Emile Griffith vs **** Tiger

[TheGreatA]

The best welterweight in the world moves up to challenge the best middleweight in the world:











Another great upload by McGrain.

Here's the rematch between a 40 year old Tiger and Griffith, which wasn't the fight that their first match was:

[McGrain]

This fight is a nice counterpoint to the Machen-Johnson fight. Here it's missed jabs that define the fight. Ironically, in this loss, Tiger posts arguably the best advertisement for his defence. He slips the Griffith jab beautifully, sometimes one each side, but he struggles to bring anything behind it. I think Tiger was a little bit faded at this point for that reason, I think a few years early he would have sneaked a close decision as opposed to lost a close decision.

Griffith fights brilliantly though. This film is incomplete (round 5 is missing), so my scorecard isn't worth much, but of the 14 rounds here I had Griffith up 6-5-3. The KD in the 9th,which looks mostly like a slip to me, is crucial, as Tiger was winning that round handily (and most rounds are very close). Anyway, Griffith controls range beautifully at the outset, using feints, small moves and his superior timing to keep Tiger under control. When Tiger starts to find the range with his own jab,he takes a huge risk and steps inside. This was Gil Clancy's plan and it works a treat. Griffith didn't expect to be able to match the hugely strong Tiger for strength, but it was so,just as Clancy had predicted, and it keeps Griffith in the box-seat tactically, it means he can still decide, for the most part, when they will exchange. Griffith is also really clever inside, smothering and holding beautifully.