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The Eighty Yard Run: Difference between revisions
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Joe tells stories of boxing in the early '60s. He begins by describing the notorious Emile Griffith - Benny Paret match (1962 March 24). His account is factually wrong. He must have known the facts. I propose he chose to make it more dramatic. The differences don't violate the essence of the story. | Joe tells stories of boxing in the early '60s. He begins by describing the notorious Emile Griffith - Benny Paret match (1962 March 24). His account is factually wrong. He must have known the facts. I propose he chose to make it more dramatic. The differences don't violate the essence of the story. | ||
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About 1:50 into this episode Joe says,'Now Griffith disposed of all his challengers in the early 1960s and I would like to give an illustration at this time of his ferocity in the ring by describing his fight with a challenger whose name was Benny "Kid" Paret.' | |||
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Benny Paret was the welterweight champion at the time of this fight, 1962 March 24, having beaten Griffith 1961 September 30. | Benny Paret was the welterweight champion at the time of this fight, 1962 March 24, having beaten Griffith 1961 September 30. | ||
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About 2:20 Joe says, 'I believe he designed women's clothing as well.' - I think not, just hats. | About 2:20 Joe says,'I believe he designed women's clothing as well.' - I think not, just hats. | ||
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Paret knocked Griffith down in the sixth; Norman Mailer, who was there, wrote that Griffith had trouble getting up. | Paret knocked Griffith down in the sixth; Norman Mailer, who was there, wrote that Griffith had trouble getting up. | ||
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In the twelfth round Griffith caught Paret in a corner and beat him unconscious. He held Paret against the ropes with his left and hit him with his right. | In the twelfth round Griffith caught Paret in a corner and beat him unconscious. He held Paret against the ropes with his left and hit him with his right. | ||
<br>Joe says, 'A few hours later, at a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead.' - | |||
<br> <br>Joe says,'A few hours later, at a nearby hospital, he was pronounced dead.' - Paret lived for another ten days. | |||
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<br> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/sports/emile-griffith-boxer-who-unleashed-a-fatal-barrage-dies-at-75.html | <br> http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/sports/emile-griffith-boxer-who-unleashed-a-fatal-barrage-dies-at-75.html | ||
<br>https://www.sportscasting.com/emile-griffith-vs-benny-paret-a-tragic-trilogy-that-left-one-fighter-dead-and-the-other-devasted-by-guilt/ | <br>https://www.sportscasting.com/emile-griffith-vs-benny-paret-a-tragic-trilogy-that-left-one-fighter-dead-and-the-other-devasted-by-guilt/ | ||
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This fight was broadcast on nationwide TV; the Wikipedia entry claims it was 1 of only 2 times a man was killed on television, the other Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Apparently there's video on YouTube. | This fight was broadcast on nationwide TV; the Wikipedia entry claims it was 1 of only 2 times a man was killed on television, the other Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Apparently there's video on YouTube. | ||
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Norman Mailer wrote an account, <i>Death</i>, published in <i>Esquire</i> and his book <i>Presidential Papers</i>: | Norman Mailer wrote an account, <i>Death</i>, published in <i>Esquire</i> and his book <i>Presidential Papers</i>: | ||
<blockquote>'This fight had its turns. Griffith won most of the early rounds but Paret knocked Griffith down in the sixth. Griffith had trouble getting up, but made it, came alive and was dominating Paret again before the the round was over. Then Paret began to wilt. In the middle of the eighth round, after a clubbing punch had turned his back to Griffith, Paret walked three disgusted steps away, showing his hindquarters. For a champion, he took much too long to turn back around. It was the first hint of weakness Paret had ever shown, and it must have inspired a particular shame, because he fought the rest of the fight as if he were seeking to demonstrate that he could take more punishment than any man alive. In the twelfth, Griffith caught him. Paret got trapped in a corner. Trying to duck away, his left arm and his head became tangled on the wrong side of the top rope. Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat. He hit him eighteen right hands in a row, an act which took perhaps three or four seconds, Griffith making a pent-up whimpering sound all the while he attacked, the right hand whipping like a piston rod which had broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin. I was sitting in the second row of that corner - they were not ten feet away from me, and like everybody else, I was hypnotized. I had never seen one man hit another so hard and so many times. Over the referee's face came a look of woe as if some spasm had passed its way through him, and then leaped on Griffith to pull him away. It was the act of a brave man. Griffith was uncontrollable. His trainer leaped into the ring, his manager, his cut man, there were four people holding Griffith, but he was off on an orgy, he had left the Garden, he was back on a hoodlum's street. If he had been able to break loose from his handlers and the referee, he would have jumped Paret to the floor and whaled on him there.'</blockquote> | <blockquote>'This fight had its turns. Griffith won most of the early rounds but Paret knocked Griffith down in the sixth. Griffith had trouble getting up, but made it, came alive and was dominating Paret again before the the round was over. Then Paret began to wilt. In the middle of the eighth round, after a clubbing punch had turned his back to Griffith, Paret walked three disgusted steps away, showing his hindquarters. For a champion, he took much too long to turn back around. It was the first hint of weakness Paret had ever shown, and it must have inspired a particular shame, because he fought the rest of the fight as if he were seeking to demonstrate that he could take more punishment than any man alive. In the twelfth, Griffith caught him. Paret got trapped in a corner. Trying to duck away, his left arm and his head became tangled on the wrong side of the top rope. Griffith was in like a cat ready to rip the life out of a huge boxed rat. He hit him eighteen right hands in a row, an act which took perhaps three or four seconds, Griffith making a pent-up whimpering sound all the while he attacked, the right hand whipping like a piston rod which had broken through the crankcase, or like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin. I was sitting in the second row of that corner - they were not ten feet away from me, and like everybody else, I was hypnotized. I had never seen one man hit another so hard and so many times. Over the referee's face came a look of woe as if some spasm had passed its way through him, and then leaped on Griffith to pull him away. It was the act of a brave man. Griffith was uncontrollable. His trainer leaped into the ring, his manager, his cut man, there were four people holding Griffith, but he was off on an orgy, he had left the Garden, he was back on a hoodlum's street. If he had been able to break loose from his handlers and the referee, he would have jumped Paret to the floor and whaled on him there.'</blockquote> | ||
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Jonathan Coleman attended the fight when he was 10, remembered it in 2013 for <i>The New Yorker</i>: | Jonathan Coleman attended the fight when he was 10, remembered it in 2013 for <i>The New Yorker</i>: | ||
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/death-at-the-garden | https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/death-at-the-garden | ||