SAINT VINCENT, Italy -- A spokesman for American WBA lightweight boxing champion Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini denied Tuesday that Mancini told reporters he planned to go to South Korea to pray at the tomb of Korean boxer Duk Koo Kim.
'Mancini has spoken to no one, but no one,' said Irving Rudd, spokesman for the Top Rank promotional organization which is staging Mancini's non-title fight with British champion George Feeney in this Alpine resort Sunday.
'The quotes attributed to Mancini in the Italian sports press were never made,' he said. 'These people are unbelievable. They take the whole cloth and write what they want to write. It's disgusting.'
Mancini's bout with Feeney is his first appearance in the ring since Duk Koo Kim died after a match with Mancini in Las Vegas in November.
Rudd said Italian reporters descended on Mancini's Saint Vincent hotel shortly after the news arrived Sunday night that the Korean boxer's mother had committed suicide.
Rudd said to keep reporters from bothering Mancini, he and the American boxer's handlers issued the following statement Monday morning:
'Ray Mancini, his manager David Wolf, his trainer Murphy Griffith and the members of his camp express deepest sympathy and profound sorrow to the family of the late Mrs. Kim.
'We wish to inform the media that there will be no further statements from Ray Mancini, or anyone else associated with him regarding this sad news, nor will any questions on the subject be entertained.'
Rudd said this was the only comment on Mrs. Kim's death made by Mancini or anyone in his camp. 'We offered to talk on any subject except the death of Kim and his mother,' he said.
Italy's two leading sports papers, La Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport, quoted Mancini as saying he was so saddened by the suicide of Mrs. Kim's mother that he prayed at length and shut himself up in his room.
Both newspapers also quoted him as saying he planned to go to Korea to pray at the tomb of Kim and his mother.
La Gazzetta dello Sport also published a photograph of Mancini receiving communion from a priest. The caption said Mancini went to church to take communion as soon as he received news of Mrs. Kim's suicide.
'All these quotes were never made by Mancini or his handlers andit is not true that he refused to leave his room, or went to communion,' Rudd said.
'The picture published of Mancini taking communion was taken two weeks ago when he went to church shortly after we arrived here Jan. 14.
'Sure he is sad about Mrs. Kim's death,' Rudd said. 'But it is not correct that he is prostrate with grief. He has no television in his room so on Sunday night he came down to watch television in the hotel salon. On Monday a CBS crew arrived here and made videotapes of his workouts.
'We were completely shocked when we saw what the Italian papers had him saying. We were adamant about not talking to the press, and he said nothing about going to Korea or anything else about Mrs. Kim's death.'
