Paret lapsed into a coma and died after being knocked out by Emile Griffith. However, many believed it was due to an acumulation of damage as Paret was coming off a ko loss to Gene Fulmer. Paret, the WW champ had challenged for Fulmers MW title six weeks earlier. He then made defended his title against Griffith. Now Fulmer said in an interview, What about the commission, what about there responsibility in Parets death? Fulmer said he didnt feel like fighting again in six weeks and he won the fight, taking far less punishment than Paret did. He thinks the boxing commission should never have sanctioned the fight at that time. SHould have waited. As for Griffith, he was rumored to be homosexual and Paret taunted him before the fight saying he would never lose to a ******. Probably pissed Griffith off as Griffith kept hitting a defensless Paret in that twelth round. However in an interview, Griffith actually cried, saying he regretted throwing those last few punches. A lot of blame is on the ref, who never reffered another bout. Those last 7 seconds should never have happened. He should have stopped it when he saw Paret was no longer defending himself. So this tragedy could have been prevented and blame lays with several people. I don't think its fair to blame Fullmer for anything though, he just did his job, defending his title and, like he said, ask the commission why they allowed Paret to fight again so soon after a brutal loss.
Fullmer fought Paret on december 9th 1961 and Paret fought Griffith on march 24th 1962. That is a 106 day period of time which is 15 weeks. I saw both fights and there is no question Paret took a severe beating in the Fullmer fight. It was the kind of beating that stays with you. Fullmer was one of the strongest middles ever and a particularly bruising type fighter. Griffith was down in the 6th round of the March 24th fight. Paret had a bit of a reputation for playing possum (pretending to be hurt in fights), only to come back winging. Paret was a very tough guy. It was tragic and while watching it, i was hoping the ref would jump in and call a halt to it sooner than he did. I think that after that final Paret/Griffith fight and ever since, refs have stopped fights sooner than prior to the Griffith/Paret fight. That is a good thing. If you go the web sight BOXING ARCHIVES, you can look up the dates of these fights.
Yes P your post is correct...About one week before the bout I was at a cocktail party in the Concord Hotel where Emile Griffith trained for his bout with Benny Paret...Well Emile showed up alone and was soon surrounded by a few guests, I included...When someone asked about the upcoming bout next week with Benny Paret, Emile became very agitated and shouted in his sing song dialect that " he call me a name[ Spanish for ***] and I keel him "...I recall how angry he said these words...Little did I know how true were those words were one week later...Ruby Goldstein the referee for that fight should have intervened much sooner and stopped the hammering the helpless Paret was taking, possibly saving Paret's life... Benny Paret might have survived...
Paret did indeed get a beating from Fullmer and on top of Griffiths view of "He called me a name. ... So I did what I had to do." allied with a referee that allowed the bout to go further than possibly should and Paret trapped so could not fall to the floor, the resulting fatality perhaps was not surprising.
Fulmer and Griffith back to back in that short a span of time -- that would have been a grueling test for anyone. RIP "Kid."
