Focus On The Rainbow

Emile Griffith, born in the US Virgin Islands, was a six-time world champion at welterweight and middleweight in the Sixties, now installed in boxing’s Hall of Fame. There was always speculation about his sexuality – he talked with a lisp, had an effeminate gait and had worked as a milliner designing women’s hats. We certainly raised our eyebrows when Griffith fought at Wembley against Brian Curvis. When we went to his dressing room afterwards he was passionately kissing one of his cornermen. But those were the days when no one asked questions and to admit to being gay, especially in an environment like boxing, would have been professional suicide.

Griffith, now 71, has finally declared the homosexuality that was an unspoken backdrop to his career. Unspoken, that is, except, tragically, for the man from whom he first won the welterweight crown, the Cuban Benny “Kid” Paret. They fought three times and, on the third occasion, at Madison Square Garden, Paret taunted him with the word “maricon” – Spanish slang for faggot. An outraged Griffith had to be restrained at the weigh-in and in the 12th round he battered Paret unconscious. While the Cuban was propped up against the ropes, Griffith struck him repeatedly for several seconds before referee Ruby Goldstein hauled him off. Paret never regained consciousness, and died 10 days later. In a recently published biography Griffith says: “I keep thinking how strange it is… I kill a man and most people forgive me. However I love a man and many say this is unforgivable and this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison most of my life.

Read the full story at The Independent