Emile Griffith

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Emile Griffith boxer
Emile Griffith
Data
Birth Name Emile Alphonse Griffith
Weight class Welterweight
nationality US-american
birthday February 3, 1938
place of birth St. Thomas
Date of death 23rd July 2013
Place of death Hempstead
style Left delivery
size 1.73
Combat Statistics
Struggles 112
Victories 85
Knockout victories 23
Defeats 24
draw 2
No value 1

Emile Griffith (born February 3, 1938 in St. Thomas , US Virgin Islands , † July 23, 2013 in Hempstead , New York ) was an American boxer and world champion in the world, light middle and middleweight division.

Career

Griffith was a trained fashion illustrator and worked in a hat factory. The hat factory owner was a former amateur boxer and discovered his employee's talent for boxing. Griffith boxed mostly in New York City . His longtime boxing coach was Gil Clancy . He was a pressure fighter without great impact, but with a high impact frequency and a "granite chin". He went in his career only twice K. o. , Against the legends Carlos Monzón (first fight) and Rubin Carter .

His career lasted from 1956 to 1977.

In 1961, Emile Griffith won the world welterweight title for the first time. Benny Paret had to give up prematurely in the 13th round. After successfully defending the title, there was a rematch against Paret. This Benny Paret won a controversial split decision . After six months there was a third clash: Griffith went down in the sixth lap, but he got up again. In the following rounds he wore down his opponent and placed him in the corner of the ring in such a way that Paret could not fall over despite a heavy hit. Even so, referee Ruby Goldstein did not intervene for a long time and only broke off the fight when Paret had sustained such serious injuries that he fell into a coma in the ring and died ten days later. It was the first death of a boxer that millions of people have watched on television. Paret had apparently said "fagot" to Griffith at the beginning of the 12th round. Griffith himself shaped this event so much that he later did not take advantage of some knockout opportunities.

In October 1962 Griffith was also world champion in light middleweight (a weight class above welterweight). After the world championship belt had been divided into different associations two months later, Emile Griffith had to win the title again. On December 8, 1962, he defeated Jorge Jose Fernandez by TKO in round 9, so Griffith was old and new WBA and WBC welterweight champion.

Emile Griffith successfully defended the world championship belt in light middleweight two months later through TKO in round 9. A month later he had to give up his WBC and WBA welterweight crown after a very controversial point defeat, but won these two titles again nine weeks later in the rematch . After another three successful title defenses, he put down the world championship belt in 1965 in the world and light middleweight division and rose to the middleweight division. In 1966 he was allowed to box for the WBA and WBC world championships in the middleweight division. Griffith won the fight on points against Dick Tiger . Griffith successfully defended these two belts twice, then he had to surrender the two titles to middleweight boxing legend Nino Benvenuti . In the direct rematch five months later, however, he got them back, but gave the belt back in the third clash against Benvenuti. Griffith was only the second boxer to defeat Benvenuti, who had previously won 71 times and lost only once.

Emile Griffith let his career end slowly. He boxed twice more unsuccessfully for the WBA and WBC middleweight crowns. He had to admit defeat to the German world champion Eckhard Dagge in 1976. It was about the WBC light middleweight title; this fight was very controversial with a majority decision in favor of Dagges.

He also defeated the Cuban counter-boxer Luis Rodríguez , Dick Tiger twice and Nino Benvenuti, who also beat him twice. He was twice defeated by Carlos Monzón; the second defeat, however, was controversial. At the end of his career he lost to Eckhard Dagge just on points.

In 1990 he was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame . In 2005 a documentary about the life of Emile Griffith was produced. With 310 boxed rounds, he still holds the record for boxed rounds in World Cup fights.

In 1992 he was beaten almost to death when he left a gay bar .

In a book published in 2008, Emile Griffith spoke publicly for the first time about his homosexual orientation, which had been suspected for years. Among other things, he said: “I keep thinking how strange it is… I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison almost all my life. " (I keep thinking how strange this is ... I kill a man, and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man and so many consider it an unforgivable sin to make me one bad people. If I didn't end up in jail, I was still incarcerated for most of my life.)

During his boxer career, he also designed women's hats.

reception

book

  • Donald McRae: A Man's World: The Double Life of Emile Griffith, Simon & Schuster Ltd 2016, ISBN 978-1471132360

Comic

documentation

  • Ring Of Fire - The Emile Griffith Story, Anchor Bay 2005

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ex-champ Emile Griffith dies at 75 . In: ESPN of July 24, 2013 (English).
  2. ↑ ndr.de: Graphic Novel: The Story of the Boxer Griffith , accessed on March 10, 2020
  3. ↑ Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ So he's gay? So what? In: Süddeutsche.de of October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Griffith, Emile
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American boxer and world champion in the world and middleweight division
DATE OF BIRTH February 3, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH in St. Thomas , US Virgin Islands
DATE OF DEATH 23rd July 2013
Place of death Hempstead , New York