Listen Live
97.9 The Box Featured Video
CLOSE

The Latest Music, Celebrities and Interviews: 

The boxing world lost a legend today.

According to International Boxing Hall of Fame, six-time world champion Emile Griffith passed away after a long battle with pugilistic dementia. He died in an extended care facility in Hempstead, N.Y.

MUST READ: Usher Prepares To Play Boxer Sugar Ray Leonard In New Biopic

MUST READ: Talia Castellano, 13-Year-Old YouTube Beauty Guru, Dies of Cancer

Griffith was best known as the first boxer from the U.S. Virgin Islands to become world champion. His career was soon over overshadowed by the fatal beating he gave Bennie Paret in a 1962.

The shocking outcome left a cloud over the sport for many years. NBC stopped airing boxing broadcasts, and then-New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller created a commission to investigate the bout and the sport. The referee that night, Ruby Goldstein, never worked another fight.

Author Ron Ross wrote a book, “Nine, Ten and Out! The Two Worlds of Emile Griffith,” on Griffith, and had known the fighter since 1963.

The boxer, who headlined Madison Square Garden 23 times, was 75 years old.

Get The Latest Music and Entertainment News On Your Phone 

 

RELATED STORIES

Bruno Mars’ Mother Dies Unexpectedly At 55

Autopsy Results Confirm Cory Monteith Died From A Lethal Combination Of Heroin & Alcohol

Check Out This Gallery

Legendary Boxer Emile Griffith Dies At 75  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com