The Neutral Corner

Imagine this -- a gay man being one of the greatest professional boxers in the history of the sport. You don't have to imagine it, it's true. Emile Griffith, a six-time world champion and charter member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, is a homosexual.

This is hardly news. People in the boxing community have known (or suspected, few ever actually talked about it) of Emile's orientation for decades. It has been confirmed in recent years by other forms of media, but never in the form of a book. Until now. Ron Ross has written, "Nine ... Ten ... And Out! The Two Worlds of Emile Griffith."

It is a fascinating book that the 70-year-old Griffith authorized Ross to write. It is the journey of how a young man from the Virgin Islands, with a high, sing-song accent, found his way into a boxing gym and was quickly launched into stardom. He was, simply put, a natural fighter. And if that seems like a contradiction, well, that's the story of Emile Griffith.

The book also covers in depth Griffith's 1963 welterweight title fight with Benny "Kid" Paret, which resulted in Paret's tragic death. This quote in the book from Griffith sums up the book, and his life, perhaps better than anyone could:

"I keep thinking how strange it is ... I kill a man and most people understand and forgive me. However, I love a man, and to so many people this is an unforgivable sin; this makes me an evil person. So, even though I never went to jail, I have been in prison almost all my life."

Griffith's prime years in the ring were the 1960s. And while that decade may be known for peace, love and understanding, few in that era were ready to accept an openly gay athlete. (Is our society even ready today?) Couple that with the fact that Griffith competed in a sport as rugged as boxing and his lifestyle was all the more complex.

In his previous book, "Bummy Davis vs. Murder Inc," Ron Ross flexed his creative muscles. That was a wonderfully crafted story, full of color, drama and humor. In this effort, Ross proves to be an excellent reporter and, more importantly, a man who was determined to tell a story yet protect Griffith's dignity. He has clearly succeeded.

Ross, from Oceanside, had turned down several book deals because he felt the publishers were simply interested in exploiting Griffith's sexuality. He finally found an understanding business partner in boxing promoter Lou DiBella. In addition to promoting several world champions, DiBella, through his company, DiBella Entertainment, has already produced one feature film and a feature-length documentary. He understood the value of the story, but also believed there was a proper way to tell it.

The fear of exploitation wasn't the only obstacle in Ross' path. He began work on this project in 2002 and at that time Griffith was his primary source. But as the years passed, Griffith's health declined and his memory became less reliable. When the book was published this month, it was a bittersweet time for Ross.

"Emile is happy, he's content," said Ross. "So that makes me very happy. He understands that his story has been told and that's important."

On the final page of the book, Ross writes, "Emile Griffith is victimized by living in a world of diversity that strives for uniformity. It is perhaps one of the great hypocrisies of our civilization... There is only one way to judge Emile Griffith and that is by not judging him at all. Rather, accept him as a great champion and understand that Emile Griffith the prizefighter had three major flaws -- or virtues. He was too gentle. He was too giving and he was too sensitive. At least for the world where he was king."

The book is available at barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com. -- CASSIDY

A fractured right hand is not going to stop Paulie "The Magic Man" Malignaggi from taking on Ricky Hatton this fall, according to promoter Lou DiBella.

Malignaggi (25-1, 5 KOs), who injured the hand in his split-decision win over Lovemore N'Dou on Saturday in Manchester, England, was examined by hand specialist Dr. Steven Marlges today. Malignaggi, the IBF junior welterweight champion, is set to fight Hatton, likely in New York.

The injury shouldn't impact Malignaggi's fight schedule, according to DiBella. “I spoke with Dr. Margles after he examined Paulie and the prognosis is good,” DiBella said in a statement. “This should not affect Paulie’s big fight this fall against Ricky Hatton in any way.”

- MARCUS HENRY

It’s the Stanley Cup finals, so the Neutral Corner reached out to Clark Gillies to talk a little boxing, hockey, and, of course, hockey fighting. Gillies was the consummate power forward during his 14-year NHL career. Twelve of those seasons were spent with the Islanders, where Gillies was on the same line as Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy during the Isles’ four-year run as Stanley Cup Champions. Gillies, who scored over 300 goals, has had his number retired by the Islanders and was elected to the hall of fame in 2002.

