Well truth be told this bout did nothing but good for Mancini, both in the ring and out of it. His gutsy effort and further heard story gained him immense popularity and he learned a lot in the ring that night as well, not to mention the confidence he gained from going deep against someone as great as Arguello. So ironically i think it was a masterstroke. He showed no ill effects from the loss imo.
I agree, John; it actually showed terrific management. A 20-year old kid with about that many fights going against a legend is only going to help him. If he wins, great! If not, he wasn't supposed to anyway, and he's only 20. Go back to the drawing board. As it was, he was the NABF lightweight champ, and earned it with that shutout decision over Ramirez, so it wasn't wholly unearned either. He deserved the shot about as much as anyone else. I say roll the dice and go for it. He had very little to lose.
I guess Dave Wolf figured Ray, with his tremendous popularity, could always go after the Weak WBA Champion, whoever that might be, if he lost to Arguello. And, that's what happened.
To be fair Arguello left the division for good (just 7 months later) the same month Mancini fought Frias. It would have taken quite a bit more time to build any sort of credible rematch.
Certainly not at that point. If Arguello stayed in the division for longer they may have been able to build it up into a big money fight not long before Mancini got beaten by Bramble. I'm not saying there was a "need" for it, and would agree with you that Ray would never beat Arguello but the money may have talked loud enough for it to happen. Arguello of course was after bigger fish.
Alexis wasn’t considered to be a dominant lightweight champ. Many figured he was starting toward being past it. AA had beaten Jose Luis Ramirez by split decision a year earlier. Mancini had run JLR out of the ring. At the time it wasn’t considered to be overly ambitious and certainly not a mismatch, which it wasn’t. To me this is one of those fights that if it hadn’t actually happened most people picking it now as a fantasy matchup would think it a mismatch that Arguello would absolutely dominate. People surprise us sometimes.
Agreed, Jay Tee. Better rolling the dice and twisting rather than sticking. Mancini performed admirably and didn't fizzle away until late in the fight, when Arguello's experience began to be a telling factor. It's not as if Mancini was outclassed in a one-sided fight. With the benefit of hindsight, of course, the losing effort did him wonders moving forward.
It helped his experience incredibly and he fought very well. This fight is one of his best achievements IMO. Compare this to Gervonta Davis today. Running from a shot at the pound for pound champ for a big purse whilst his completion gets worse and worse. Ugh.
Went back last night and watched Arguello win that title over Jim Watt. Efficient as always. Patient. Steady. But I see nothing there that should have made Mancini’s team want to avoid him.
If you take the money out of , yes, there's no way that if I had been Ray's manager I'd have told him to fight Arguello. But in the end Mancini went as far as he could with his style
