neverlast

The late 1960's and early and mid 1970's produced some of the finest,
most
dominant champions ever. While Ali, Frazier and Foreman were taking turns
ruling the heavyweights, other divisions found themselves under the supreme
rule of a certain superior boxer.

At light heavyweight "Bad" Bob Foster was the sheriff in town. When
Vincente Rondon disputed that fact he was gunned down in two rounds.

At middleweight Carlos Monzon truly was the "King". He turned back the
challenges of such fine fighters as Nino Benvenuti, Emile Griffith and
Bennie Briscoe to name a few. After twice defeating the talented Rodrigo
Valdez , Carlos retired with his crown in tact.

Antonio Cervantes attained " legendary" status as he established himself
as one of the greatest 140 pound rulers of all time.

Roberto Duran...Just the mere mention of the name is associated with
greatness. At lightweight his fists, the "Hands Of Stone" created havoc with
any would be challengers. Only the outstanding Esteban DeJesus was able to
compete with Roberto.

Then at bantamweight was the dynamic Rock-A-Bye Ruben Olivares. His happy
go lucky gap tooth smile belied his devastating power. Only a wonderful
little fighting machine named Jesus "Chu Chu" Castillo was able to compete
with a prime Olivares. One has to wonder where DeJesus and Castillo would be
among the fistic Gods if it wasn't for Roberto Duran and Ruben Olivares. I
guess the same could be said for Rodrigo Valdez.

Then there was this smooth boxing but murderous puncher who defected from
his homeland of Cuba. He moved to Mexico and his fistic prowess led to him
being adopted as a national hero. He was a top ranking lightweight and
junior welterweight but when he was unable to secure a title shot in either
of those weight classes, he set his sights on the welterweight division. The
proud and classy welterweight titleholder agreed to put his title on the
line against this feared and avoided fighter. Curtis Cokes would pay dearly
for putting his title up for grabs. After over a dozen painful rounds Curtis
relinquished his title to Jose Napoles. Thus began a reign that would
establish Napoles as one of the greatest fighters ever to lace on the
gloves.

JCC

Monzon, Benvenuti, and Griffith ... those names especially gripped my attention only because I haven't thought about them for a long time until I read your post. I was just a kid but I remember them.

I remember especially having liked to watch Emile Griffth fight. Mostly, I remember him when he was the Welterweight champion of the world, and also his fight with Benny "Kid" Paret in the early 1960's. I think it was in 1961. I just remember that Paret was killed in the ring, or died as result of injuries he suffered in that fight. As best I remember Griffth had knocked him out and Paret had went into a coma and never recovered and died.

JJC

__________________
"The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."

hhascup

I have introduced Emile Griffith many many times. I sat next to him several times, including a couple of Ring #8 meetings and I last saw him just Friday at the Connecticut Boxing Hall of Fame. Griffith is a GREAT guy. We have him at the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame Induction and Award Ceremonies, and he talks with everyone, signs and takes pictures all night long.

He holds several records, including boxing the most Championship rounds and the most main events at Madison Square Garden.

JCC

WOW ... I had not realized Emile Griffin .. held those kind of records. I just remember him mostly as being the Welterweight champion of the world when I was kid. I first remember seeing him around about 1960 or 1961 or around that time. It was around the time I first took up boxing in 1960 ... at age 9, at a gym at a boys club.

I use to like to read boxing magazines especially alot back then and it seems to me I'd saw him fight alot on televison too around about that time.

Back in those days boxing was by far more popular than it is today, and it seens to me the fights were more regularly televised and even weekly back in those days. Of course, there was no cable television and pay per veiw and all that in those days.

What I think had over impressed me most back then about Emile Griffin was not only that he was a good fighter. Of course, he was, he was a world champion. I think also it was just that I liked his style and the way he fought and that he always appeared to be such a super well-conditioner fighter. In fact I can even remember cutting his picture out of boxing magazines of him when I was a kid.

Of course, kids all had there hero figures you know, and I did as well. But mine were all fighters. Emile Griffin was one of them. Also D-ick Tiger I saw him fight alot when I was a kid. Seems most my heroes when I was a kid back then were mostly middleweight and welterweight fighters.

But my most favorite weight division was the middleweight division. Could it have been that percentage wise we had more talented fighters in those two divisions back then? I'm not sure. But for whatever reason I was always more interested in those two weight divisons in those days.

Whoa ... that was a long time ago.

Remembering boxing how it was back then compared to boxing today, there's no comparison, even the same I would say for amatuer boxing too.

Hey, Henry, thanks for sharing that with us.

JJC

__________________
"The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."

hhascup

Yea, Griffith is a Great guy. He will always sign for you.

When I 1st met him many years ago I really liked him right away. After a while, I had to tell him that I was a BIG Luis Rodriguez fan and always rooted for him. All their bouts could have went either way, but when Griffith beat him 3 out of 4 times, I started rooting against Griffith.

I told Griffith that everytime he fought, I would root for the other guy. He said, Henry why would you do that. I told him because you beat Rodriguez. He then looked at me, so then I told him that now I watch all the tapes, and this time I root for you Emile.

I also told him that I didn't know you were such a nice guy.

Ever since then we have been friends.

Over to last couple of months, I have talked to Griffith, Tony DeMarco, Vito Antuofermo, Gaspar Ortega, Carlos Ortiz, Iran Barkley, among others.

bill1234

My favorite division is the heavyweight division. But that is beside the point. I would have it instead of 1968-1977, I would have it 1950-1980, but that is just my range. But our ranges are close as it is.

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MEMBER OF BOXINGFORUM.COM HALL OF FAME-JANUARY, 2008

JCC

Of course, the heavyweight divison and most especially in the professional ranks ... has always drawn the most attention ... but I've never known a time there wasn't more over all talent in the lighter weight divisions.

__________________
"The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."