Neutral Corner: Who were your favorite boxers to watch?

Clark Gillies: Certainly Ali’s fights with Frazier, the Thrilla in Manilla was a classic. I also enjoyed Tommy Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard’s fights. Oscar De La Hoya just keeps going and going. He’s as good looking now as he was 10 years ago. That SOB looks like no one hits him. But Ali was special, particularly in his prime, the way he floated around the ring. Then certainly we went through the Tyson era, which was exciting.

NC: You were a Tyson fan?
CG: Most of it you could take until he tried to bite Holyfield’s ear off. Then to see where he’s gone since is kind of disappointing.

NC: In their primes, who wins, Ali or Tyson?
CG: Ali. I think, because Tyson wouldn’t have gotten many shots in. Ali would have been able to take him 12, 15, rounds and win a decision. Tyson wouldn’t have been able to land the same shots he was landing against other guys.

NC: You had a pretty solid career as a heavyweight in your own right.

CG: Well, it was in self defense most of the time. I had a much shorter temper in junior hockey than I did in professional hockey. My job never changed. I had some good success passing the puck and scoring goals. But my job was to also make sure nothing happened to Trots and Bossy. I was able to contribute, from a hockey standpoint as well. It was part of my whole package. The fighting part is not that enjoyable.

NC: Do you know your fight against Dave Schultz is YouTube classic. How often do people ask you about it?

CG: I don’t really get asked about it as much as people like to tell me about it. They come up and say, that fight with Dave Schultz was awesome, it put the Islanders on the map. I know Schultzy really well and he’s a good guy. He was a very talented hockey player and he got lost in the minors. He got into a fight with someone and beat him up and the fans went crazy. He thought, well, this is my avenue to the NHL and sure enough he got there. At one point he scored 20 goals, he had some pretty good offensive talent. You talk about making a living the hard way. Every night he had to fight somebody.

NC: Do you think that fight really legitimized the Islanders?

CG: I don’t know. That fight was the culmination of a lot of smaller fights. But we laugh about it now. I heard Schultzy telling a story about it one time at an event. He had a crowd of guys around him and I saw them laughing so I went over there and said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, I just telling these guys how mad I am at Moose DuPont. I said, ‘Why are you mad at him?’ Then Schultzy said, I was just getting ready to get off the ice to beat this [stuffing] out of you until Moose grabbed you.

NC: What was the best hockey fight you ever saw?

CG: The best one I ever saw didn’t involve me. It was Marty McSorley and Bob Probert. It was in Detroit and I think the fight lasted for 2 ½ minutes. Which for a hickey fight was incredibly long. They pounded each other with lefts, when they got tired, then they pounded each other with rights. When one guy would go down, the other guy would lift him up.

NC: Those Islander teams that won the Cup were very tough teams, weren’t they?

CG: We didn’t really discover it until 1980 when we played Boston. We woke up to really how tough we were and we could play any style of game. Bobby Nystrom was very tough. Gordie Lane was extremely was tough, a very good fighter, Duane Sutter, Bobby Lorimer, Bobby Bourne, could surprise guys. It was a tough team. Trottier didn’t fight that much but he was tough. It was a very well-rounded team. We could play a finesse game, we could play fast-paced. We could be tough and aggressive when we needed to be.

NC: Did you ever have any formal boxing training?

CG: I never had any boxing training. Our training was that we used to fight when we 10 years old. I had been fighting different guys in different games for the most part since I was 10 years old. The one thing I regret is that I didn’t get any better throwing left hands.

The Clark Gillies Foundation (http://www.clarkgillies.org) has its annual golf outing on June 9, at the Huntington Crescent Club. The foundation helps numerous charities on Long Island and is responsible for the Clark Gillies Pediatric Center at the Huntington Hospital.

