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Mancini, Rozzi marry on beach
Boom Boom, new wife form their own
version of ‘The Brady Bunch’ in California
By TOM WILLIAMs
After Ray Mancini proposed to Campbell native Tina Rozzi, he started telling friends they were going to become “The Brady Bunch.”
“I have three kids, she’s got three kids,” the retired boxer reasoned.
About a month ago, the Cardinal Mooney graduate whose businesses are in Southern California, took his fiancee to a Santa Monica restaurant he hadn’t been to in many years.
“You won’t believe who’s there,” Mancini said. “It’s Mrs. Brady — Florence Henderson.
“She’s going by and I stopped her. She looked at me and says, ‘You’re Boom Boom Mancini.’ She’s a big fight fan and she tells me, ‘I loved your fights.’
“Heck, she knows them better than I do,” Mancini said. “It was crazy.”
Mancini’s children are daughter Carmenina and sons Leonardo and Raymond Jr. Tina’s children are sons Kenny, Vinnie and daughter Marissa.
On May 18 on the Santa Monica beach, after years of a courtship, Mancini and Rozzi were wed. The occasion was featured in The New York Times.
Mancini said his new wife took charge for wedding planning.
“That was all her project,” said Mancini, 53. “She always dreamed of a beach wedding. I told her, ‘It’s your show, I’m just in it. I’ll do what you want.’ ”
The couple didn’t rush to the altar. They first met 33 years ago when Mancini’s professional career was getting launched and she was a 15-year-old student at Campbell Memorial.
Letters were exchanged then eventually stopped.
Flash forward to 2006. By coincidence or fate, both of their marriages were ending. Tina found out about Ray’s break-up and shared her phone number with one of his friends.
He called and left a message.
She called back the next day. A long-distance relationship was born.
On his next trip to Ohio, they agreed to meet for coffee.
That led to a first date at Springfield Grille in Boardman.
Mancini said that when his marriage ended, he had no intentions to marry again. But the relationship blossomed.
“When you’re 3,000 miles away, it’s not easy,” Mancini said. “Eventually, I decided we’ll take the ride and see where it goes.”
In 2011 after her youngest child graduated from high school, Tina moved to California.
“She took a shot,” Mancini said. “I can’t tell you how much I admire her and respect that.”
Mancini proposed — naturally — on the beach.
“We were walking on the beach and Tina was watching the sun set, I got down on my knee and turned her around, and proposed,” he saod.
Mancini said the agreed to hold off on the wedding until his youngest child, Ray Jr., was graduating from high school. That happens next week.
Among his business endeavors are a film production company, a winery and a cigar distributor.
Mancini says that with his stepchildren in Ohio, he and his wife will be spending much more time here, at least in spring, summer and fall.
“I love Youngstown, but I’ll tell ya, I can’t take the winter,” Mancini said.