The bout had been
televised live and I
saw it, but it would
be ten years before
boxing appeared on
television again.
There had been bad
blood between Emil
Griffith and Benny
"Kid" Paret prior to
their third fight on
March 24, 1962. The
two had split their
previous two
meetings. During the
weigh-in, Paret
reportedly called
his opponent a
maricon, the Spanish
equivalent of
"faggot." Emile had
to be restrained
from going after
"The Kid" right
there and then. At
the time there were
rumors about
Griffith's
homosexuality
floating around in
the boxing world (he
reportedly had been
spotted in gay
bars).
There may have been some
other variables leading to
the outcome of this fateful
fight. Referee Ruby
Goldstein had recently
suffered a heart attack and
wasn't effective enough to
keep his normal control over
the fight. As well, In his
previous bout, Paret had
taken a terrible beating in
a Middleweight Title fight
with tough Gene Fullmer. He
had been knocked down three
times, finally getting
knocked out in the tenth
round.
As for the fight, Paret
fought well and dropped the
heavily favorite Griffith in
the sixth round but
eventually Emil was able to
dictate the pace going into
the 12th round. Then it
happened. Griffith (28-3
with only 10 ko's), and
never been known for having
a hard punch or being
vicious towards his
opponents, drove Paret back
on to the ropes with a sharp
right. Before not only a
live crowd of 8,000 at
Madison Square Garden, but a
national television audience
as well, Griffith unloaded
on the the cornered "Kid."
Paret and fired away perhaps
as many as eighteen vicious
punches to the head. Paret
was tangled in the ropes and
unable to fall. Griffith
punched and punched, the
blows landing with
tremendous force, one after
another. With no assistance
from a seemingly transfixed
referee, he was beaten into
unconsciousness and his body
went limp like a lifeless.
Rag doll.
The beating resulted in
Paret being carried out on a
stretcher. He underwent
brain surgery that night at
Roosevelt Hospital, fell
into a coma and died of
pneumonia ten days later.
Griffith, one of the sport’s
gentlemen, was traumatized
by Paret's death and was
never the same fighter,
though he fought on for
another 15 years. The Kid's
final professional record
was 35-12-3 (10 KOs). The
fight's outcome bothered
Ruby Goldstein greatly, and
he retired after working
just one more fight.
Wrote Norman Mailer, a
ring-side fan and acclaimed
author: "And Paret? Paret
died on his feet."
"As he took those 18 punches
something happened to
everyone who was in psychic
range of the event. Some
part of his death reached
out to us.
"As he went down, the sound
of Griffith's punches echoed
in the mind like a heavy axe
in the distance chopping
into a wet log."