-- CASSIDY

Ricky Hatton won a unanimous decision over Mexico's Juan Lazcano to retain his IBO light welterweight title. The scores were 120-110, 118-110, 120-108. It was his first fight since he lost a WBC welterweight bid against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in December. As a service to boxing fans, here are some links to coverage from the fight.

Newsday's Wally Matthews was ringside, read his column: Matthews on Ricky Hatton-Lazcano.

See pictures from the Hatton-Lazcano fight.

The Associated Press is reporting that Ricky Hatton will fight Brooklyn's Paulie Malignaggi next.

Brian Doogan, a friend of the Neutral Corner, wrote this report on the Hatton-Lazcano fight for the Sunday Times of London.

Here is a report from the Ricky Hatton fight by TheSweetScience.com.

-- CASSIDY

The Neutral Corner's friend from the NYC fight scene -- GDM -- was at the press conference for the July 26, Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito welterweight title fight and sent along some observations, and some cool pics (above and below).

The setting for the press conference was the Marc Ecko world renowned brand of urban clothing and apparel facility in Manhattan. Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum presided and made it clear that this would not be a "Jerry Springer" type press conference. The press conference proceeded in an organized fashion and was free of incident.

Cotto was joined by his uncle and manager/trainer Evangelista Cotto while Margarito was joined by his two managers Francisco Espinoza and Sergio Diaz Jr. Margarito spoke in Spanish which was simultaneously translated while Cotto delivered his speech in both Spanish and English. There was an air of respect in the room and it seems that all of the energy will be utilized in the Las Vegas ring. This is certainly a welcome relief to raucous press conference and showboating fighters. We look forward to seeing the Puerto Rican-Mexico rivalry continue its historic legacy inside the ring.

Indeed. This fight has the makings of a classic. -- CASSIDY

In watching Yuriorkis Gamboa’s HBO debut Saturday night, one word continually came to mind.

Audacity.

The kid had the audacity to blitz Darling Jimenez at the opening bell as if he were a ham-and-egger.

The kid had the audacity to twice throw Jimenez to the ground in round seven.

The kid had the audacity to drop his hands all night.

The kid had the audacity to fight Jimenez in the first place.

In this case, audacity is a good thing. Boxing needs more fighters like Gamboa. The junior lightweight fights with a complete disdain for his opponents, the way Mike Tyson once did. He throws more punches in more bunches than any fighter since Meldrick Taylor. Gamboa is so driven, such a competitor, that he acts is if he should win every second, of every round in which he competes. When a fighter falls before him, he shrugs, acting as if that's precisely what was supposed to happen.

Gamboa, who defected from the Cuban national team in December 2006, won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games. He hocked that medal on the black market in Havana just so he could throw his daughter, Brenda, a birthday party.

Gamboa, 26, trains in Miami and fights for Ahmet Oner’s ArenaBox promotions out of Germany. He is now 10-0 with eight knockouts. The Jimenez fight marked the first time he has gone 10 rounds.

If you are a boxing fan, there’s a lot to love about Gamboa. The Jimenez fight was exactly what he needed at the moment. Which is to say, he needed some competition. Jimenez, a four-time New York Golden Gloves champion, was 23-2-2 coming into the fight. He was a sturdy pro who didn’t cave under the first volley of Gamboa punches. He pushed the Cuban to places he hadn’t been as a professional fighter.

Oner’s team has intentionally matched Gamboa aggressively. There were moments in Saturday’s fight when it looked like they took on more than the kid could handle. Gamboa was dropped for the second time in his young career and defense remains an element of his game that needs improvement. He clearly slowed down in the second half of the fight, but he never relented in the sense that he came out trying to knock Jimenez out in every round.

Gamboa won some rounds on instinct alone. When the two fighters were tangled up in the seventh round, Gamboa physically threw Jimenez to the ground. Twice. Whether he did it because he needed a rest, or because he could, he was sending the right message, “This is my fight, I’m in control.”

Gamboa fought with a confidence that was reminiscent of a young Sugar Ray Leonard. That’s a lofty to comparison to make after just 10 pro fights, but this kid has lofty goals. And he may just have the audacity to follow through on them.

