musiquinha do dia - meio dia

ida e volta

Duk Koo King
Sun Kil Moon
Ghosts of the great higway

looking out on my roof last night
woken up from a dream
i saw a typhoon coming in close
bringing the clouds down to the sea
making the world look gray and alone
taking all light from my view
keeping everyone in

and keeping me here with you around
you now i can't sleep no more baby

around you still
don't want to leave yet

woken up from a dream last night
somewhere lost in war
i couldn't feel my feet or hands
i didn't feel right anymore

i knew there I'd die alone
with no one to reach to
but an angel came down
and brought me back to you

i'd rather leave this world forever baby
than let life go the way it's going

watching an old fight film last night
Ray Mancini and Duk Koo Kim
the boy from Seoul was hanging in good
but the pounding took to him
and there in the square he lay alone
without face without crown
and the angel who looked upon
never came down

you never know
what day could pick you baby
out of the air
out of nowhere

come to me once more my love
show me love I've never known

sing to me once more my love
words from your younger years

sing to me once more my love
songs that i love to hear

birds gather 'round my window
fly with everything i love about the day
flowers, blue and gold and orange
rise with everything i love about the day

walk with me down these strange streets
how have we come to be here
so kind are all these people
how have we come to know them

*Duk Koo Kim
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The story

Kim was undefeated in 13 bouts when he was assigned by the WBA as the world's number 1 challenger to world Lightweight champion Ray Mancini. However, of his former 19 contests prior to the Mancini bout, 18 had been in his native country, against somewhat obscure opposition, and he had been a southpaw boxer. Many boxers, even experienced ones, simply hadn't been trained to fight a left-handed opponent like Kim. His only overseas bout before the Lightweight championship challenge took place in the Philippines. His opponent, Tony Flores, was also not very successful (3-7-0 his entire career, 3-2-0 at that time).

Kim had to struggle mightily to lose weight on the days prior to the bout so that he could weigh in under the Lightweight's 135 pound limit, or, as they say in boxing, "make weight". Prophetically, he wrote the message "kill or be killed" on his Las Vegas hotel room's mirror only days before the bout.

Mancini and Kim met in an arena outside Caesar's Palace on November 13, 1982. In what many ringside observers have described as an "action-packed" fight, Mancini and Kim went toe to toe for a good portion of the bout, but by the latter rounds, Mancini began to dominate the young challenger. Spent and battered, Kim went into round 14 with little left and Mancini dropped him. He got up, but the fight was stopped and Mancini retained the title.

Minutes after the fight was over, Kim collapsed into a coma, and was taken to a hospital. Emergency brain surgery was performed there to try to save him, but that effort proved to be futile, as Kim died 5 days after the bout on November 18. The week after, Sports Illustrated published a photo of the fight on its cover, under the heading Tragedy in The Ring.

Kim had never had a 15-round bout before. He had been to round 12 only two times before his deadly last bout. In contrast, Mancini was much more experienced at the time. He had fought 15-round bouts three times, went on to round 14 once more. Mancini also had won a 12-round bout with another excellent southpaw boxer Jose Luis Ramirez (71-3-0 at that time, 102-9-0 career record). Kim compiled a record of 13 wins and 1 loss, with 10 knockouts.

The aftermath

Mancini went through a period of reflection, as he blamed himself for Kim's death. After friends helped him by telling him that it was just an accident, Mancini was able to go on with his career, but Kim's death would always haunt him. The bout's referee, Richard Greene, committed suicide in February of 1983, and so did Kim's mother, four months later.

Boxing Rule Changes

Many reforms in boxing took place after this fight. The WBC, which was not the fight's sanctioning organization, was the first one to step up and admit, during their annual convention of 1982, that many rules and areas concerning fighter's medical care before fights needed to be changed to improve a fighter's chance of surviving a fight. WBC president Jose Sulaiman declared that, immediately after the Mancini-Kim bout, the WBC and their medical advisors had conducted a study that revealed that most fighters get injured more severely during rounds 13, 14 and 15, so the organization immediately decided to reduce the number of rounds in their championship bouts from 15 to 12.

The WBA and the IBF followed the WBC in 1987. When the WBO was formed in 1988, they immediately began operating with 12 round world championship bouts.
Ironically, after the new rule, the WBC and WBA each stripped fighters of their championships for 15 round bouts when the new rules called for 12 rounds.

Apart from the round reduction, the years after Kim's death would bring such new implements on a fighter's check up before fights as electrocardiograms, brain tests, lung tests and other medical tests. As one boxing leader put it, "A fighter's check-ups before fights used to consist of blood pressure and heartbeat checks before 1982. Not anymore."

Many state and national federations also made reforms with fighter safety by implementing a mandatory eight count, where once a fighter was knocked down, the referee would give a count of eight seconds to the fallen fighter, regardless of the downed fighter rising immediately.
Some states also adopted the standing eight count, where a fighter in peril and on the ropes, with a potential knockdown looming, may be charged with a knockdown at the referee's discretion, with the opponent being asked to appear at the neutral corner as if an actual knockdown occurred, and the referee giving the "downed" fighter the mandatory eight count.

Others also implemented the three knockdown rule, which states when a fighter is knocked down three times, it is a technical knockout and the fight ends.

Popular renditions

The story of Kim's life was taken to the big screen in his native South Korea: Director Kwak Kyung Taek directed the movie named Champion, and actor Yu Oh Seong starred as the fallen boxer.

Kim is mentioned in Sun Kil Moon's song named for him on the album Ghosts Of The Great Highway. It happens to be 14 minutes long, the number of rounds he lasted in his final bout.

Kim is mentioned in a Warren Zevon song, titled "Boom Boom Mancini," on the 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene.*

*Drama king*
*para Julio*