On the JuanMa stoppage. Anyone see "Ring of Fire"?

[physiker]

That great film was about Emile Griffith and Benny Paret.
And what can happen when a ref doesn't act quickly enough.

IMO, it's a great boxing film as a documentary and as a heartwarming story.



Shows the animosity between the two before their third fight (I think it was).
BP had publicly called EG "Maricon" at the weigh-in, and and EG had to be restrained.

The ref was Ruby Goldstein who had been criticized for caring "too much" about the fighters' safety. In the 12th round, EG basically rendered BP unconcious after one or two punches, but he was propped up by the ropes--with some help by EG, who then landed an additional number of punches. Total may have been as high as 16-22 before Goldstein stopped it. Real dereliction by both the ref and Paret's corner. Some controversy about whether Gil Clancy told him to do something like that--or just what a boxer is suposed to do. (But we have seen some greats like Ali and Leoanard ask the ref to stop it.)

Paret immediately was comatose, and died 10 days later.

The film shows what happened with Paret's wife and with Griffith's life afterwards. It shows the results of the brutal attack by several thugs after EG left a [gay] bar drunk. EG was a semi-invalid since then.

Film tries to get the widow and son of Paret to meet with Griffith 40 years later, and I won't give away the ending.

This fight kept boxing off of network TV for several years until Ali came along, and probably white America was dying to see him get beat, so they put boxing back on again. (I am white.)

Anyway it was a great film, and shows what can happen. I think the very first or second punch had Paret comatose. The rest made sure he would not be saveable.

People here seen "Ring of Fire"?

[physiker]

Here's an excellent article on this:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/magazine/04/12/griffith0418/index.html

Says one of the reasons the ref didn't stop Paret fight is because of the large Hispanic crowd's possible reaction.

[uncle_ray]

i actually just watched on netflix the other night. my one complaint about the documentay was they insisted on keep showing brutal knockout blows paret suffered. i thought once was going to be enough but they kept showing it, i felt that was quite distasteful and uncalled for. as a huge boxing fan i hate seeing guys getting seriously injured and i did not need to see paret get put in a coma repeatedly

[physiker]

Yeah it can be hard to watch, especially since it is clear after the first or second punches he was unconscious, and how we know it ended up.

But maybe those who scream that fights such as JuanMa's last were stopped too soon should be made to see this?!

[st8jabfrom787]

it was a good stoppage but it was a championship fight couldve gone another round. i do see juanma getting the revenge in the rematch.

[physiker]

Well championship or not, if an error is to be made--since there will be no way to know the future--it has to be made with saviing the fighter's life in mind.

Looked to me like JuanMa was out of it earlier than that.

Remember if you know the Paret story, he had been badly beaten by Gene Fullmer in his previous fight. JuanMa has taken a lot of punishment recently.

So much easier for him now to go the way of Paret. His fights should henceforth be stopped right away unless he gets extensive brain scans proving no damage whatsoever.

[physiker]

i actually just watched on netflix the other night. my one complaint about the documentay was they insisted on keep showing brutal knockout blows paret suffered. i thought once was going to be enough but they kept showing it, i felt that was quite distasteful and uncalled for. as a huge boxing fan i hate seeing guys getting seriously injured and i did not need to see paret get put in a coma repeatedly

Uncle Ray: Did you see it streaming or on DVD from Netflix?

[Cuauhtémoc1520]

I personally thought it was a good stoppage.

If you look at the fight, JuanMa was hurt 3 rounds prior to the one that was stopped. It's not as if he was hurt and then the ref just stopped the fight, I believe the ref was thinking about the previous 2 rounds and how JuanMa wasn't right even then.

After the 5th (the knockdown round I believe) JuanMa literally slumped into his corner, he was out on his feet. After that he landed some punches and made a late rally in the 7th I think but he was hurt the whole time.

You could see his legs were not under him. The ref did what he thought best and that was protect the fighter. Even if it was allowed to go on, JuanMa would have been caught by another one of those haymakers and gone to sleep.

To be honest the ref saved him from having to go through that.