Other results from HBO's "Night of Rising Stars" card includes:

Junior middleweight Alfredo Angulo stopped Richard Gutierrez via 5th-round TKO to win the vacant WBO intercontinental championship. And junior middleweight James Kirkland won the vacant NABO championship by stopping Eromosele Albert in the 1st round. -- CASSIDY

The good news is that welterweight champions Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito will fight a unification bout on July 26 at at the MGM Grand Resort & Casino, Las Vegas. It will be an HBO pay-per-view event.

The bad news for East Coast fight fans is that it will not be held at Madison Square Garden. Cotto has had most of his recent fights at the Garden or in Atlantic City. In it's current issue, "The Ring" magazine is calling this fight, Floyd Mayweather's gift to boxing. It's true, Pretty Boy has avoided both men for the last several years. So now they'll fight each other.

Thanks Floyd! -- CASSIDY

BY MARCUS HENRY

The May 31 fight between Zab Judah and Shane Mosley has been cancelled due to an arm injury suffered by Judah at his Las Vegas training camp, Golden Boy Promotions announced today.

Judah suffered multiple lacerations on his right forearm during an accidental fall and received 50 stitches, according to a statement released by Golden Boy Promotions.

“It is very unfortunate that Zab suffered this injury and that this great event had to be canceled,” Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions Richard Schaefer said in a statement. “We are already in discussions with all parties involved to attempt to reschedule the fight for the near future.”

If you are tired of reading about whether or not Roger Clemens took steroids or whether or not he slept with any number of women in the tri-state area, please keep reading this story about Gino Gelormino.

Gino was a world-rated fighter from Levittown. At the height of his career, he was ranked in the top 10 as a junior lightweight by the WBC. Don King offered him a title shot against Azumah Nelson. The catch was that the purse would be about $30,000, which is an insult when it comes to fighting a future Hall-of-Famer like Nelson. After paying his trainer, his manager, the sanctioning fees and Uncle Sam, the kid from Levittown would have been left with maybe $10,000. Gino was nobody’s fool, so he negotiated for more. The fight never came off and Gelormino retired without ever having challenged for a world title.

So he did what we all do, he went out and got a job and went about the business of raising his family. Gino chased his dream for as long and as hard as he could. But he knew when it was time to let go. He didn’t publicly complain about his career and he wasn’t bitter. He had two beautiful children to focus on and what could be more important than that? He coveted a bigger title now, "Dad."

Gino worked for a while for the Long Island Railroad and, for the last 10 years, he was an iron worker. On Tuesday, May 6, Gelormino died in a construction accident at the Triborough Bridge. He was 47 years old and left behind his wife, Jacqueline, a son, Matthew, and a daughter, Chloe.

But Gino wasn’t about sad stories, so let’s get to the real story. Which is to say, let’s forget about Clemens and Carmelo Anthony and Marvin Harrison, millionaire athletes who made headlines this week for all the wrong reasons. They don't know from iron workers. The only iron these three know about are the bars they could end up behind.

These days there is such a disconnect between the athlete and his fans. Who among us can relate to Alex Rodriguez, his $25-million-a-year salary and his soap-opera lifestyle? A-Rod is not our reality. Gino lived our reality. He was that nice guy who lives on any tree-lined street in any town on Long Island. We all have a neighbor like Gino.

I want to say simply that he was one of us. And perhaps that’s how we all knew him, as one of the guys. But saying that would be a disservice. He was special. The reason he was so special was that he never walked around acting like someone special. He was a professional athlete who reached the upper echelon of his sport, but he never had the ego, the arrogance or the distorted sense of entitlement.

If you happened to be in the Felt Forum on a night when 1,500 Levittowners were chanting “GEE-NO, GEE-NO,” you will understand what he meant to his fans and what his fans meant to him. The thought of those nights still sends a chill down my spine. After some of those fights Gino would ride home on the LIRR among us. And doesn’t that put into proper perspective just how absurd Carlos Delgado is for not answering a curtain call at Shea Stadium?

