THE 100 GREATEST BOXERS OF ALL-TIME #60: EMILE GRIFFITH
85 WINS (32 BY KO), 24 LOSSES, 2 DRAWS
World Welterweight Champion 1961, 1962–1963, 1963–1966
World Jr. Middleweight Champion 1962–1963
World Middleweight Champion 1966–1967, 1967–1968
The Ring Fighter of the Year 1964
Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year 1963
International Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee 1990
In 2022, The Ring magazine celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary by rating the 100 greatest fighters of the magazine’s century-long tenure based solely on a statistical analysis of their records and the quality of their opposition. Emile Griffith, the gifted six-time world champion who fought many of the best fighters of the 1960s and 1970s, was rated number 5. Only Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Tony Canzoneri scored above him. More famous legends like Floyd Mayweather, Jr., Willie Pep, Ezzard Charles, Manny Pacquiao, and Archie Moore rounded out the top ten, but Griffith edged them all out with his incredible longevity and high level of opposition. “In a 111-fight career, nearly half of Griffith’s opponents could be found ranked [in the top ten of their division] in the pages of Ring Magazine,” they pointed out.
He was born and raised in the Virgin Islands, but Emile Griffith was New York City through and through. He came to the Big Apple at 19, and under the tutelage of trainer Gil Turner, won the city’s coveted Golden Gloves amateur championship two years in a row. He turned pro in 1958, fighting his early pro bouts in New York’s St. Nicholas Arena.
By Emile’s thirteenth bout, he was already promoted to fighting at the legendary Madison Square Garden, which was then still the “Mecca of Boxing.” Ultimately, Griffith would take part in more main events at the Garden than any other fighter besides the 1940s lightweight star Beau Jack. During the 1960s, he was arguably American boxing’s most beloved non-heavyweight star. New York fans loved his well-rounded, boxer-puncher style and aggressive body attack. “Emile never did one thing great in the ring,” Clancy later said, “but he did everything very well.” Being a polite, handsome young man with a vibrant smile did not hurt his marketability, either.
Griffith was a charming and gentle man outside of the ring, but that did not mean he was not dangerous inside of it. Just the opposite. He moved gracefully and smoothly around the ring when boxing from the outside but possessed dynamite in his right hand and could become ferocious if motivated, tragically so.
On April 1, 1961, he fought the first of what would ultimately be 23 world championship fights in his career. This was a challenge for the welterweight (147 pounds) crown held by Benny “Kid” Paret in Miami. He took the title with a thirteenth-round come-from-behind knockout but lost it back in a split decision later in the year. The last of their trilogy of hard-fought battles took place on March 24, 1962, in the Garden.
Griffith was a gay man, a poorly kept secret in the boxing world, and Paret called him a derogatory epithet before their fight. Enraged, Griffith fought with uncommon aggression throughout the bout. Trapping Paret on the ropes in the twelfth, he launched a brutal assault with both hands until the referee stopped the fight and Paret collapsed, but the ref’s intervention came too late. Paret died of his wounds a few days later, a moment that would forever scar Griffith’s psyche with terrible guilt. Unfortunately, for the public, the tragedy overshadowed much of the greatness Emile achieved in a brilliant career.
Griffith’s other great rival of this period was future Hall of Famer Luis “El Feo” Rodriguez of Cuba. The pair fought four times between 1960 and 1964. Emile won the first by a split decision. Emile granted Rodriguez a highly-anticipated rematch after winning the title. On March 21, 1963, in front of over 24,000 fans at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Rodriguez took the championship via a narrow but unanimous decision. In their third meeting less than three months later, Griffith became the first three-time welterweight champion of the world when he eeked out a controversial, split decision victory. A fourth meeting was in order, and Griffith successfully defended his title, albeit by another heavily debated decision.
In the early 1960s, Emile was also recognized in Europe as the reigning champion of a newly created division called junior middleweight (154 pounds) after winning a unanimous decision over fellow American Teddy Wright in Vienna, Austria on October 17, 1962. He briefly held this lightly regarded world championship simultaneous with his more respected welterweight title before abandoning it the next year.
Emile would go on to win championships the middleweight (160 pounds) on April 25, 1966, with a unanimous decision over future Hall of Famer Dick Tiger in the Garden, despite being outweighed by more than 10 pounds. Taking into consideration his junior middleweight championship, this made Griffith the first three-division world champion since Henry Armstrong in the 1930s.
In the late 1960s, he fought a three-bout rivalry with future Hall of Famer Nino Benvenuti of Italy, the pair trading the middleweight belt between each other as they did so. Benvenuti would end up winning two of their three classics, but when Griffith regained the middleweight championship in their September 29, 1967 bout at New York’s Shea Stadium, he became a rare six-time lineal world champion, a feat only Sugar Ray Robinson has matched.
Griffith sometimes lost to fighters he should not have. He also fought on too long, not retiring until 1977. 11 of his defeats came in the last five years of his career. But in his prime, he was a beautifully skilled fighter, one of the outstanding talents of the 1960s. In later life, he worked as a trainer and was the subject of the award-winning documentary Ring of Fire.
Emile Griffith’s Record vs. Hall of Famers & Lineal World Champions:
3/11/1960 — W 10 — Denny Moyer
4/26/1960 — L 10 — Denny Moyer
12/17/1960 — W 10 — Luis Rodriguez
4/1/1961 — W (KO) 13 — Benny Paret
9/30/1961 — L 15 — Benny Paret
3/24/1962 — W (TKO) 12 — Benny Paret
7/13/1962 — W 15 — Ralph Dupas
8/18/1962 — W 10 — Denny Moyer
3/21/1963 — L 15 — Luis Rodriguez
2/10/1964 — W (KO) 3 — Ralph Dupas
6/12/1964 — W 15 — Luis Rodriguez
4/25/1966 — W 15 — Dick Tiger
4/17/1967 — L 15 — Nino Benvenuti
9/29/1967 — W 15 — Nino Benvenuti
3/4/1968 — L 15 — Nino Benvenuti
10/17/1969 — L 15 — Jose Napoles
7/15/1970 — W 10 — Dick Tiger
9/21/1971 — L (TKO) 14 — Carlos Monzon
6/2/1973 — L 15 — Carlos Monzon
11/22/1974 — L 10 — Vito Antuofermo
7/30/1977 — L 10 — Alan Minter
