5. The Good Son: The Life of Ray Boom Boom Mancini
IMBD Score: 7.8
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Imagine if the Creed-Drago storyline was actually a real-life experience: Where a fight would end with one of the boxers dying. It’s unimaginable, and why a premise like that is best kept nice and tidy in the confines of a tale,
But it has happened.
The 1982 fight between Ray ‘Boom Boom” Mancini and South Korean fighter, Duk-koo Kim left an aftermath that changed boxing history. Kim died from a subdural hematoma four days after the 14-round fight. His mother committed suicide not long after. The referee from the fight also committed suicide. And Mancini was left emotionally crippled by the events.
The documentary takes an emotional dive into Mancini’s life and career—with appearances by Sugar Ray Leonard, Mickey Rourke, Ed O’Neil, and interviews with Kim’s son, Jiwan Kim. For an hour and a half, director Jessie James Miller truly captures a heavy doss of boxing’s reality…that comes at the audience like a Tyson punch to the conscience.