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Emile Griffith: The Gentle Champion

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griffith2When I heard Tuesday morning that Emile Griffith had passed away, I was both sad and happy, but not shocked. I was sad because we in boxing were losing a great individual. Yes, GREAT. In every way he was great. He was a great friend…A great person…A great trainer…A great fighter…A great ambassador for the sport of boxing. I was happy because he is now free from the pain, the discomfort, the disorientation and the loneliness he was in for much of the past few years.

I first saw Emile on March 11, 1960. It was also the first time I saw his opponent, Denny Moyer. That’s because it was the first time I watched boxing. Griffith was fighting Moyer on TV’s “Friday Night Fights.” Emile was 22. Moyer was 20. Each had lost only one fight going into the bout. After 10 rounds, Griffith had picked up a split decision. Boxing had picked up a new fan.

I followed Emile from that moment. I was “in his corner” through title wins and his title losses. I was “in his corner” that fateful night against Benny “Kid” Paret and I was “in his corner” as a fan for the rest of his career. Never did I imagine how much Emile and his manager/trainer—Gil Clancy—would be in my corner—as close friends—just a few years down the road.

Griffith was the first big-name fighter I met—and interviewed—when first became a boxing writer. When I walked into Clancy’s gym and saw the 34-year-old, still chiseled former champion, I was nervous. Even “The Giller,” who would become my guru, my teacher, made me nervous.

When I was introduced to Emile, I shook his hand. Surprisingly, he didn’t grab my hand in a vice-like grip and try to crush it, as I had imagined. It was quite the opposite. And his mannerisms and demeanor were far from the fighting machine I had watched so many times on television.

As we began the interview, I admitted to him that I was nervous. He laughed.

“Why are you laughing?” I asked him.

“I’m nervous, too,” he said.

“Why would you be nervous?” I wanted to know. “You have fought some legendary fighters in front of tens of thousands of people and in front of millions watching on television. Why would an interview with me make you nervous?”

“Because I sometimes talk very fast,” Emile said, “and with my accent—I am from the Virgin Islands as you might know—it sometimes is hard for people to understand me.”

Then he asked, “Why are you nervous?”

“I just started working for a publisher who has been around boxing forever. He hung around with Henry Armstrong, Sugar Ray Robinson, Willie Pep, Rocky Marciano, Archie Moore and a whole lot more. My future as a boxing writer just may rest on how good my interview with you is.”

“Well, then,” said Emile. “Let’s both relax and have a great time.”

We did. And from that moment, we were friends. Obviously, the interview went very well.

In 1983, I was now the Editor-in-Chief of The Ring and the boxing analyst for the USA Network. After receiving a call from two friends who had just signed a 6’4”, 235-pound heavyweight from North Carolina who needed a trainer, I called Emile. He had been retired from competitive action for around five years, but was working with lots of fighters in the gym. I asked if he’d take a look at the heavyweight, who had a 6-1 record.

“Sure, Randy, I’ll do that. But tell your friends I won’t promise them anything. If I think he can’t fight, I will say so.”

A few days later, we walked through the door of the gym in the late morning. The sun was shining on the heavyweight like a spotlight. Emile was standing near the door when we walked in. He looked at me, then he gazed up at the heavyweight.

“Oh my sweet Lord! Look what you’ve brought to me!” exclaimed Emile. “I didn’t expect anything like this.”

“What did you expect?” I asked him.

“Not this!” he said. He walked up to the heavyweight and introduced himself, extending his hand.

“Hello, I’m Emile Griffith,” said the former welterweight, junior middleweight and middleweight titleholder.

“Hello, I’m James Smith,” said the future heavyweight champion of the world, his hand engulfing Emile’s, who looked down to see if his right hand was still there.

“He’s called ‘Bonecrusher,’” I told Emile.

“I can see why!” said Emile.

Then he looked up at “Bonecrusher” and asked, “Did you bring your gear? Are you ready to work, big fella’?”

“I did, and I am,” Smith told him.

After working out Smith for a little under one hour, Emile walked over to me and said, “He can be heavyweight champion if he is dedicated. He punches harder than anybody I have ever held mitts for.”

A little over three-and-one-half years later, Emile was holding the mitts for Smith in a dressing room at Madison Square Garden. Two weeks earlier, he was called by promoter Don King to sub for injured Tony Tubbs as the challenger to WBA Heavyweight Champion Tim Witherspoon. Emile had trained and guided Smith to three victories in a row that year—against Mike Weaver, Jesse Ferguson and David Bey—and now it was time to live up to the name “Bonecrusher.”

In the dressing room, I watched as Emile put on the punch mitts and got his fighter warmed up. Soon, as the pair were still working on the mitts, a member of the New York State Athletic Commission entered the dressing room, along with an MSG official and someone from HBO. It was time to enter the ring. Emile held the mitts up one more time.

“Who are you gonna’ be tonight?” asked Emile. “ Are you gonna’ be James Smith or are you going to be ‘Bonecrusher?’”

“Tonight I am ‘Bonecrusher,’” said the challenger.

