No not Palladian. He is a big pussy. Crying all the time.
No Emile Griffith who died today after a long bout of being punch drunk. The last time I saw him at the Garden he looked like the Evil Blogger Lady in her last video. He was just gone man.
I only saw him fight once at the Garden. He fought a guinea from Carroll Gardens named Vito Antuofermo in 1974. He lost. It was a unanimous decision but as I remember it he probably should have won. The Garden was grooming Vito in those days so I think there was a thumb on the scale. Of course that was not the only reason.
You see everybody hated him. He beat Bernie "The Kid" Paret to death one night because Bernie kept calling him a maricon. Which means faggot in Spanish. Griffith hated that because that was not what you called someone in 1962. Plus it was true so he felt he had to kick his ass to prove it wasn't. Or something. Whatever.
He was a hell of a fighter though. I ran into him a lot when I used to go to the fights at the Felt Forum at the Garden back in day. Or at Jimmy's Corner the boxing bar in Times Square. He wasn't very approachable like a lot of the other fighters were so most of us just left him in peace. Maybe send over a drink but that was about it.
Rest in Peace Emile. I hope you find the Peace that eluded you here on this vale of tears.
2 comments:
It's odd, the paths people take to find peace.
I didn't know you were a fight fan. There's a good HBO doc about the Griffith v Paret fight called, Ring of Fire. I remember when Griffith fought Vito the Mosquito. Now there was a stew bum.
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