RIP Emile Griffith

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silverscreenselect · #1 Post by **silverscreenselect** » Tue Jul 23, 2013 1:17 pm

Former world middleweight and welterweight champion, who, sadly, was best known for a controversial fight against Bennie Paret in 1962 which resulted in Paret's death a few days later from injuries suffered in the match. Griffith apparently knocked Paret out, but the latter was held up by the ropes, enabling Griffith to continue hitting him for several more seconds before the referee stopped the fight. After the nationally televised fight, ABC quit televising boxing for several years and NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller launched an investigation into boxing.

Later, it was learned that some of the viciousness in the fight may have been the result of Paret referring to Griffith (who was either gay or bisexual) by a number of anti-gay slurs before the fight (which the media of the time did not, for obvious reasons, report).

Griffith was later inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame. Age 75.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/story/_/id/ ... 0s-dies-75