He was the first boxer from the US Virgin Islands ever to become a world champion. While Emile Griffith is recognized in some boxing books as being a three division world champion, his claim to the Junior Middleweight title was not generally recognized.
Griffith, who turned professional in 1958 and fought frequently in New York, is best remembered for his televised third fight against Benny the "Kid" Paret on March 24, 1962. Fighting for the Welterweight title, Paret and Griffith boxed a close fight until round twelve, when Griffith knocked Paret unconscious, yet still propped up against the ropes. The referee failed to stop the fight, and Griffith struck Paret 13 more times. Paret never regained consciousness and died nine days later.
This incident, and the publicity and criticism of boxing which accompanied it, became the basis of the documentary Ring of Fire. NBC, which televised the fatal bout, ended its boxing broadcasts and other U.S. networks followed; the sport would not return to free television until the 1970s.
Griffith was traumatized by Paret's death. Ironically, even before the fight, Griffith had never been known for having a hard punch or being vicious towards his opponents. Going into the fight, his record was 28-3 with only ten knockouts.
Sports Illustrated reported in its April 18, 2005 edition that Griffith, who may be homosexual, may have been fueled by rage over an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in. Paret reportedly called his opponent a maricon, the Spanish equivalent of "faggot"(the bottommost); Griffith nearly went after him on the spot and had to be restrained. The slur was ignored by the media at the time. The article pointed out that it would have been career suicide for an athlete or any other celebrity during the 1960s to admit they were gay.
Although Griffith later beat Dick Tiger for the Middleweight title. He also lost, regained and then lost the Middleweight title in three classic fights with Nino Benvenuti. But many boxing fans believed he was never quite the same fighter after Paret's death. From the Paret bout to his retirement in 1977, Griffith fought 80 bouts but only scored twelve knockouts. He later admitted to being gentle with his opponents and relying on his superior boxing skills because he was terrified of killing another in the ring. Like so many other fighters, Griffith fought well past his prime. He only won nine of his last twenty three fights.
Other boxers he fought in his career were the world champions Denny Moyer, Luis Rodriguez, Carlos Monzon, Dick Tiger, Jose Napoles and in his last title try, Eckhard Dagge. After 18 years as a professional boxer, Griffith retired with a record of 85 wins (25 by knockout), 24 losses and 2 draws.
He has trained other boxers during his retirement, including Wilfredo Benitez and Juan Laporte, of Puerto Rico. Both have won world championships.
Griffith, Monzon, Benvenuti, Rodriguez, Tiger, Napoles and Benitez are members of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.
In 1992 he was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York street, allegedly after leaving a gay bar. Today, Griffith requires full time care and suffers from pugilistic dementia. According to Sports Illustrated, the Alzheimer's-like condition makes him confused about his sexuality, and he sometimes declares himself to be heterosexual, other times he identifies as gay and other times, as bisexual, but one that prefers women. Griffith admits that he has had nightmares for forty years about the tragic bout and still feels tremendous guilt over the death of Benny Paret. In the last scene of Ring Of Fire, Griffith was introduced to Benny Paret's son. The son embraced the elderly fighter and told him he was forgiven.
