Mar 24

Fight of the day. Savage and brutal but part of boxing history and a glaring reminder of the risk.

1962: Emile Griffith vs Benny (Kid) Paret



1899: Kid Mc Coy W 20 Joe Choynski, San Francisco.

1924: Harry Greb KO 12 Fay Kaiser, Baltimore. Retains World Middleweight Title.

1932: Billy Petrolle KO 12 Battling Battalino, NYC. Referee: Ed Smith.
A crowd of 18,000 watched as “Petrolle cut Battalino to pieces with vicious rights and lefts to the head, brought blood streaming from a dozen cuts, and finally stopped him after one minute and 31 seconds of the twelfth and final round. Two smashing punches to the body made Battalino sway. Another volley to the head sent him reeling into the ropes. Still he refused to go down but he was obviously out on his feet and Referee Gunboat Smith stepped in and awarded the fight to Petrolle on a technical knockout.”
(AP).

1933: Maxie Rosenbloom KO 4 Bob Goodwin, NYC. Retains World Light Heavyweight Title.

1938: Benny Lynch D 15 Peter Kane, Liverpool. Retains World Flyweight Title.

1950: Rocky Marciano W 10 Roland La Starza, NYC. Contraversial. Only a kg by Marciano stopped this fight from being a draw.

1962: Emile Griffith KO 12 Benny (Kid) Paret, NYC. Regains World Welterweight Title. Paret dies 10-days later as a result of the battering he received. This would be the grief stricken Ruby Goldstein’s last fight as a referee.

1975: Muhammad Ali KO 15 Chuck Wepner, Cleveland. Retains World Heavyweight Title.

1980: Hilario Zapata W 15 Shigeo Nakajima, Tokyo. Wins WBC Junior Flyweight Title.

1988: Roger Mayweather KO 3 Mauricio Aceves, Los Angeles. Retains WBC Super Lightweight Title.

1990: Juan Coggi W 12 Jose Luis Ramirez, Ajaccio, Corsica. Retains WBA Super Lightweight Title.

-Humberto Gonzalez KO 3 Francisco Tejedor, Mexico City. Retains WBC Junior Flyweight Title.

2001: Vassiliy Jirov KO 1 Terry McGroom, Las Vegas. Retains IBF Cruiserweight Title.

-Sven Ottke KO 8 James Crawford, Magdeburg, Germany. Retains IBF Super Middleweight Title.

-Oscar De La Hoya KO 5 Arturo Gatti, Las Vegas.

2007: Mikkel Kessler W 12 Librado Andrade, Copenhagen, Denmark. Retains WBA/WBC Super Middleweight Title.

2012: Danny Garcia W 12 Erik Morales, Houston, TX. Wins WBC Super Lightweight Title.