Benny "Kid" Paret ....lest we forget

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."

Test

The TV ban resulting from this fight is one of the reasons there is less boxing news from the 60's when compared to the 50's and 70's. The fight was horrific and the outcome was in plain sight of millions.

Heres a few pictures of that tragic night I scanned from a book I have.... sorry about the crooked scan... :-\

Sorry I had to resize the pictures.... They were too big...

Wow! Thanks for great photo.

That's a scary photo of the Kid..........

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Originally Posted by HMSARES

Wow! Thanks for great photo.

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Not a problem.

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Originally Posted by Ted The Bull

That's a scary photo of the Kid..........

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Yeah! it is I've read that section a couple of times before though it's a little hard to stomach.... Once you've read it a few times...

The "rag doll" part was the worse. He just went limp and you knew right there that he was done.

Yeah - it was horrific..... I always though Morrison's KO loss to Mercer was in that league as well (though without the tragic consequences)

Agreed. Thank God.

My girlfriend worked as a production assistant on "Ring of Fire", the documentary on Emile Griffith. She met him several times and says that he's a heck of nice guy.

Ironically, on the Hall of Fame enshrinee page, the following appears: "EMILE GRIFFITH was a consummate fighter. The only thing he did not do well in the ring, was punch. Aside from that, Griffith did everything well."

There is much far more to this story, indeed, easily enough for a book, but I suggest you consider getting the video entitled, "Ring of Fire, The Emile Griffith Story," which is a great documentary that covers in great detail the circumstances surrounding the tragic incident and the aftermath right up to the present.

Emile now has Pugilistica Dementia. How tagic is that?

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Originally Posted by Ted The Bull

That's a scary photo of the Kid..........

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Where?