“I don’t hear you!” shouted Emile. “Who are you?”

“BONECRUSHER!”

“Show me!” snapped Emile. He held his right mitt up.

With his hands held high, Smith launched a straight right, thrown from the side of his cheek, turning the punch over, palm down, as his did so. The punch traveled only the length of Smith’s muscular right arm. It slammed into the heavily padded punch mitt. The force of the blow not only knocked Emile backwards, but sent him crashing into a wall. Years later, Emile told me it was the hardest punch he had ever seen or felt.

That night, Emile became the trainer of the heavyweight champion of the world. “Bonecrusher” Smith, in his greatest victory, knocked out defending champion Tim Witherspoon in the first round.

“I think about that fight, I think about that night a lot,” Emile said when I took him out to eat with referee Wayne Kelly, in 2011, only a few months before Kelly’s untimely death from a stroke. “I loved training those guys.”

Through his fighting days, right up until he was hospitalized a few years ago, Emile attended dinners and charity functions on a regular basis. He endlessly signed books, autographs, gloves and photos, never asking to be paid, when he could have and should have. He took photo after photo, always with a smile.

For Emile, the beginning of the end came about 20 years ago, when he was mugged and beaten senseless by a group of thugs after leaving a bar. The beating left him first, in a coma, then in a trance-like state.

Through the efforts of his adoptive son, Luis Rodrigo Griffith and Ring 8, Emile was place in a medical center in Hempstead, Long Island, New York,, where he lived for the last few years. On Monday night, July 22, 2013, Emile Griffith left us.

As he hits those Pearly Gates, he is going to see so many friends. I’m sure his mom will be there to greet him, as will Wayne Kelly, Luis Rodriguez, co-manager Howie Albert, cutman Bernard Forbes, Syd Martin, John F.X. Condon, Don Dunphy, Nat Fleischer, Bert Sugar, Dick Young, Red Smith, Johnny Addie, Bob Waters, Al Gavin, Carlos Monzon and Bennie Briscoe. Irving Rudd will be there to handle his publicity. No doubt Benny “Kid” Paret will also be there, embracing him, telling him there’s no hard feelings.

And there’s “The Giller,” with that raspy voice, yelling at him, “Emile, come on, we’ve got work to do. Henry Armstrong has challenged you.”

The late, great sportswriter, Jimmy Cannon, once wrote these words about Joe Louis. I feel it appropriate to use them now and change the name. I’m sure Cannon and Louis will smile down and appreciate who they are being used for:

“Emile Griffith was a credit to his race—the human race.”

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Najee Lopez Steps up in Class and Wins Impressively at Plant City

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Garry Jonas’ ProBox series returned to its regular home in Plant City, Florida, tonight with a card topped by a 10-round light heavyweight match between fast-rising Najee Lopez and former world title challenger Lenin Castillo. This was considered a step-up fight for the 25-year-old Lopez, an Atlanta-born-fighter of Puerto Rican heritage. Although the 36-year-old Castillo had lost two of his least three heading in, he had gone the distance with Dimitry Bivol and Marcus Browne and been stopped only once (by Callum Smith).

Lopez landed the cleaner punches throughout. Although Castillo seemed unfazed during the first half of the fight, he returned to his corner at the end of round five exhibiting signs of a fractured jaw.

In the next round, Lopez cornered him against the ropes and knocked him through the ropes with a left-right combination. Referee Emil Lombardo could have stopped the fight right there, but he allowed the courageous Castillo to carry on for a bit longer, finally stopping the fight as Castillo’s corner and a Florida commissioner were signaling that it was over.

The official time was 2:36 of round six. Bigger fights await the talented Lopez who improved to 13-0 with his tenth win inside the distance. Castillo declined to 25-7-1.

Co-Feature

In a stinker of a heavyweight fight, Stanley Wright, a paunchy, 34-year-old North Carolina journeyman, scored a big upset with a 10-round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Jeremiah Milton.

Wright carried 280 pounds, 100 pounds more than in his pro debut 11 years ago. Although he was undefeated (13-0, 11 KOs), he had never defeated an opponent with a winning record and his last four opponents were a miserable 19-48-2. Moreover, he took the fight on short notice.

What Wright had going for him was fast hands and, in the opening round, he put Milton on the canvas with a straight right hand. From that point, Milton fought tentatively and Wright, looking fatigued as early as the fourth round, fought only in spurts. It seemed doubtful that he could last the distance, but Milton, the subject of a 2021 profile in these pages, was wary of Wright’s power and unable to capitalize. “It’s almost as if Milton is afraid to win,” said ringside commentator Chris Algieri during the ninth stanza when the bout had devolved into a hugfest.

The judges had it 96-93 and 97-92 twice for the victorious Wright who boosted his record to 14-0 without improving his stature.

Also

In the TV opener, a 10-round contest in the junior middleweight division, Najee Lopez stablemate Darrelle Valsaint (12-0, 10 KOs) scored his career-best win with a second-round knockout of 35-year-old Dutch globetrotter Stephen Danyo (23-7-3).

