Griffin wants to retire without asterisk

Griffin wants to retire without asterisk Montell Griffin should be long settled into a comfortable retirement by now with a replica of the WBC light-heavyweight title belt he once briefly held as a reminder of his accomplishments during his long ring career. But the 38-year-old Griffin is refusing to head off into the sunset with an asterisk attached to what ought to go down as his greatest moment: becoming the first man to beat the supposedly invincible Roy Jones in March 1997. Boxing insiders scoff at Griffin’s achievement, pointing out that Griffin only won on a disqualification when Jones, irritated by his opponent’s notoriously slippery style, knocked him down down in round nine then hit him twice on the canvas. While Griffin walked away from the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City that night with the gold, his reign would last only five months, before Jones smashed him to first round defeat in their rematch. ADVERTISEMENT Irrespective of the conclusive result of their second meeting, Griffin believes he was unfairly denied the spotlight by Jones’ desperate decision to seek the easy way out. Griffin has a point. At the time of the disqualification he was ahead on one scorecard by a point, and narrowly behind on the others, despite having been knocked down in the seventh round. And it is Griffin’s desire to retire as a world champion without that asterisk which is propelling him to fight on. Next up is a 10-rounder against Corey Cummings in his home city of Chicago this weekend. “I know the deal at this point. I want to get 50 wins and another shot at the world title,” said Griffin, whose current record stands at 48-7, with 30 KOs. “I never got the credit for the win over Roy because he got disqualified. The scores were close at the time of the stoppage and I believe I would have won if the fight had gone 12.” Griffin was no non-entity who took his chance to get lucky. He was a legitimate contender who had scored two points wins over former Jones victim James Toney to earn his crack at Jones’ world title the hard way. Griffin was inspired to begin boxing after watching Muhammad Ali train in his father’s gym as a child, and went on to become US amateur champion at light-heavyweight and represented his country in the 1992 Olympics. But his elusive style, adapted from what he had seen at close quarters from Ali, and honed under the legendary late trainer Eddie Futch, found him few favors amongst prospective rivals. Nicknamed ‘Ice’, Griffin skated past opponents far from his Chicago home. He had his eighth fight on a Dublin basketball court against a novice loser called Bobby Mack. His reward for his first win over Toney at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in February 1995 was hardly the big-time he had hoped for. Four months later, he was stopping Hull journeyman Tony Booth at York Hall in Bethnal Green. Griffin’s brief stint under the London management of Frank Maloney soon ended. The wins continued but the title fights got no nearer. Only a conclusive rematch win over Toney - one judge gave him 11 of the 12 rounds - earned his chance. Griffin feels his wins over Toney are similarly blighted. “When I fought Toney in 1995 he was coming off the loss to Jones,” Griffin said. “I beat him and people said it was a fluke. So I beat him again the following year.” Subsequent opportunities did not go to plan for Griffin. He was hammered to fourth round defeat by the unbeaten Dariusz Michalczewski in a WBO title bid in Bremen in 1999. More recently, he lost a decision to Antonio Tarver for the Floridian’s two titles in 2003, and has gone on to lose contests against a series of fringe contenders, most recently Jamaican veteran Glen Johnson by 11th round stoppage last May. But Griffin is one of the sport’s good guys, who should be feted for his achievements rather than questioned over his biggest win. He is a long-time community worker in Chicago where he commands respect in and out of the ring. Few would begrudge him that one last shot he craves. “I’m training as if it’s a world title fight,” Griffin insists. “There is no way I’m going into this fight anything less than 100 percent. Hopefully a win puts me in line for a bigger fight.”