Recently re-read this article on Young Griffo. https://thegruelingtruth.net/boxing/part-four-greatest-defensive-fighters-ever-young-griffo/ What are your thoughts on Griffo? Greatest P4P talent ever? Is there any footage of him?
No footage of him. He was certainly a freak for his time. But a drunkard also. A natural fighter and defensive whiz but again, ‘for his time’.
Some years ago, I saved two links to a story - written by a reporter who was one of the guests, when Jacobs first (I believe it was in 1961, though not absolutely certain about the date) showed some of his films to Nat Fleischer (and other invited guests) in New York: postimg.org/image/8jjvn3rnn/ http://postimg.org/image/r5f6sd0f7/full/ However, for some reason, these links don't work anymore, and I'm unable to find the story again. But I'm sure, many of you guys must have read the article as well, and know what I'm talking about. Anyway, the reporter describes how those attending looked on in disbelief, as they at first didn't even recognize the old-timers on the screen, and could not believe how bad they looked. The reporter also mentioned, that they were shown a Griffo fight (opponent not mentioned). Apparently he wasn't impressed, as he remarks (and I'm paraphrasing) that if Griffo was really seen as this boxing genius by his contemporaries... it must have been because he stood out in an era, where almost everybody else looked terrible. So yes, I guess there must be some footage of him out there - that we, unfortunately, aren't allowed to see!
IIRC he was pretty well schooled by Mace and Folley. I don't know much about him honestly. I suspect very much a mix of good training and talent rather than pure talent.
Chronicalling America is decent for New York papers, and goes up to 1963 https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
Wiki just says he was drunk driving and "disorderly" conduct, and had an assualt sentence. Nothing like that.
It was covered in the newspapers of the time. I haven't got the time or inclination to go trawling through them at the moment but if you Google search Young Griffo (or Albert Griffiths) and William Gottlieb (spelling?), I'm sure it will throw something up for you. If you look at his career record he was fighting every few weeks, then in the mid 1890's there is a gap of around a year. That is when he was in jail for the crime.