Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini one of hardest hitters?

Mancini was a media darling. In fact he was not that good a fighter. Open, porous, defense. Overrated power.

 

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Well the stars have aligned and i actually mostly agree with this.

The media did indeed overhype Ray and not in a small way. The media picked up the story of his fathers plight (top contender, wounded in the war, limited thereafter) and Ray;s determination to win the title for his father and run with it in a big way from memory. It was at the forefront of his challenge with Arguello and he further won hearts after giving the slow starter Arguello trouble in the early rounds and fighting valiantly when the tide turned all the way to being stopped. Then we had the emotional scenes post fight where Mancini spoke thru tears with dad there and then Alexis gracious as ever poured praise on Ray to a rousing receeption.

Ray's huge hearted effort against Alexis and heart felt story (win the title for dad) i think led to him being somewhat overrated and the amount of press exposure didn't match the quality of product so to speak.

None of this was Ray's fault of course. I can't go so far as to call him a very good fighter but he was good or somewhere in between i guess. He had good power and heart but was very well managed as said earlier.

I think the Bramble fights give us a good glimpse into the level of both fighters. Bramble was considered one of the very top P4P boxers in the world based on just the wins over Mancini and the highly touted but unproven Tyrone Crawley. Bramble was then destroyed by Edwin Rosario, Crawley barely fought again, Bramble largley struggled and Ray retired.

Good fighters and part of an exciting little era of action packed 135'ers.

 

Overrated

 

he was not a huge puncher, but a decent puncher who swarmed and could hurt guys swarming them. Bramble was overrated and got Mancini on the downside. Bramble was exposed in his fight vs. Rosario who outclassed him and easily beat him. Ironically. Mancini wouldnot have been beaten by Rosario the way Bramble was. he was more versatile than just standing there and blocking punches and walking forward like Bramble.

 

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This is a very good post. I forgot that name Dave Wolf. Wow years ago. Somehow I can see Mancini beating Rosario-knocking him out. Bramble had that style of putting hand up like you said and blocking punches so he would punch after withstanding the combinations rather than during the exchanges,if I remember his style correctly. With Rosario that sure backfired. Mancini would be punching more as Rosario punched and it would be more of a back and forth. Anything could happen. I always found the Rosario vs. Bramble fight fascinating. Just how easily Rosario beat him. I still remember in round one a couple of punches rocked Bramble and made him slow down, then right before the bell rang a punch rocked him and he seemed to have a little shakey legs going back to his corner from a sneaky right by Rosario. Then the onslaught in round 2 came after Bramble got him to the ropes and hit him with a left uppercut.. And then the momentum came. I was still shocked.

 

Rosario's punches did seem to carry much more dynamite than Mansini's.

Notice how Bramble tried to catch Rosario while Rosario was still praying in his corner! Had the referee cooperated that would have been it!

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