1. Albert Griffiths, better known as Young Griffo, was a World Featherweight boxing champion from 1890 to 1892, and according to many sources, one of the first boxing world champions in any class.
65 Facts About Young Griffo
1. 2.
Young Griffo was inducted into the Ring Magazine Hall of Fame in 1954, the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991, and the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003.
3.
Young Griffo won bouts against champion Torpedo Billy Murphy a total of four times, twice in World Featherweight title matches.
4.
Young Griffo was recorded as fighting over two hundred professional fights in his career.
5.
Young Griffo put together the most consecutive bouts without defeat in recorded boxing history.
6.
Young Griffo took his ringname "Young Griffo" early in his career.
7.
Young Griffo turned pro in 1886, and until the age of 22, fought in his home land of Australia.
8.
For four of his most successful years as a boxer, Harry Tuthill was his athletic trainer and Hugh Behan and Sam Tuckhorn were managers, but by his mid career Young Griffo went through a host of trainers and managers who tired of his drinking habits and unwillingness to train.
9.
Young Griffo said in a 1902 interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer that Larry Foley of Sydney had acted as an important early boxing mentor, and indeed Griffo had trained at Foley's boxing school at Sydney's White Horse Hotel where several of the greatest champions had spent time, including triple weight class champion Bob Fitzsimmons.
10.
Young Griffo held the title for several years defending it against Abe Willis and George McKenzie in Sydney in 1890.
11.
Young Griffo first took the World Featherweight Title against Torpedo Billy Murphy on 2 September 1890 at the White Horse Hotel in Sydney in a fifteen-round decision.
12.
Young Griffo defended the British and Australian version of the World Featherweight title against Paddy Moran on 4 November 1890 in a 13-round decision in Sydney.
13.
Young Griffo defended the World Featherweight Title against George Powell on 12 March 1891 in a twenty-round disqualification in Sydney.
14.
Young Griffo defended the World Featherweight Title a third time against Torpedo Billy Murphy again in Sydney, Australia on 22 July 1891, winning in a 20-second round disqualification.
15.
Young Griffo eventually vacated the title to fight at a higher weight.
16.
Young Griffo fought for the Australian Lightweight Title on 25 July 1892 against Jim Barron in Sydney, Australia in a 22-round bout that was declared a draw.
17.
Young Griffo boxed in the United States between November 1893 until his retirement from boxing in 1904 and remained there until his death in 1927.
18.
Smith, who had distinguished himself by the time he met Young Griffo, would take the World Featherweight Championship the following year.
19.
On 17 March 1894, Young Griffo defeated Ike Weir at the Second Regiment Armory in Chicago.
20.
Young Griffo made a veritable chopping block of Ike O'Neil Weir, the "Belfast Spider".
21.
Several newspaper accounts of the fight, written after Young Griffo's death, wrote that he had been drinking before the bout, but by most accounts he had the edge during most of the fighting, and Weir was a worthy opponent.
22.
Young Griffo had lost few of his fights by referee decision before his bout with the legendary McAuliffe.
23.
Young Griffo fought an assortment of opponents who would at one time hold world championships.
24.
Young Griffo subsequently fought an eight-round draw with the hard-hitting red head boxer Johnny Griffin at the Casino in Boston on 23 April 1894.
25.
One reporter believed Young Griffo to be over the 133 pound weight limit, and fighting at a weight of as much as 140.
26.
Young Griffo lost to Leeds on 7 August 1897, in a four-round newspaper decision in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
27.
Young Griffo would fight Dixon two additional times in well attended matches.
28.
Young Griffo was discharged shortly after to attend a scheduled bout against boxer Charles McKeever.
29.
Young Griffo was sentenced to twenty-five days in prison after pleading guilty.
30.
Young Griffo was not held for long and fought a bout the following month in California.
31.
Young Griffo reportedly assaulted the three officers who tried to arrest him.
32.
Young Griffo was sent to an insane asylum on 24 March 1899, after being judged insane in Chicago.
33.
