By Lyle Fitzsimmons

The ballots have been sent in. And in a few weeks, the results-bearing press release will arrive.

“If some people think my career is worthy of the Hall of Fame, I’m so appreciative of that,” Mancini said. “And if others don’t think it’s worthy, I understand, and God bless you. It doesn’t concern me. It’d be great for a lot of people that have been associated with me over the years, but it doesn’t consume me. It’s not a real big consideration, at all. I was honored. I’m flattered. I’m humbled.”

Mancini was one of 20 first-timers up for induction in the hall’s modern category, which includes fighters whose last ring appearance came no earlier than Jan. 1, 1989. He was joined on a star-studded list of 30 overall Class of 2015 candidates by former heavyweight champion Riddick Bowe, mid-1980s pound-for-pound star Donald Curry and U.S. Olympian turned two-division title-holder Meldrick Taylor.

Votes were due back to the hall of fame no later than Oct. 31.

Three of the 30 will be enshrined next year in Canastota, N.Y.

“I don’t know of any person that goes into sports, whether it’s team sports or as a fighter, thinking ‘One day, I want to be in the Hall of Fame,’” Mancini said. “You want to go out there and you want to do your best, you want to have a chance to be successful, win a world title, and maybe make some money and everything else.”

In a career that covered 13 years – but whose wheelhouse lasted three – “Boom Boom” was da bomb.

He won and retained a continental lightweight title belt with Saturday afternoon grind-downs of Jorge Morales and Jose Luis Ramirez, then reached the world stage with a stirring and courageous – albeit ultimately unsuccessful – 14-round encounter with WBC champion Alexis Arguello, all in 1981.

A second title try came in May 1982 and yielded the WBA championship after a furious single-round TKO of incumbent Arturo Frias in Las Vegas, and the year’s final seven months resulted in two successful title defenses, a six-rounder with Ernesto Espana and an ultimately tragic 14-rounder with Deuk-Koo Kim.

Three fights begat three wins in 1983, and 1984 began in similarly spectacular fashion with a third-round TKO of Bobby Chacon on HBO. But the momentum that appeared destined to produce a big-money match with Hector Camacho suddenly ended five months later, in an upset loss to Livingstone Bramble.

Bramble duplicated the victory in a rematch eight months later, and by the time the Camacho fight did occur – in 1989, after Mancini’s post-Bramble hiatus – it was five pounds and many years past vintage.

“He was a terrific fighter, but I felt in 15 rounds I’d break him down, I’d wear him down and eventually catch him. And he didn’t have a great chin, so I thought eventually I’d get that chin,” Mancini said. “We had basically come to an agreement with Camacho, but the WBA said if you don’t fight Bramble we’re going to strip you. When we talked about it the first time, it should have happened back then.”

Mancini fought once more, after three more years away, and was TKO’d by Greg Haugen in 1992.

Now 53, he’s a consultant and fight analyst for Fight Network, a 24/7 television channel whose programs including live fights, news and analysis for boxing, mixed martial arts, kickboxing, professional wrestling and traditional martial arts, as well as fight-themed dramas, documentaries and feature films.

He conceded that the career-ending losses will impact the way some treat his hall candidacy, but focuses less on that and more on the generational shift that occurred in the mid- and late 1980s – largely in response to the Kim fight – when title fights were shortened from 15 to 12 rounds.

He was ahead on the scorecards through 12 rounds against both Arguello and Bramble, and pointed to other historical fights – Joe Louis-Billy Conn I, Rocky Marciano-Joe Walcott I and Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns I – in which results would have been different had the fights been scheduled for 12 and not 15.

And had he defeated Arguello and Bramble, he’d probably be a near lock for induction.

Only 10 of the other 29 fighters on the ballot ever took part in a 15-round fight.

“They should break it up to guys who fought in the 15-round era and guys who fought in the 12-round era,” Mancini said. “The history of boxing has changed. The last three rounds – the true championship distance – has changed the course of boxing. They’re putting guys in who’ve only had to fight 12 rounds, and not 15.”

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This week’s title-fight schedule:

THURSDAY
WBC mini flyweight title – Bangkok, Thailand
Oswaldo Novoa (champion) vs. Wanheng Menayothin (No. 1 contender/No. 19 IWBR)
Novoa (14-4-1, 9 KO): Second title defense; Second fight outside Mexico (1-0, 1 KO)
Menayothin (35-0, 11 KO): First title fight; First fight against a foe on win streak since 2011
Fitzbitz says: I was all ready to pull the trigger for the challenger – and still might regret not doing so – but the abominable opposition he’s faced make me think the older incumbent wins. Novoa by decision

SATURDAY
IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight titles – Atlantic City, N.J.
Bernard Hopkins (IBF/WBA champion/No. 2 IWBR) vs. Sergey Kovalev (WBO champion/No. 3 IWBR)  
Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KO): Third IBF title defense (first WBA)/Fifteenth fight at 170 or heavier (9-3-1, 1 NC)
Kovalev (25-0-1, 23 KO): Fourth title defense; Thirteen straight victories by stoppage (42 total rounds)
Fitzbitz says: Sure, Bernard’s 49, and there’s a chance this could be the ugly finale. But it’s my guess Kovalev will look a lot more like Pavlik in A.C. than B-Hop will resemble Cleverly. Hopkins by decision

Last week's picks: 1-0 (WIN: Kameda)
2014 picks record: 77-24 (76.2 percent)
Overall picks record: 624-218 (74.1 percent)

NOTE: Fights previewed are only those involving a sanctioning body's full-fledged title-holder – no interim, diamond, silver, etc. Fights for WBA "world championships" are only included if no "super champion" exists in the weight class.

Lyle Fitzsimmons has covered professional boxing since 1995 and written a weekly column for Boxing Scene since 2008. He is a full voting member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. Reach him at fitzbitz@msn.com or follow him on Twitter – @fitzbitz.