Mancini’s trainer Griffith dies

By Joe Scalzo

When Ray Mancini was a promising 18-year-old boxer in 1979, he made the decision to move to New York and sleep on his trainer’s couch.

On their first day together, that trainer, Murphy Griffith, set the tone for what would be an extraordinarily successful partnership.

“He said, ‘Son, I ain’t gonna to tell you to do roadwork. You’re a professional now, you should know better,’ ” recalled Mancini in a phone interview Friday. “He said, ‘I ain’t gonna tell you to get to bed on time. You’re a professional now, you should know better. And I ain’t gonna tell you to eat right. You’re a professional now, you should know better.’

“ ‘Bottom line, it’s your [butt] out there, not mine.’ ”

Mancini got the message. Within two years, Mancini had won the NABF lightweight title.

A year after that, he captured the WBA lightweight title, becoming a boxing sensation in the process.

“I remember hitting the bag inside the gym and he’d be saying, ‘Man, one day, you’re going to be my first world champion. One day we’re going to hit it big together,’ ” Mancini said.

Griffith died Thursday at age 88 in a suburb of San Diego. A lifetime Navy man who was born in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Griffith discovered Mancini when he was charged with finding the most promising fighters at the 1979 National Golden Gloves.

He chose Mancini, Lee Roy Murphy (who went on to win the IBF cruiserweight title) and Gene Hatcher (who later won the WBA light welterweight title).

“He had an eye for talent,” Mancini said.

Griffith believed in old-school methods such as running with sandbags, pushing logs uphill and sparring underwater, believing if you put your body through stress and strain during training camp, you’d be ready physically and mentally for the rigors of a 15-round championship bout.

Before the days when fighters had separate masseuses, dieticians, psychologists and physiotherapists, a trainer filled all of those roles, Mancini said.

“He always said you had to pay your dues,” Mancini said. “Nobody is going to help you when you’re in there [the ring].”

Several of Mancini’s early fights took place around Youngstown and Warren, creating a mutual affection between Griffith and Mancini’s fans.

“Griff was enamored with the town and the town was enamored with him,” Mancini said.

They weren’t the only ones.

“I loved that man as much as I loved anybody,” Mancini said.

Mancini’s manager, Dave Wolf, died on Christmas Eve, 2008. Now that he’s lost his trainer, Mancini knows he lost another link to his youth.

“I get nostalgic now,” he said. “That part of my life is over for sure.”

scalzo@vindy.com