Wow, if you live long enough you see a lot of good people die. Today it was Emile Griffith, who I idolized as a young kid watching him fight on national TV. I shouldn’t say young kid, because I was nearly as old as Emile.
Griffith was 75 when he died in Hempstead, N.Y., but had been sick for a long time. He had taken too many punches and suffered from dementia. Despite early signs of dementia, Griffith for years attended public events, including the International Boxing Hall of Fame inductions in Canastota, N.Y, and he was always gracious and willing to mix with boxing fans.
I have been a big boxing fan since I was about five and covered many fights for the Bremerton Sun, including a slew of Boone “Boom Boom” Kirkman’s many fights in the Seattle area.
There are certain boxers who I really liked, including most of the great heavyweights, guys like Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano (although he may have been one of the dirtiest heavyweights of all time), Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, and George Foreman. The great middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong and Willie Pep were amazing boxers. I also grew to like Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
At one time a boxing board game was on the market that was unbelievably good. Our oldest son, Toby, and I used to play it for hours at a time, often going into the wee hours of morning. It was very realistic and later I would make up heavyweight boxing tournaments, often throwing in a few light heavyweights and one or two middleweights just to see what would happen.
But the real deal was best, and for me one of the best was Emile Griffith. There was something about him that attracted me. I think it was his guile, his speed of hand and feet, and his graceful movement. Griffith didn’t have true knockout power, but he took punches and gave back even more, and his ability to outthink opponents was impressive.
The fight that is stamped into my memory bank is the welterweight title bout held March 24, 1962. It was a highly anticipated third-fight between two guys who didn’t like each other – Benny “Kid” Paret and Griffith.
Paret was a cocky sort and during the weigh-in before the fight had apparently called Griffith a gay name. This was during a time when being gay, or just being thought of as being gay, was reason enough to be demeaned and rejected in our society.
Emile was a puzzle because he would say at different times he was gay, or bisexual or straight. Whatever he was, Paret seized upon the gay part and verbally hammered away at Griffith.
A second part of this story is Paret fought three tough fights in the previous 11 months. Paret had three months prior gone 10 brutal rounds with middleweight champion Gene Fullmer, another fighter who I really liked. Fullmer was tough as nails and Paret took a pretty bad beating before being knocked out in the 10th round.
In the fight before that, he had won a split decision over Griffith to take back the welterweight crown. Five months before that, Griffith had knocked out Paret in the 13th round to retain his welterweight crown.
So the stage was set for an incredible fight. I couldn’t wait to watch it. And for 11 rounds I thought Paret was winning, although the official scorecards later would reveal Griffith to be well ahead, even though he had taken an eight-count in round six.
I again favored Paret though most of the 12th round. Then, suddenly, about mid-way through the round, Griffith hurt Paret, who backed into a corner. Emile pounced and started throwing punches I didn’t know he had.
Paret was badly hurt, but still on his feet. But he was completely defenseless as Griffith pounded away. Somebody later estimated Griffith threw close t0 30 punches in just seconds before veteran referee Ruby Goldstein stepped into stop it.
The bad thing for me is when Griffith initially hurt Paret I was so confident Emile was behind and wanting him to win so badly that I jumped to my feet and started yelling at the TV screen.
“Kill him, kill him, kill him,” I screamed.
So Emile did.
CHARLES HOFF PHOTO
Paret fell into a coma and never came out of it. Ten days later he died.
I still feel ashamed and guilty about it. And it’s 52 years later.
Goldstein, who was a great boxing referee, could not find work after that. They blamed him for not stopping the bout earlier.
Paret’s death also caused NBC, which had been televising fights, to cease showing boxing matches for a few years.
The Paret-Griffith fight can be viewed in part on YouTube. It’s not pretty.
Griffith would go on to fight more, but he was never the same boxer. He grew afraid of hurting somebody. He finally retired in 1977 with an 85-24-2 record and began training fighters.
Now he’s gone. I feel sad, sad for his death and sad for the memory of the Paret fight that springs forward in my mind with his death.
Boxing has now taken a backseat in recent years to MMA, which is even more brutal than boxing with gloves. Someday I expect a death in an octagon, even though referees seem to step in pretty quickly when they realize a fighter is in trouble. But you can’t fight like they do in the octagon and not expect something bad to eventually happen.
I do hope I’m wrong. I seen one death too many already.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.