Benny Paret was born Bernardo Paret in 1937 in Santa Clara, Cuba. He took up boxing as a Welterweight and fought 50 fights, winning 35 of them.
Paret won the World Welterweight title in the early nineteen sixties before defending it against Emile Griffith, who knocked him out in the thirteenth round. Paret won it back in a rematch and was knocked out by the middleweight Gene Fullmer only two months later. Although Paret had recently taken a lot of punishment, another contest with Griffith was booked for Madison Square Garden, New York, on Saturday, March 24th 1962. Paret nearly knocked out his opponent in the sixth round, but he was saved by the bell.
It was the twelfth round that was to cast a dark shadow over the world of boxing and the lives of those involved. The twelfth round seemed somewhat tame when Griffith backed Paret into a corner, unleashing a tremendous flurry of punches to Paret’s head. He became dazed by this and could not defend himself, but the referee allowed the fight to continue, with Griffith laying on the punches. Paret’s wife, watching the fight on a television in a nearby hotel, was screaming at the screen for the fight to be stopped. After 29 consecutive punches, including Paret being knocked through the ropes, the referee finally stopped the fight. Paret collapsed in the corner and fell into a coma. He died ten days later from massive brain haemorrhaging.
