GRIFFITH DEAD
Champion, 75, haunted by ring fatality
Emile Griffith, the great New Yorkbased middleweight champion of the 1960s whose career was marred by the deadly beating he administered to Benny “Kid” Paret, passed away in his sleep Monday night. He was 75.
Griffith, an artful fighter with a lightning jab, is probably best known for his lethal third fight against Paret at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 1962, for the welterweight championship. In the 12th round, Griffith knocked out Paret, who left the ring unconscious on a stretcher and died of his brain injuries 10 days later.
The two had grown up playing basketball together in the school yards of New York. But before their third bout, Paret had called Griffith a derogatory word in Spanish for homosexual. Griffith would later reveal in his 2008 autobiography that he had been bisexual through his teens. Griffith was angered by Paret’s slur.
“Emile was shocked. He was filled with rage,” said Ron Ross, who cowrote Griffith’s autobiography, “Nine, Ten, and Out! The Two Worlds of Emile Griffith.” “It was ironic that he was a person who wound up killing a person in the ring because he was not that kind of fighter.”
The grim outcome altered the course of Griffith’s Hall of Fame career. Fans turned against him, television networks shied away from the sport and Griffith became shy in the ring, pursuing victories by decision rather than knockout.
“I was never the same fighter after that,” he said in the 2005 documentary, “Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story.” “After that fight, I did enough to win. I would use my jab all the time. I never wanted to hurt the other guy. I would have quit, but I didn’t know how to do anything else but fight.”
Born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands on Feb. 3, 1938, Emile Alphonse Griffith compiled a record of 85242 with 23 knockouts during a career that spanned from 19581977, from the New York Golden Gloves to a Hall of Fame induction in 1990.
He became a world champion when he captured the welterweight title by beating Paret in 1961, though he lost the rematch. He won the light middleweight title in 1962, and later made his career as a middleweight, first winning the championship in 1966 by beating Dick Tiger at the Garden. He was a staple of Garden boxing, often defending his belt there.
“When you look at boxing history, he was one of the greats not just in New York boxing history but the history of boxing, period,” said promoter Lou DiBella.
Ross learned of Griffith’s death yesterday morning when he got a call from Griffith’s adopted son, Luis Rodrigo Griffith. Emile Griffith had been living at an extended care facility in Nassau County for the last couple of years in what Ross described as a “vegetative state.”
Ross prefers to remember Griffith when he was smiling.
“He was an entertainer at whatever he did,” Ross said. “Whether it was in the ring or with a microphone in his hand at a party, he was just a social animal. He was a wonderful person to be around.”