abstract
| - The song is greatly based on lightweight boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini. The chorus documents, in the first verse the Mancini-Arturo Frias fight in Las Vegas on May 8, 1982. In what was often called the best first round in boxing history, Frias wobbled Mancini and bloodied the challenger's nose in the fight's opening minute, only to have Mancini drop him and win the fight by knockout in the last minute of the first round. ("And he put him away in round number one.") The song documents Mancini's now legendary fight with Alexis Arguello for the lightweight title, as he started out strong, however was defeated in the end. The song's bridge also documents Mancini's match against the South Korean challenger, Duk Koo Kim, his first title defense. It was a 14 round fight. Kim suffered brain injuries that led to his death five days later and Mancini went to the funeral in South Korea, but he fell into a deep depression afterwards. He has said that the hardest moments came when people approached him and asked if he was the boxer who "killed" Duk Koo Kim. William Zevon, Warren's father, also worked as a boxer, and this may have been what lead to Zevon to write this song.
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