The five time former welter and middleweight champ Emile Griffith finally hung up his gloves after over twenty years of worldwide glove tossing. I still have firm memories of the time I interviewed the ex champ, even with his being in the twilight of his career. That was the night that Emile Griffith started to look old. He was 32, he had held his own for ten rounds, and then he had wilted. In round 14, Monzon pinned him in a corner for two minute and subjected him to a heavy bombardment. Griffith wasn't seriously hurt, but it also didn't look like he would ever get out of that corner. So it was stopped. Monzon won by Tko14 and Griffith was a knockout loser for the second and last time in his career. That was when the retirement rumors began and I knew that Emile would never be champ again after that fight. And for the first of many times, he was “invited” to retire, the knowing ones insisting that since he would never get one more shot at a title, he shouldn't go on like Ray Robinson or others did, fighting I places like Pittsfield, Mass, and showing only an occasional flash. Well, as I continued to watch him, it was seven years later and the 39 year old Griffith had not retired. And he did not receive one more title shot...he received two. He had lost over fifteen rounds in a rematch with Monzon and over the same route for what then half of the junior middleweight title own by Germany's Eckhard Dagge. But it had been a moral victory. Many people, myself included, figured Emile as the winner in both contests. And he was undiscouraged by them. He had bad patches during the 1972-1977 years, especially when he lost three in a row during 1973-1974 to Monzon and contenders Tony Licata and Tony Mundine. Excerpted from Rng Boxing Magazine April 1978
EMILE GRIFFITH BOXING CAREER ON DVDS
Comments