though, I wonder if far too much time has elapsed for that amputated limb to ever be reattached successfully. Like the National Hockey League, boxing was managed horribly at the most critical moment, and descended into a niche specialty interest while well managed sports continued to ascend and thrive. (Contrasting the decline of professional boxing and the NHL with the emergence of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson along with the subsequent explosive expansion of the NBA would prove revealing case history contrasts. Why did some sports rise dramatically just when others fell into the abyss? This can be all important, because of where the best athletes are attracted to compete in today.)