Jose Napoles Part Two: Vs Emile Griffith
Jose Napoles
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Griffith had been a successful
amateur and in 1958 he won the New York Daily News Golden Gloves, The New York
Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, and the Intercity Golden Gloves, before
turning professional on 2nd June that same year, defeating Joe Parham on points
over four rounds.
Griffith amassed a record of
22-2 (7 KOs), which included top contenders Gaspar Ortega, Denny Moyer, Jorge
and Florentino Fernandez and Luis Rodriguez by the time he challenged the Cuban
Benny ‘Kid’ Paret for the world welterweight championship on 1st April 1961 at
the Convention Center, Miami Beach, Florida. After twelve close rounds,
Griffith ended matters in the thirteenth when a long left hook caught Paret on
the jaw and a following right and another left hook kept the champion on the
canvas.
Two months later Griffith
successfully defended his new crown with a twelfth-round TKO over Mexican
challenger Gaspar Ortega, before meeting Paret for a second time on 30th
September 1961 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. After fifteen close rounds
referee Al Berl favoured the champion by eight rounds to six, whilst judges
Tony Castellano (8-6) and Artie Aldala (9-6) saw it in favour of Paret.
With three more victories under
his belt, Griffith faced his rival Paret for the third time on 24th March 1962,
again at Madison Square Garden. With one win apiece the pair strongly disliked each
other, and Paret added fuel to the fire when he called Griffith a homosexual
because he worked designing hats for a New York milliner before joining the
paid ranks.
Despite taking an eight count in
round six, Griffith was well ahead on points going into the twelfth. During the
round, Paret was knocked into a corner and smashed furiously in the head as the
stricken champion eased almost gently down the ropes and to the canvas.
Although Griffith regained the
world welterweight title, it came at a dreadful and tragic cost. Paret slipped
into a coma and died ten days later from the injuries of the beating he took,
which was seen by millions of television viewers.
Griffith, haunted by the death
of his rival, never lost control in the ring again, and would only move up the
gears when absolutely necessary, winning whilst causing as little pain as
possible.
Four months after his tragic contest with Paret, he was defending the welterweight title against Ralph Dupas, winning a fifteen-round points decision. Griffith travelled to Vienna, Austria to face America’s Ted Wright for the world light-middleweight championship on 17th October 1962 with two ten-round non-title victories under his belt. Griffith won the title, as recognised only by the Austrian Boxing Board, by a clear unanimous decision. He ended the year defending his welterweight title, now sanctioned by the WBA and WBC, with a ninth-round TKO over Jorge Fernandez, their third professional meeting (Griffith won their previous two contests on points over ten rounds in June and July 1960).
Griffith started 1963
successfully defending his world light-middleweight crown with a points win
over Denmark’s Chris Christensen in Copenhagen. About six weeks later, on 21st
March, he was back in the States, losing his welterweight titles by unanimous
decision to Luis Rodgriguez.
Griffith regained the WBC and
WBA belts three months later with a split-decision victory over Rodriguez. The
champion next successfully retained his belts against Rodriguez in June 1964
after embarking on six non-title fights, which included a first-round TKO loss
to Rubin Carter in December 1963, and a No Contest against Carlo Duran in March
1964. The Griffith-Rodriguez contest was the fourth and final time they met in
the ring, with the fifteen-round unanimous decision putting the champion up 3-1
in the series.
Griffith made another two
defences of his welterweight title, both unanimous decisions against Brian
Curvis and Jose Stable in September 1964 and March 1965 respectively, which
were sandwiched between two non-title bouts: a ninth-round TKO over Dave
Charnley in December 1964 and a ten-round split decision loss to Manuel
Gonzalez in January 1965.
In June 1965 Griffith had
another welterweight non-title fight, beating Eddie Pace with a ten-round
points decision before stepping up to middleweight to capture the newly formed
WBA American title two months later, losing a twelve-round unanimous decision
against Don Fullmer.
Griffith improved his record to
47-7 (18 KOs) with a fourth-round TKO over Gabe Terronez in September 1965 and
the following month stopped Harry Scott in a middleweight bout. He finished the
year successfully defending his welterweight belts with a fifteen-round
unanimous decision against Manuel Gonzalez, avenging his defeat against the
American in January.
