ESPN showcased many fine young boxers in the early 1990’s. One among them was Lorain, Ohio lightweight Carl ” Stuff ” Griffith. Carl turned professional in 1988 and won twelve of his first fifteen fights. In 1990 he stepped into contender status with a decision over former IBF lightweight champion Harry Arroyo.
In 1991 Carl lost to future junior welterweight champion Jake Rodriguez. He bounced right back to outscore former lightweight king Living stone Bramble and solid journeyman Roger Brown. In 1992 he drew with tough Ricky Meyers and then won a decision over highly regarded Mike Evgen. Slowly but surely Carl was moving up in the ratings.
In 1993 Carl met touted prospect Sergei Artemiev. Despite tragedy Griffith may have turned in his best career performance. In a fight for the vacant USBA lightweight title, Griffith stopped Artemiev in ten rounds but Sergei suffered injuries that ended his promising career.
Griffith continued on stopping Youngstown’s ever-game Roland Commings in seven rounds. In his next fight Carl was outclassed by former champion Roger Mayweather over ten rounds. In 1994 Carl won a slugfest against a gutsy Anthony Boyle.
Carl was slated to meet the talented Rafael Ruelas for the IBF lightweight title but for a variety of reasons the bout never came off. Later Carl was awarded a shot at the WBO lightweight owned by the up and coming ” Golden Boy “, Oscar De La Hoya. Oscar was just beginning to shine as a star of the future and on November 18th he and Griffith hooked up in Las Vegas. Sad to say this was a mismatch. Up to this point in his career Oscar never looked better. Carl was down twice and a merciful referee saved him in round three. This was the fight that convinced me to take Oscar seriously. No I did not expect Carl to win but he was still a seasoned opponent who had been in with some respectable opposition. It was not that Oscar won; it was how he won that made me sit up and take notice of a future star.
I’ll always wonder how Carl would have fared if he would have met Ruelas instead of De La Hoya. After Oscar beat Carl he met Ruelas in a unification fight. Rafael never made it through round two. Fairly safe to say that Griffith would have had a much better chance of defeating Ruelas.
Carl would lose two of his last three fights and retire in 1996. He was stopped only twice by De La Hoya and in his last fight. He retired with a very respectable 29-6-2 record with one no contest. He won thirteen by knockout. He was a smart boxer and a good counter puncher. He had decent power, a good chin and a big heart. He was definitely a Top Twenty guy in his prime. Later his brother Mike would fight his way to a shot at a lightweight title. That’s a story for another day.