Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Today we remember former boxing champion Emile Griffith, who died Tuesday in an extended care facility in Hempstead, New York. He was 75.
In his heyday he was a five-time world champion boxer, the first world champ from the Virgin Islands, and he was inducted into the boxing hall of fame in 1990. But what he's perhaps best known for was a chilling fight in 1962, when he fought for the welterweight title against Bennie "The Kid" Paret
Paret, a native of Cuba, had taken repeated blows from Griffith before his body slowly melted to the ground. Paret went into a coma and died ten days later.
Griffith, a much loved figure in the boxing world, revealed many details about the fight in the 2005 HBO documentary, "Ring of Fire."
The bad blood that existed between the two fighters might have been fueled by a homophobic slur that Paret taunted him with at the weigh in.
For more on the life and legacy of Emile Griffith, we're joined by LZ Granderson, senior writer with ESPN.