Boxing champ Emile Griffith acknowledges he's gay

The boxing world has long traded rumors and gossip that six-time champion Emile Griffith is a homosexual.  Now a book that was written with Griffith's approval acknowledges it as fact.

Ron Ross has written Nine ... Ten ... And Out! The Two Worlds of Emile Griffith.  Newsday's Robert Cassidy reviews it today on his Neutral Corner blog, and offers this telling quote from the 70-year-old fighter who in 1963 pummeled Benny "Kid" Paret to death in the ring:

"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."

Posted by Tom Weir on May 29, 2008 in Boxing