I keep thinking how strange it is ... I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison almost all my life.
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I like men and women both. But I don't like that word: homosexual, gay or faggot. I don't know what I am. I love men and women the same, but if you ask me which is better ... I like women.
The bout which was nationally televised by NBC occurred on March 24, 1962 at Madison Square Garden. In the sixth round Paret nearly knocked out Griffith with a multi punch combination but Griffith was saved by the bell. After the round his trainer Gil Clancy got into his face and told him "when you go inside I want you to keep punching until Paret holds you or the referee breaks you! But you keep punching until he does that!". In round twelve Griffith knocked Paret unconscious yet Paret stood, still propped up against the ropes while Griffith struck Paret repeatedly over the next several seconds before referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the fight. Paret never regained consciousness, and he died ten days later.
ReplyDeleteSports Illustrated reported in its April 18, 2005, edition that Griffith's rage may have been fueled by an anti-gay slur directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in. Paret reportedly called his opponent a maricón, the Spanish equivalent of "faggot"; Griffith nearly went after him on the spot and had to be restrained. The media at the time either ignored the slur or used euphemisms such as "anti-man". The 2005 article pointed out that it would have been career suicide for an athlete or any other celebrity during the 1960s to admit that he was gay.
ReplyDeleteWhile Paret was lying on the floor being attended to Griffith told a television interviewer "I'm very proud to be the welterweight champion again...and I hope Paret is feeling very good." When the seriousness of the situation become known Griffith went to the hospital where Paret was being treated and unsuccessfully attempted for several hours to gain entry to Paret's room. Following that he ran through the streets while being insulted by passers-by. He would later receive hate mail from Paret's supporters who were convinced Griffith purposely killed Paret.
This incident, and the widespread publicity and criticism of boxing which accompanied it, became the basis of the 2005 documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story. New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller created a seven man commission to investigate the incident and the sport. 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. Goldstein, the referee for this fight, would never again referee a fight.
Griffith reportedly still feels guilt over Paret's death, and has suffered nightmares about Paret for forty years. 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. However, Paret's widow Lucy could not bring herself to meet him and died in 2004.