Gino gave his fans plenty of good nights. He boxed out of the Y.O.M recreation center and won the Golden Gloves in 1977. A pro career followed a few years later. Gino was a clever, slick boxer with fast hands. He was a good-looking kid and some experts said he reminded them of Willie Pep.

Gino hit his stride in the mid 1980s, putting together a 14-bout winning streak from 1984 to 1989. He was the first guy to beat prospect Norm “Psycho” Bates and he knocked out Mike Grow in the 12th round at the Felt Forum to win the WBC Continental Americas title. His career ended in 1990 after a knockout loss to former world champion Jose Sanabria. He finished with a record of 31-3 and 22 knockouts.

As cruel a sport as boxing can be – physically as well as emotionally – it never changed Gino’s disposition. He was funny and friendly and approachable.

Charles Barkley famously said that athletes aren’t role models. Well, Gino Gelormino was a role model. But it had very little do with him being an athlete and everything to do with him being a man. -- CASSIDY

Oscar's fighting. It's a simple statement, but one that we've come to rely on for the last 16 years. And soon, those two words will no longer follow each other in a sentence. Oscar De La Hoya, the man who carried the sport through perhaps it's darkest period, will fight just twice more.

That's what he says, anyway. And in boxing, no retirement is ever final. But for now, let's take Oscar at his word. He has been the type of cross-over star that this sport desperately needs. Everyone has been saying that boxing is dead and yet amid all these gloomy forecasts, De La Hoya shattered the pay-per-view record last May with more than two million buys against Floyd Mayweather Jr. His end as a fighter was $40-million. Add about another $20-million to his end for being the bout's promoter. That doubles Alex Rodriguez' anual salary. Oscar did this all in one night.

At times, this corner has been critical of what Oscar has done in the ring, or, more precisely, what he hasn't done. He fades in big fights, which I believe cost him the decision in the first Mayweather contest. It cost him against Felix Trinidad and Shane Mosley (first fight) too. Will anything change in De La Hoya-Mayweather II come September? I hope so. But let's face it, Oscar is another year older.

Oscar looked sharp in his tuneup against Stevie Forbes. Forbes was reluctant to engage and took few chances. The HBO broadcast crew pegged it when they said he had a sparring partner's mentality. I watched the fight with a former pug, who was apalled that Forbes reached out to tap gloves or pat Oscar on the butt after every round. "This is a fight, isn't it?" he asked.

Click to see photos of the fight.

Whenever he fights, Oscar elicits emotion and reaction. One longtime observer, known on the blogosphere as P.C. Maverick, sent this our way:

"Forbes is no Floyd Jr. Oscar got tagged a bunch of times by this guy. I think if Forbes could get in these shots obviously Cotto or Floyd Jr can... I really believe he trained to spar Oscar not to beat him... Maybe subconsciously if not intentionally."

Interesting point. Think about it. Roger Mayweather, Floyd's uncle, used to train Forbes. He was trained for this fight by Jeff Mayweather, another of Floyd's uncles. Could it be that, as P.C. states, "subconsciously or intentionally,' the Mayweather clan exerted just enough influence on Forbes so that he would go through what amounted to a sparring session?
Thus keeping Floyd's massive payday for a return match with Oscar safe.

It's a conspiracy that would make Mel Gibson proud, but I honestly believe that on his best day, Forbes wouldn't have done that much better against Oscar.

On a scale from 1 to 10, P.C. rated Oscar's performance in the ring against Forbes, a 5. That might be a little harsh, particularly when the guy you are "fighting" would rate a negative 3.

You can hate Oscar, you can love him and you can be disappointed him. One thing is certain, you will definitely miss him when he's gone. With the exception of Winky Wright, he has fought every big name fighter in or around his weight class. He started with Julio Cesar Chavez and ends with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Or possibly Miguel Cotto.

He says there are only two more fights left in his career. After that, boxing will really have to worry when people start saying the sport is dead.-- CASSIDY