Alexis Arguello vs Ray Mancini

A young challenger’s bold attempt to carry off the lightweight championship ended in the fourteenth round at Bally’s Park Place Hotel Casino in Atlantic City on October 3, 1981, when Alexis Arguello stopped Ray Mancini after 1 minute 44 seconds. Mancini had been knocked down by a right hand in the twelfth and was dropped again in the fourteenth, whereupon referee Tony Perez ended the contest without completing a count. Arguello thereby retained the WBC and Ring championships in his first defence.

Arguello, weighing 135 pounds, entered with a record of 67 victories and five defeats. He had won world titles at featherweight and junior lightweight before outpointing Jim Watt for the lightweight crown in London three months earlier. Mancini weighed 134 pounds and was unbeaten in 20 professional contests. At 20 years of age, he had already won the NABF title and defeated the experienced José Luis Ramírez. His effort to win the championship carried particular meaning because his father, Lenny Mancini, had been a leading lightweight contender before wartime injuries ended his own title ambitions. More than 500 supporters travelled from Youngstown, Ohio, to back the challenger.

Mancini began quickly, crouching beneath the taller champion’s jab and moving forward with both hands. He worked at Arguello’s body and attempted to deny him the time required to measure his long right hand. Arguello, who held advantages in height, reach and experience, did not contest Mancini’s early pace unnecessarily. He remained upright, blocked what he could and studied the challenger’s movement while giving away several of the opening rounds.

The pressure continued through the early stages. Mancini used his shorter build effectively, stepping inside and punching in combinations before Arguello could extend his arms. His work was energetic but purposeful, and he was not merely rushing the champion. Arguello answered with straight punches and hooks to the body, but Mancini’s activity made him the more conspicuous worker. The Youngstown contingent responded loudly whenever he drove the champion backwards.

After the fifth round, Arguello began reducing Mancini’s early advantage. He found the distance for his jab and increasingly caught the challenger as he entered. His body punching also became more regular. Mancini continued advancing, but each approach now carried a greater cost. Arguello’s punches were delivered with little wasted motion, and his right hand began finding the target behind the challenger’s left glove.

The contest remained close through the tenth. At that stage one official had Arguello ahead, another favoured Mancini, and the third had them level. Mancini had supplied the greater volume and had forced much of the action, while Arguello had landed the cleaner and heavier blows. Neither man had been knocked down, and there had been no significant foul or interruption. The issue remained whether the challenger could maintain his rate against a champion accustomed to 15-round contests.

Arguello’s experience became decisive in the twelfth. Mancini was still pressing when the champion caught him flush with a right hand near the close of the round. The challenger dropped to his right knee for the first knockdown of the fight. He rose and was saved from further immediate punishment by the bell, but returned to his corner badly shaken. Mancini persuaded his handlers to allow him to continue.

The thirteenth belonged clearly to Arguello. The champion no longer required time to locate the advancing target and landed repeatedly as Mancini tried to recover. Dave Wolf, the challenger’s manager, considered throwing in the towel, but trainer Murphy Griffith prevented him. Mancini survived the round, though his movement had slowed and his defences were no longer as firm as they had been during his early success.

Arguello brought the contest to an end midway through the fourteenth. A left-right-left combination stunned Mancini and left him exposed. The champion followed with another hard right, which sent the challenger down for the second time. Perez immediately waved the fight over. At the stoppage, all three judges had Arguello in front: Roberto Ramírez by 125-123, Eva Shain by 125-122 and José Mayorga by 127-122.

Mancini had supplied Arguello with a severe examination and had led during substantial portions of the contest, but the champion had remained patient while the younger man expended his early strength. Arguello’s superior accuracy, body punching and judgement of distance gradually changed the fight. He later praised Mancini’s courage and predicted that the challenger would become a champion. That judgment proved correct. Seven months later, Mancini stopped Arturo Frias in the first round to win the WBA lightweight title.

These were two enormous names from the early 1980s for very different reasons. Arguello was already a three-weight world champion, a master craftsman and the gentleman boxer everybody adored. Mancini was the young all-American star trying to complete the dream denied to his father, Lenny, whose own career had been damaged by his wartime service.

Mancini was only 20, but he was no manufactured contender. He had beaten José Luis Ramírez and came out with a sensible plan: crouch beneath Arguello’s jab, close the distance and work before the taller champion could set himself. For ten rounds he gave Arguello all he could handle. His pace, body punching and determination made it a genuinely close contest.

What separated them was Arguello’s patience. He never panicked or tried to match Mancini punch for punch. He kept placing shots into the body, measuring the right hand and waiting for the younger man’s movement to slow. That is experienced championship boxing.

The right hand at the end of the twelfth changed everything. Mancini survived, but he was badly hurt, and his corner nearly stopped it after the thirteenth. Another combination and right hand finished matters in the fourteenth.

I loved Mancini’s effort, but Arguello was the better fighter. He solved the problem rather than forcing the answer. His kindness towards Mancini afterwards was genuine, yet inside the ropes he had been clinical and unforgiving.