Lenny "Boom Boom" Mancini (12 July 1919 - 29 November 2003) was an American professional

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

. He was the father of

Ray Mancini Ray Mancini (born Raymond Michael Mancino; March 4, 1961), better known as "Boom Boom" Mancini, is an American former professional boxer who competed professionally from 1979 to 1992 and who has since worked as an actor and sports commentato ...

, a former world champion boxer. A native of

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

, Mancini began his professional career in 1937, trained by

Hall of Fame A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...

trainer

Ray Arcel Ramil "Ray" Arcel (August 30, 1899 – March 7, 1994) was an American boxing trainer who was active from the 1920s through the 1980s. In his long and distinguished career, he trained 20 world boxing champions. Life and career Arcel was born in T ...

. In May 1941, he fought reigning

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...

champion

Sammy Angott Sammy Angott (January 17, 1915 – October 22, 1980) was born Salvatore Engotti in a Pittsburgh area town in Pennsylvania. He reigned as the Undisputed Lightweight Champion from December 19, 1941 – November 14, 1942. He was known as a clever bo ...

in a non-title fight, losing by a close

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split de ...

. A subsequent win over Dave Castilloux established Mancini as the No. 1 contender for Angott's lightweight title. However, shortly afterwards the United States entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and Mancini was drafted, denying him the chance to fight for the championship. He started out in the

Medical Corps A medical corps is generally a military branch or staff corps, officer corps responsible for medical care for serving military personnel. Such officers are typically military physicians. List of medical corps The following organizations are exam ...

, but was eventually reassigned as an

infantryman Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

. Mancini was wounded in

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

in 1944 and awarded the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the president to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

. After recovering from his injuries he resumed his boxing career, now in the

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

and

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

divisions. However, he was unable to establish himself and retired after consecutive points losses to Harry Hurst and

Rocky Castellani Attilio N. "Rocky" Castellani (May 26, 1926 – August 31, 2008) was an American boxer. He fought as a middleweight and was the top rated contender for the world middleweight crown in 1954 when he fought Bobo Olson, a year later Castellani ...

, with a final record of 45-12-3.

Notes

External links

* 1919 births 2003 deaths American people of Italian descent Boxers from Youngstown, Ohio Lightweight boxers Welterweight boxers Middleweight boxers United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army soldiers American male boxers 20th-century American sportsmen {{US-boxing-bio-stub