In the 1980s, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini wasn't merely the lightweight champ. An adoring public considered him a national hero, the real Rocky: a righteous kid in a corrupt game, symbolically potent and demographically perfect, the last white ethnic. But it all came apart November 13, 1982, in a brutal battle at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Mancini's obscure Korean challenger, Duk Koo Kim, went down in the 14th round and never regained consciousness. Three months later, Kim's despondent mother took her own life. The deaths would haunt Ray and ruin his carefully crafted image. -- Provided by publisher.

Prologue: Dementia --Lenny Mancino -- The business -- Youngstown tune-up -- Black Monday -- The family name -- Valentine's Day -- The kiss -- Title shots -- The desire for a harmonious family -- Heaven -- Ghosts -- The ballad of Bobby Chacon -- Cutman -- Showbiz -- Body and soul -- Modern family -- Epilogue: The gift.