Benny Kid Paret vs Emile Griffith III

On March 24, 1962, at Madison Square Garden, the third and final meeting between Emile Griffith and Benny "Kid" Paret became one of boxing's darkest moments. This welterweight championship bout aired on ABC's Fight of the Week and marked the tragic conclusion to their trilogy, with Griffith entering at 28-3-0 and Paret at 35-11-3.

The fight was charged with hate from the morning weigh-in, where Paret (146¼ lbs) taunted Griffith (144 lbs) with "maricón" - a homophobic slur particularly stinging to Griffith, who had worked in women's hat design. Griffith refused when asked to pose together, stating, "I'm liable to swing right now." Despite Paret's brutal defeat to Gene Fullmer in a middleweight bout three months prior, boxing authorities cleared him to defend his welterweight crown, with Griffith installed as a 2:7 favourite.

The fight's dynamics shifted dramatically in the sixth round when Paret nearly stopped Griffith with a combination, saved only by the bell. This prompted Griffith's trainer, Gil Clancy, to instruct: "When you go inside, I want you to keep punching until Paret holds you or the referee breaks you!"

The decisive moment came in round twelve, initially described by ABC commentator Don Dunphy as "probably the tamest round of the entire fight." Griffith trapped Paret in a corner and unleashed what film analysis later showed to be 29 consecutive unanswered punches. Paret, his head partially outside the ring, occasionally raised his arms in what referee Ruby Goldstein later explained he interpreted as defensive manoeuvres: "From long experience in boxing, I have seen on numerous occasions boxers deliberately put their heads a little out of the ring... as sort of a means of avoiding getting hit cleanly."

Paret's manager, Manuel Alfaro, claimed he screamed for Goldstein to stop the fight but wasn't heard. When Goldstein finally intervened at 2:09, awarding Griffith a TKO victory, Paret slid to the canvas. Dr. Alexander Schiff of the New York State Athletic Commission immediately attended to him before he was stretchered out.

In a historically significant moment, ABC aired what is considered the first instant replay in American television history, though Griffith appeared visibly uncomfortable analyzing the bout's final seconds with Dunphy. After the broadcast, Griffith spent hours trying to gain entry to Paret's hospital room before running through the streets while enduring public abuse.

Paret never regained consciousness and died ten days later at Roosevelt Hospital from massive brain haemorrhaging. Medical analysis revealed that Griffith's uppercuts had forced blood toward the rear of Paret's skull, while the hooks caused his brain to reverberate against the skull, rupturing blood vessels.

The aftermath sparked multiple controversies. Questions arose about allowing Paret to fight so soon after the Fullmer bout. Goldstein's hesitation to stop the fight was attributed to Paret's reputation for feigning injury and Griffith's history as a poor finisher. Though cleared by the New York State Athletic Commission, Goldstein, plagued by nightmares and insomnia, would referee only one more fight before retiring.

Governor Nelson Rockefeller established a seven-man commission to investigate. Combined with Davey Moore's death following his fight with Sugar Ramos in 1963, these tragedies contributed to ABC's cancellation of Fight of the Week in September 1964, marking boxing's decline as a mainstream televised sport until the 1970s.

Griffith received hate mail from Paret supporters and suffered nightmares about the bout for four decades. The tragedy was later documented in the 2005 film "Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story," culminating in a poignant reconciliation between Griffith and Paret's son, who offered forgiveness.

Paret, who had risen from cutting sugar cane in Cuba for $2 a day to world champion, left behind his wife Lucy, two-year-old son Benny Jr., and an unfulfilled dream of becoming an American citizen. According to his manager, the 25-year-old had planned to retire after this fight.