A native Floridian of Haitian descent, the 22-year-old Valsaint was making his eighth start in Plant City. He rocked Danyo with a chopping right hand high on the temple and then, as Danyo slumped forward, delivered the coup-de-gras, a short left uppercut. The official time was 2:17 of round two.

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Japanese Superstar Naoya Inoue is Headed to Vegas after KOing Ye Joon Kim

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Japan’s magnificent Naoya Inoue, appearing in his twenty-fourth title fight, scored his 11th straight stoppage tonight while successfully defending his unified super bantamweight title, advancing his record to 29-0 (26 KOs) at the expense of Ye Joon Kim. The match at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena came to an end at the 2:25 mark of round four when U.S. referee Mark Nelson tolled “10” over the brave but overmatched Korean.

Kim, raised in a Seoul orphanage, had a few good moments, but the “Monster” found his rhythm in the third round, leaving Kim with a purplish welt under his left eye. In the next frame, he brought the match to a conclusion, staggering the Korean with a left and then finishing matters with an overhand right that put Kim on the seat of his pants, dazed and wincing in pain.

Kim, who brought a 21-2-2 record, took the fight on 10 days’ notice, replacing Australia’s Sam Goodman who suffered an eye injury in sparring that never healed properly, forcing him to withdraw twice.

Co-promoter Bob Arum, who was in the building, announced that Inoue’s next fight would happen in Las Vegas in the Spring. Speculation centers on Mexico City’s Alan Picasso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) who is ranked #1 by the WBC. However, there’s also speculation that the 31-year-old Inoue may move up to featherweight and seek to win a title in a fifth weight class, in which case a potential opponent is the winner of the Feb. 2 match between Brandon Figueroa and Stephen Fulton. In “olden days,” this notion would have been dismissed as the Japanese superstar and Figueroa/Fulton have different promoters, but the arrival of Turki Alalshikh, the sport’s Daddy Warbucks, has changed the dynamic. Tonight, Naoya Inoue made his first start as a brand ambassador for Riyadh Season.

Simmering on the backburner is a megafight with countryman Junto Nakatani, an easy fight to make as Arum has ties to both. However, the powers-that-be would prefer more “marination.”

Inoue has appeared twice in Las Vegas, scoring a seventh-round stoppage of Jason Moloney in October of 2020 at the MGM Bubble and a third-round stoppage of Michael Dasmarinas at the Virgin Hotels in June of 2021.

Semi-wind-up

In a 12-round bout for a regional welterweight title, Jin Sasaki improved to 19-1-1 (17) with a unanimous decision over Shoki Sakai (29-15-3). The scores were 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112.

Also

In a bout in which both contestants were on the canvas, Toshiki Shimomachi (20-1-3) edged out Misaki Hirano (11-2), winning a majority decision. A 28-year-old Osaka southpaw with a fan-friendly style, the lanky Shimomachi, unbeaten in his last 22 starts, competes as a super bantamweight. A match with Inoue may be in his future.

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Eric Priest Wins Handily on Thursday’s Golden Boy card at the Commerce Casino

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Model turned fighter Eric Priest jabbed and jolted his way into the super middleweight rankings with a shutout decision win over veteran Tyler Howard on Thursday.

In his first main event Priest (15-0, 8 KOs) proved ready for contender status by defusing every attack Tennessee’s Howard (20-3, 11 KOs) could muster at Commerce Casino, the second fight in six days at the LA County venue.

All ticket monies collected on the Folden Boy Promotions card were contributed to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation as they battle wildfires sprouting all over Los Angeles County due to high winds.

Priest, 26, had never fought anyone near Howard’s caliber but used a ramrod jab to keep the veteran off-balance and unable to muster a forceful counter-attack. Round after round the Korean-American fighter pumped left jabs while circling his opposition.

Though hit with power shots, none seemed to faze Howard but his own blows were unable to put a dent in Priest. After 10 rounds of the same repetitive action all three judges scored the fight 100-90 for Priest who now wins a regional super middleweight title.

Priest also joins the top 15 rankings of the WBA organization.

In a fight between evenly matched middleweights, Jordan Panthen (11-0, 9 KOs) remained undefeated after 10 rounds versus DeAundre Pettus (12-4, 7 KOs). Though equally skilled, Panthen simply out-worked the South Caroliina fighter to win by unanimous decision. No knockdowns were scored.

Other Bouts

Grant Flores (8-0, 6 KOs) knocked out Costa Rica’s David Lobo Ramirez (17-4, 12 KOs) with two successive right uppercuts at 2:59 of the second round of the super welterweight fight.

Cayden Griffith (3-0, 3 KOs) used a left hook to the body to stop Mark Misiura at 1:43 of the second round in a super welterweight bout.

Jordan Fuentes (3-0) floored Brandon Badillo (0-3-1) in the third round and proceeded to win by decision after four rounds in a super bantamweight fight.

A super featherweight match saw Leonardo Sanchez (8-0) win by decision over Joseph Cruz Brown (10-12) after six rounds.

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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