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Emile Griffith (born February 3, 1938) is a former
boxing|boxer from the US Virgin Islands who won
world championships in both the Welterweight and
Junior Middleweight divisions. He was the first
boxer from the US Virgin Island ever to become a
world champion. While Griffith is recognized in
some boxing books as being a three division world
champion, he was only recognized as champion of
the Middleweight division in England.

Griffith, who turned professional in 1958 and
fought frequently in New York, is best remembered
for his televised third fight against Benny
Paret|Benny the "Kid" Paret on March 24, 1962.
Fighting for the Welterweight title, Paret and
Griffith boxed a close fight until round twelve,
when Griffith knocked Paret unconscious, yet still
propped up against the ropes. The referee failed
to stop the fight, and Griffith struck Paret 23
more times. Paret never regained consciousness and
died nine days later.  

This incident, and the publicity and criticism of
boxing which accompanied it, became the basis of
the documentary Ring of Fire. 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.

Griffith was traumatized by Paret's death.
Ironically, prior to the fight Griffith had never
been known as a hard puncher.  

Sports Illustrated reported in its April 18, 2005
edition that Griffith, who may be homosexual, may
have been fueled by rage over an anti-gay slur
directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in. 
Paret reportedly called his opponent a maricon,
the Spanish equivalent of "faggot"; Griffith
nearly went after him on the spot and had to be
restrained. The slur was ignored by the media at
the time.

Although Griffith later beat Nino Benvenuti for
the Junior Middleweight title, many boxing fans
believed he was never quite the same fighter after
Paret's death. For the rest of his career, he was
known as a sharp technical boxer who lacked the
instinct to finish off opponents quickly, even
punching away from fighters' cuts rather than at
them.

Other boxers he fought in his career were the
world champions Denny Moyer, Luis Manuel
Rodriguez|Luis Rodriguez, Carlos Monzon, Dick
Tiger, and in his last title try, Edgard Dagge.
After 18 years as a professional boxer, Griffith
retired with a record of 85 wins (25 by knockout),
24 losses and 2 draws.

He has trained other boxers during his retirement,
including Wilfredo Benitez and Juan Laporte, of
Puerto Rico. Both have won world championships.

Griffith, Monzon, Benvenuti, Rodriguez, Tiger and
Benitez are members of the International Boxing
Hall Of Fame.

Sadly, Griffith is still haunted by nightmares
about the death of Benny Paret. In 1992 he was
viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York
street, alleguedly after leaving a gay bar. Today,
Griffith requires full time care and suffers from
pugilistica dementia. According to Sports
Illustrated, his pugilistica dementia makes him
confused about his sexuality, and he sometimes
declares himself to be heterosexual, other times
he identifies as gay and other times, as bisexual,
but one that prefers women.