Emile Griffith's Big 5: One of the sweetest triumphs

Emile Griffith's Big 5: One of the sweetest triumphs

Sweet success over the experienced Dave Charnley in London in 1964

Emile Griffith has a ton of great matches in the pro ring. In many of them, the U.S. Virgin Islands-born boxer dominated his opponents, but his victories by knockout accounted for only 23 of his 85 successes, or less than a quarter. All Emile fans know that this is because of the tragic incident after the collision with Benny Paret. Despite this, Griffith continued to box at a top level, although he never reached his full potential. The three-division competitor has a ton of matches that we can pin down as his best, but only five of those bouts make it into our rankings, which are coming to an end. After the clashes with Parret, Nino Benvenuti, Dick Tiger and Jorge Fernandez, we have only one match left to take the last place in the top 5. It is a clash with Dave Charnley, which we will remember in the following lines.

Charnley is a British boxer who started his career back in the 1950s in the lightweight division. His reverse guard and strong striking for his division has ensured significant success that has made him a world-class competitor. As time went on, he moved up in weight in search of new challenges and on December 1st, 1964, he hosted world welterweight champion Emil Griffith in his home capital in an attempt to wrest his titles.

Inside the Wembley Stadium concourse in north-west London, an unforgettable encounter awaits, where experience, class and home support will help Charnley to a world title in a third different division. However, Emile Griffith will hardly allow this to happen. The world champion recently managed to defend his title in the same city against Welshman Brian Curvis and is determined to achieve convincing success again.

At the last weigh-in before the meeting, it can be seen that the Briton weighs almost a kilogram more than the minimum for welterweight, and Griffith is two lighter than him, but despite this, the meeting cannot be canceled. Again, the American is seen to be physically inferior to his opponent. In the first half of the 1960s and in the welterweight category in general, this was not a problem for Emil at all.

The fight starts with an advantage for the world champion who has the more powerful punch. In the course of the match, however, the forces seem to turn in favor of Charnley, but this does not affect the development of events. With each part in which Griffith finds it harder to find his opponent, the American becomes even more furious and ready to unleash the power that he has not shown in more than two years. The British newspaper "The Times" wrote that Charnley had never been so close to success against a champion in the upper division. This is a fact, but at the same time, the contender for the welterweight world crown seems extremely far from success.

The Brit gets over himself but can't get over Griffith. In the ninth round, Charnley was on the ground and although he managed to get to his feet before the referee counted to eight, the fight was stopped as it was clear that the home representative was simply unable to continue after a series of blows from Emil, which the title contender just doesn't have the strength to respond.

Another remarkable defense and far from the USA, far from New York brings even more glory to Emil Griffith, who is already starting to think about a move to the heavyweights, and with good reason.

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