In February 1966 Griffith
outscored Johnny Brooks over ten rounds before challenging Nigerian Dick Tiger
for the WBA and WBC middleweight titles on 25th April at Madison Square Garden.
Tiger was making the first defence of his second tenure as champion and was an
eight-to-five favourite to retain his crown. However, the challenger became the
first person to floor Tiger in the ninth round and went on to win an unpopular
fifteen-round decision. Griffith also vacated his welterweight belts.
The new champion won
back-to-back fifteen-round decisions over Joey Archer, before losing the titles
to the Italian Nino Benvenuti on 17th April 1967, which was Ring Magazine’s
fight of the year. The rematch was five months later, and Griffith regained the
titles with a majority decision, before losing them once again on points in
March 1968.
Griffith had seven more fights,
which included losing a ten-round split decision to Stanley Hayward in October
1968 and avenging the defeat with a twelve-round unanimous decision in May
1969, before boiling back down to welterweight in his October challenge to Jose
Napoles.
The thirty-one-year-old
challenger, two years the champion’s senior, weighed in at 151 pounds (68.49
Kg) in his earlier contest with Art Hernandez - a ten-round split decision - in
August 1969. Against Napoles, he tipped the scales at 144½ pounds (65.54 Kg), a
weight he had not been since his tragic third encounter with Benny Paret in
March 1964, aged twenty-four.
The champion started positively
by taking the ring’s centre, pumping out his jab and showing his class when
Griffith quickly began to charge in with his power punches. Napoles also
capitalised in the third round when the challenger left himself exposed to a
right uppercut by knocking him down for a count of five in the third
round.
It was plain sailing for
Napoles, who lived up to his Mantequilla (Butter) nickname, using his
slick boxing skills and fluid punching to rock the veteran on many occasions.
Griffith, who fought with a bruised cheekbone from the sixth round, never put
the champion in danger, and his chances of regaining the title became slim as
the fight wore on, even though he put up a gallant rally in the final rounds.
Apart from suffering a slight
trickle of blood from his nose early in the fifteenth and final round, Napoles
was untroubled. Griffith managed to hear the final bell and although he still
had plenty of stamina to continue, the younger, faster champion outclassed him.
Referee Dick Young scored the
contest eleven rounds to four in favour of Napoles, with judges John Thomas
(11-3) and Rudy Johnson (9-4) agreeing, as the champion improved to 62-4 (41
KOs), whilst Griffith dropped to 60-11 (9 KOs).
“I figured it would be a tough
fight,” Napoles said afterwards. “I never thought of going for a knockout. My
object was to outbox, outclass and outpunch him. Griffith is probably the
strongest fighter I have ever met.”
“I was in the best shape of my
career,” said the dejected challenger, “but I just couldn’t get up in the
fight. But I must say Napoles is a very good champion.”
Griffith never regained a world
title again, losing twice to middleweight champion Carlos Monzon - a
fourteenth-round TKO defeat in September 1971 and a fifteen-round unanimous
decision loss in June 1973 - and a September 1976 fifteen-round majority decision
loss to WBC super-welterweight champion Eckhard Dagge in Germany.
Griffith, aged thirty-nine, finished his career in July 1977 at Monaco’s Stade Louis II, losing a ten-round decision to Alan Minter, with a record of 85-24-2 (23 KOs). Of his twenty-four defeats, only Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter (first-round TKO) and Carlos Monzon stopped him. He went on to become a respected trainer with Wilfred Benitez, Juan La Porte, and James ‘Bonecrusher’ Smith on his resume. He was inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1985 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 (its inaugural year).
Griffith was a long-time
resident of Weehawken, New Jersey and in his later years had dementia
pugilistica, requiring full-time care and received his primary care from his
adopted son Luis Rodrigo Griffith. He died aged seventy-five at a care facility
in Hempstead, New York on 23rd July 2013 and was buried in St Michael’s
Cemetery, Queens, New York City.
All the best fight fans
Lea
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