Young Griffo was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery against James H Wilkerson on 9 September 1901, but only one source mentions this arrest.
34.
Young Griffo fought the legendary World Lightweght championJoe Gans three times, but never winning a bout.
35.
Young Griffo considered his 15-round draw in Athens, Pennsylvania, at the Olympic Athletic Club on 21 September 1897 one of his best, as well as one of Gans' most skilled displays.
36.
Young Griffo was down in both the first and seventh rounds, and he took off nearly a year from his boxing after this last fight with Gans.
37.
Young Griffo met one time World Featherweight and Lightweight champion Frank Erne on 20 December 1895 in a four-round non-title fight that resulted in a draw in Buffalo, New York.
38.
Young Griffo defeated Torpedo Billy Murphy in a non-title match ending in an eight-round points decision at the Casino in Boston on 7 May 1894.
39.
Young Griffo's 20-round draw bout with Jack Everhardt on 10 July 1896 in Buffalo, New York, was billed as a World 135 pound title.
40.
Young Griffo lost to World Welter and Middleweight Champion Tommy Ryan on 21 June 1897 in a non-title match in a third-round technical knockout in Brooklyn, New York.
41.
Young Griffo did not box from August 1896 until June 1897.
42.
Young Griffo considered Ziegler one of his more important opponents.
43.
Young Griffo fought a close bout with Horace Leeds on 7 August 1897 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in which The Philadelphia Inquirer felt Leeds had received more points.
44.
On 18 November 1897, Young Griffo was believed to have been drunk in a contest with Tom Tracey at the Colliseum in St Louis.
45.
Young Griffo rolled out of the boxing ring in the first round, and referee George Siler declared a No Contest.
46.
The San Francisco Call wrote that Young Griffo's vehicle had been struck by a street car on the way to the bout, and that he had suffered a sprained shoulder as a result.
47.
Young Griffo was defeated in an upset by Frank McConnell before three thousand spectators on 3 February 1898 in a 15-rounds points decision in San Francisco, California.
48.
Young Griffo showed great defensive skills in several rounds, but McConnell won the bout by taking the offensive throughout most of the fight.
49.
Young Griffo won the 20-round bout by knockout, but Devitt died the following evening of his injuries at Sister's Hospital.
50.
Young Griffo was briefly taken into custody on charges of manslaughter as a result of the fight.
51.
Young Griffo lost to lightweight boxer Joe Tipman in a fifth-round knockout on 29 September 1902 in Baltimore.
52.
Young Griffo showed great speed and cleverness according to the referee, Tom Dunn.
53.
Young Griffo was already thirty-three at the time, and his age, drinking, and enormous number of previous fights had begun to tell on his speed and endurance in the ring.
54.
Young Griffo was arrested in September 1909 in Chicago, as relatives from Australia had requested his arrest so as to help him obtain treatment for his drinking.
55.
Young Griffo served time at the Bridewell in Chicago, but was released around 28 November 1910, and returned to New York.
56.
Young Griffo had plans to go on the vaudeville circuit with Charles Griffin, another boxer.
57.
Young Griffo had wonderful head work, almost impenetrable defense, dazzling feints, and rapid two-handed methods of attack.
58.
Young Griffo had a dislike of training and was deemed lazy.
59.
Young Griffo appeared as himself in the 1895 lost short Young Griffo vs Battling Charles Barnett, which at least one source claims is the first film shown for profit.
60.
In March 1912, Young Griffo requested to be sent to the New York workhouse, partly a victim of alcoholism, which had affected him intermittently throughout his career.
61.
Young Griffo spent some of his later years in asylums, and received a portion of his income from benefits staged by his friends.
62.
Young Griffo died in New York of heart disease, initially diagnosed as indigestion, on 7 December 1927 at age 56.
63.
Young Griffo received medical aid too late after dragging himself into a hall from his small, rent-free room in a West side New York boarding house paid for by Jane F Fish, an author of children's books.
64.
Young Griffo left no children nor were there any heirs that laid claim to his estate.
65.
Young Griffo was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery after a service at the Madison Avenue Baptist Church.