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The great fighter Emile Griffith has passed. This is quite sad. He was only 75.
I was a boy when I first noticed Griffith fighting. He was fighting Nino Benvenuti and I remember watching him and wondering what kind of sport requires a man to work so hard to become so muscular. To me, his athleticism, physique, and muscularity represented the supreme standard in all of sport. It is why today, I am so appalled anytime I see flabby fighters in the ring, like many of the heavyweights. They fall far, far below this standard that was an Emile Griffith. I call it the "Griffith standard", and it has always been a level that I have personally strived to achieve.
As a boy, Griffith and the young Cassius Clay peaked my interest in the sport, and I watched all of his fights. He wasn't the greatest of fighters, but what was most intriguing to me was his complexity. He was a complex man. He lost to Jose Napoles, Benvenuti, and twice to Monzon. There was something about Rubin Carter that intimidated the hell out of him and he was blown away in one round in Pittsburgh a little over a year after he killed Paret in the ring. He felt extreme rage and was personally offended by his rival Paret. Fighters could get into his head, and bring out a range of emotions and responses. Paret brought out extreme rage and a level of malice that could be the basis of a murder charge. Carter brought out extreme fear.
Griffith was a complex and intelligent man, and made me realize that there is more to being a fighter than just putting on boxing gloves and fighting in the ring. There is great psychology behind each fighter, complex stories that are among the most interesting of those by any human being. This is why I love the sport, and I have to thank Griffith for that.
Great post Lexus Nexus! A couple things to add here.
I remember the Kid Paret/Griffith fight well. That fight was televised on Friday Night Fights on ABC. My dad and I generally always watched Friday Night Fights.
Paret basically hung on the ropes, completely knocked out, while Griffin just pummeled him. I've read varying reports that once Paret hung on the ropes Griffith got off anywhere from 20 to 30 punches on him before the referee got between the both of him and stopped the fight.
Dementia pugilista (which Griffith died from) is a form of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) which is fairly common amongst boxers as they age. His final record was 85-24-2. What's kind of sad is in his last couple dozen fights fights he was 9-13-1. Clearly he stayed too long in the ring. On the other hand he needed the money. When he retired from boxing in 1977 he took a job in a state correctional facility. In 1992 he was severely injured as several men jumped him after he left a bar and was beat up to nearly an inch of his life. He was hospitalized for over three months. For years afterward he had health problems from his injuries, suffered severe depression.
There is a dvd I would recommend regarding Griffith, the life he led personally, his fighting career, the Paret fight, and what he went through mentally. It was originally televised on cable (USA Network) in 2005 and there has been a time or two where ESPN Classic televised it. The dvd is called Ring Of Fire- The Emile Griffith Story. I recommend it!
The sixties seemed to be a forgotten decade for boxing outside of the heavyweight division. What a lot of fans don't realize is that the welterweight and middleweight divisions were stocked full of talented boxers who would all be title holders today. Emile Griffith was one of the best middleweights of that era. He was a class act and I wish more fighters today would take a page from his book. A humble man who loved this sport, and gave the fans everything he had in the ring. RIP.
Great post Lexus Nexus! A couple things to add here.
I remember the Kid Paret/Griffith fight well. That fight was televised on Friday Night Fights on ABC. My dad and I generally always watched Friday Night Fights.
Paret basically hung on the ropes, completely knocked out, while Griffin just pummeled him. I've read varying reports that once Paret hung on the ropes Griffith got off anywhere from 20 to 30 punches on him before the referee got between the both of him and stopped the fight.
Dementia pugilista (which Griffith died from) is a form of CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) which is fairly common amongst boxers as they age. His final record was 85-24-2. What's kind of sad is in his last couple dozen fights fights he was 9-13-1. Clearly he stayed too long in the ring. On the other hand he needed the money. When he retired from boxing in 1977 he took a job in a state correctional facility. In 1992 he was severely injured as several men jumped him after he left a bar and was beat up to nearly an inch of his life. He was hospitalized for over three months. For years afterward he had health problems from his injuries, suffered severe depression.
There is a dvd I would recommend regarding Griffith, the life he led personally, his fighting career, the Paret fight, and what he went through mentally. It was originally televised on cable (USA Network) in 2005 and there has been a time or two where ESPN Classic televised it. The dvd is called Ring Of Fire- The Emile Griffith Story. I recommend it!
Thanks for this post. Reading of Griffith's passing this morning upon arising actually caused me to tear up. Griffith was always someone I admired from afar, and hoped to meet one day. Just a shame that he developed dementia pugilista and that he stayed too long in the game. Also incredibly tragic that he was beaten after coming out of a gay bar in '92. The damage to his kidneys no doubt hastened his premature death.
Yes, I have seen that fight with Paret countless times, and the referee was lousy in allowing Paret to take that much punishment. What struck me though was Griffith's intensity and rage in delivering those final blows. It was startling to see, probably even more so at ringside. My favorite writer Norman Mailer was there and described it in terms that resembled what I saw from afar.
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Griffith was always someone I admired from afar, and hoped to meet one day. Just a shame that he developed dementia pugilista and that he stayed too long in the game. Also incredibly tragic that he was beaten after coming out of a gay bar in '92. The damage to his kidneys no doubt hastened his premature death.
Good article about Emile Griffith's achievements in the ring
