| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
MT_Swoopes
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 1840
Back to top |
 Posted: 04/20/05 4:41 pm ::: Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story |
Reply  |
|
Taken from Darren, who posted this on the ESPN board. Don't worry about it, Darren and I are friends. We don't get involved in that board vs. board garbage.
Anyhow, I am really interested in seeing this. I have to make sure that I have eaten, and let the food digest, before I watch this. I heard there will be a significant level of discomfort while watching this.
=======================================================================
Anyone who wants to see a 90-minute documentary of AMAZING footage will want to watch this tonight on the USA Network at 9:00 e.d.t. This program will be commercial-free.
Emile Griffith was a boxer from the Islands, who gained notoriety for killing another boxer during the match due to beating him so bad. You will get to see the actual footage (IT'S SURREAL). You won't believe your eyes as your watching it. The guy is lying on the mat dead, and no one really knew at the time. Meanwhile, there is an eery feeling felt throughout the arena while Emile is being interviewed after the fight. Emile and the interviewer had no idea that he was dead. No one really did as they were going to rush him to the hospital. However, you will see that the interviewer is extremely uncomfortable, 'cause he's knows something is seriously wrong.
The underlying story behind the reason Emile beat him so badly was because there was a general thought and feeling among the boxing community that Emile was gay. Before the fight, his opponent called him a faggot in the lockerroom and thrust his pelvis up against Emile in a taunting manner. This was right before the fight. Meanwhile, boxing experts (e.g. Bert Sugar) have stated that they all knew that Emile was gay, but till this day, Emile has never confirmed that, and they did nothing to report this at the time. The reporters kept quiet about it.
This is said to be an amazing piece of documentary that will have you squirming as you watch the events unfold, when Emile starts to beat him to a pulp in the ring.
This fight affected the lives of so many people. The referee has had this follow him for life. He's been criticized for not ending the fight soon enough. The boxing commission recommended that he not go to the hospital, because the wife of the deceased might go crazy.
|
|
sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004
Posts: 16951
Location: way station of life
Back to top |
| Posted: 04/20/05 4:51 pm ::: |
Reply |
|
| damn! i forgot to tivo it. i hope they replay it. i saw emile and the boxer's son meet up and make peace w/each other on a news magazine show. pretty moving. to have this young man still sobbing just at the thought of losing his father so long ago . . . that's some heavy-duty stuff for all parties involved to drag along over the years.
_________________
no justice, no peace.
|
|
MT_Swoopes
Joined: 18 Nov 2004
Posts: 1840
Back to top |
| Posted: 04/20/05 4:59 pm ::: |
Reply |
|
| sebibb wrote: |
| damn! i forgot to tivo it. i hope they replay it. i saw emile and the boxer's son meet up and make peace w/each other on a news magazine show. pretty moving. to have this young man still sobbing just at the thought of losing his father so long ago . . . that's some heavy-duty stuff for all parties involved to drag along over the years. |
bibb...I heard about that. However, I've also heard (ONLY HEARD) that the boxer's widow or mother (I forget which) hasn't exactly been forgiving.
|
|
herrade
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 2308
Location: Twin Peaks
Back to top |
| Posted: 04/20/05 5:25 pm ::: Re: Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story |
Reply |
|
the producer of this documentary was on WNYC earlier this week talking about the film. he pointed out a number of factors behind the death: the referee not breaking them up in time (he had been criticized for acting too quickly in the past); paret shouldn't have been in the ring anyway because he had been through a number of bad fights recently; paret's corner didn't throw in the towel when they should have (they thought paret was taking a "strategic" beating -- it's a style of boxing, i guess)... in short, it wasn't just like griffith snapped.
also, just to clarify, paret didn't die in the ring. he lived -- comatose, i think -- for 10 days.
anyway, it sounds like a good film. probably not as race concious as "unforgivable blackness" but good work nonetheless.
_________________
A single act of carelessness leads to the eternal loss of beauty.
|
|
sambista
Joined: 25 Sep 2004
Posts: 16951
Location: way station of life
Back to top |
| Posted: 04/21/05 8:23 pm ::: |
Reply |
|
just located the dates of the replays. i'm assuming the times are eastern:
APR 23 04:00 AM USA TELEVISION EVENT RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY (LBX)
APR 27 08:00 AM USA TELEVISION EVENT RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY (LBX)
APR 29 02:00 AM USA TELEVISION EVENT RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY (LBX)
_________________
no justice, no peace.
|
|
jammerbirdi
Joined: 23 Sep 2004
Posts: 21046
Back to top |
| Posted: 04/21/05 10:11 pm ::: |
Reply |
|
| sebibb wrote: |
just located the dates of the replays. i'm assuming the times are eastern:
APR 23 04:00 AM USA TELEVISION EVENT RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY (LBX)
APR 27 08:00 AM USA TELEVISION EVENT RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY (LBX)
APR 29 02:00 AM USA TELEVISION EVENT RING OF FIRE: THE EMILE GRIFFITH STORY (LBX) |
I watched it last night, overall it was just great. First hour or so was as good a documentary as you're going to get. Kind of eased up in terms of can't turn your eyes off of it fascination after that but overall pretty fantastic.
|
|
LoveJanet
Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 945
Back to top |
| Posted: 04/22/05 7:34 am ::: |
Reply |
|
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2043177
| Quote: |
In "Ring of Fire," the story is told of Emile Griffith's life and his pummeling of Benny "The Kid" Paret in 1962, a beating that left Paret in a coma. He died 10 days later.
It's a heartbreaking tale made moreso by the fact that Paret was said to have uttered a Spanish homosexual slur to Griffith before the match, perhaps enraging Griffith to the point of dealing deadly blows in the ring.
But it is also instructive that Griffith, interviewed now about those fateful dealings of more than 40 years ago, would not openly divulge his sexual orientation. The percentages inside the locker room, the clubhouse, arguably no longer apply. But some things cannot be reduced to mere numbers. |
|
|
LoveJanet
Joined: 22 Feb 2005
Posts: 945
Back to top |
| Posted: 04/22/05 7:42 am ::: |
Reply |
|
There are few things about this story that irritated me.
1. Paret was badly beaten in his previous match to the Griffith match that it was obvious to all that he was done. His pond scum of a manger had no business telling him to fight just to get one last pay day. As far as I'm concerned, blood was all over the hands of his manager. He was a huge joke to me.
2. HOW IN THE HELL could a referee allow a fighter to punch another boxer over 20+ straight times within 10 seconds, when Paret already had his glove on the ropes after previous punches? I'm sorry, but you couldn't get away with that today. A referee wouldn't let a match continue after four or five punches.
The footage was outstanding. I just got really upset watching those flurry of punches that put him into the coma, 'cause each punch was harder and got worse.
|
|
|
|
