Sometimes I wonder what I offer here. I’m not brilliant, I have no expertise in anything essential.
I have one thing: a long memory. (Helped by the internet.) And it’s a strange beast, too. I forget what happened 5 minutes ago, but I can remember what happened 50 years ago. Actually, 63 years ago.
I remember when a man was killed on live television. And people were shocked. That, I remember. Here are the details. (With help from the Internet.)
On March 24, 1962, Cuban welterweight champion Benny "Kid" Paret fought Emile Griffith at Madison Square Garden for the world title. The Garden was packed. It aired on ABC’s Fight of the Week, a popular Saturday night program in the early 1960s when boxing was a TV staple, rivaling baseball in viewership. Fast, skilled welterweights like Paret and Griffith were ideal for television.
In the 12th round, Griffith trapped Paret against the ropes and landed 29 unanswered punches, mostly to the head.1
Paret collapsed, fell into a coma, and died 10 days later from brain injuries at age 25.
The referee was the renowned Ruby Goldstein. He was known for his caution and willingness to stop fights that became too brutal. Fight fans criticized him for this; they accused him of robbing fighters of a chance to recover. This reputation made his hesitation during the 1962 Paret-Griffith tragedy shockingly out of character. But there may have been a causal relationship between his customary caution and the tragedy.
Legendary journalist Jimmy Breslin covered the Paret-Griffith fight for the New York Herald Tribune, and wrote about its raw horror in several columns. He was interviewed in a 2005 documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, which chronicled the fight and its ripple effects. The 90-minute film dealt honestly with Griffith’s personal struggles as a closeted homosexual in a hyper-masculine blood sport.
In the documentary, Breslin pointed out Goldstein’s reputation as a fight-stopper with his curious hesitance that fateful and fatal night. He conjectured that it was precisely because of this reputation that Goldstein delayed. The pressure of a live, national TV broadcast and the fight’s high profile overrode his usual caution.
I totally agree with Breslin.
There was a massive public outcry. Editorials and public figures, from politicians to clergy, called for reforms or outright bans on boxing. Congressional hearings in 1962 and 1963 investigated boxing’s safety and mob ties.
Paret had fought just three months earlier, losing brutally to Gene Fullmer. His death prompted stricter medical protocols, including mandatory brain scans, longer post-fight suspensions (e.g., 30–90 days for knockouts), and improved pre-fight health checks.
After limping along for two more years, the ABC’s Fight of the Week was canceled. The sport was in the doldrums until a kid named Cassius Clay turned pro.
In 1993, Ultimate Fighting Championship held its first event. UFC bans “transgender women” from competition but they’ve competed in other venues under different sponsorships and a desensitized, brutalized portion of the population will pay good money to watch this.
Fallon Fox competed in women’s divisions in regional promotions like Capital City Cage Wars. In 2014, he fought Tamikka Brents and won by TKO in the first round. Brents got a concussion, an orbital bone fracture, and seven staples to the head.
Alana McLaughlin debuted on September 10, 2021, against Celine Provost. He won via a second-round “rear-naked choke.” McLaughlin, a U.S. Army Special Forces veteran, passed all medical and hormone tests required by the Florida State Boxing Commission.
Why, suddenly did all of this come back to me? This. Watch the whole thing. Watch the way the odious Murphy dodges, weaves, and shakes his head, as if this whole subject is beneath his augustness, simply beneath him, to consider.2
Somebody’s daughter is going to get killed.
She’ll probably be a working class girl, not in Murphy’s state, and the media won’t give a shit, because our society is controlled lock stock and barrel by the psycho left now.
At least in 1962 there was a scrap of humanity left in the country. We had the capacity to be shocked.
That’s gone.3
It later emerged that the barrage was precipitated by an anti-gay taunt at the weigh-in.
We really should invent a new personal pronoun for shits like Murphy, who are ostensibly men. They not only lack balls, they lack heart, soul, and guts.
I do agree that the women who agree to fight these men shoulder some of the blame. Just don’t do it.