On November 13 th, 1982, Ray ‘Boom-Boom’ Mancini battled Duk Koo Kim from South Korea for the WBA Lightweight Title in Las Vegas, Nevada at Caesars Palace. The spell was outside and arranged for 15 rounds.
It was a hard-fought fight in between both men resulting with Mancini knocking Kim down with a flurry of strikes at the start of the 14 th round. The referee called the fight when Kim stood however was wabbling because of the impacts he had taken to the head. Kim fell down not long after, passed out and fell into a coma.
4 days later on, Kim was noticable dead from brain hemorrhaging. The misfortune did not end there because a few months later on Kim’s mommy devoted suicide therefore did Richard Green that refereed the fight.
Because of Kim’s fatality, significant changes were made in the sport of boxing. Champion fights were shortened from 15 rounds to 12 rounds, required ringside physicians, medical examinations for the boxers before and after each battle, stronger blast protocols and use CT scans and MRIs.
These modifications and others were instrumental in avoiding much more unfortunate deaths in the sport. The number of fatalities declined substantially from 15 plus each year worldwide to much less than 5 with these new procedures.