Echo Sport Replay: Griffin – Striking gold in Europe and the struggles that soon followed
By Stephen Leonard
THIS week marks 30 years since Paul Griffin's stunning victory over Russia's Faat Gatin which served to bridge a gap of more than 40 years since Ireland had last won gold at the European Boxing Championships.
The Drimnagh lad served up the performance of his life in Gothenburg, producing four tremendous wins on his way to the top of the podium in the featherweight division and returned home to a hero's welcome.
Widely regarded as the greatest boxing talent of his generation, Drimnagh’s Paul Griffin talks about his European Championship success 30 years ago this week and the struggles that sent a hugely promising career off course
He had realised a dream that many had predicted for the then 19-year-old who, at the time, was widely hailed as the greatest boxing talent of his generation.
But what also awaited the newly-crowned European champion on his return from Sweden was a dramatic departure from the road to Olympic and World success many had envisioned for the young Dubliner as he suddenly found himself struggling with a growing dependence on alcohol that was only facilitated by the numerous functions and parties organised to celebrate his success.
What had undoubtedly been the greatest achievement of his career so far was fast becoming a poisoned chalice, as his massive potential in the ring was constantly bedevilled by his increasing problem with drink.
What followed was a devastating first-round exit from the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 and, with it, an initial two-year ban for his furious reaction to the doctor who had brought the bout to a premature end.
Still Griffin worked his way back from that horrible reversal and medalled again at the Europeans in Turkey in 1993, scooping bronze this time around.
Yet the lurking addiction to drink continued to beset the young competitor who, while still serving up some brilliant performances in amateur and, later, professional boxing, never managed to scale the heights so many in Irish boxing had prophesied.
“When I look back, it makes me feel sad sometimes because of the way I abused my body” Griffin told The Echo.
Paul Griffin on the night he faced Wladimir Burov in the National Stadium back in 2006
“Nobody would have beaten me years ago when I was young. It’s in black and white. I fought with the best of them when I was fit and I beat the best.
“So if I had been fit right the way through I believe I would have won Olympic titles, World titles.
“But it was my own fault. I did what I did and I have to live with that” said the Drimnagh coach whose success at a young age was nothing short of phenomenal.
“I actually started in Phoenix Boxing Club and I moved to Drimnagh Boxing Club when I was 10.
“I eventually went on to have 220 fights as an amateur, winning 10 Irish titles with Drimnagh and later on two with Mount Tallant.
“All I wanted to do was box. I lived and breathed it.
“I won my first National title when I was 11 and I won everything possible that a child could win, a youth could win, a junior could win, an intermediate could win and a senior too. I won every title.
“I won six County Dublin Leagues, six County Dublins and six All-Irelands throughout my juvenile years.
“I won the Under 18s and then I won the Intermediate title, which is the seniors now, both at 54kg.
“I went on to be a senior at 57kg and I lost my first Senior Final to Roy Nash in 1990. I was only 18 and Nash was 26, 27 and he was too strong for me on the night.
Paul Griffin
“That was my first loss in the National Stadium and it killed me. I was beaten 12 times altogether in my life and I was only beaten a handful of times in Ireland.
“But I boxed Nash the next year in the National Featherweight Final in ’91 and I beat him and I went to the Europeans two months later. That was my first major senior international competition.
“We went to the training camp and that was going great until I twisted my ankle out running and I was in bits.
“I tried to hide it, but I couldn’t. So I was off my feet for a few days and I went and got it x-rayed. It was badly sprained. It wasn’t broke or cracked.
“So they said ‘Right, we’re sending you up to Dublin to see Dr Flanagan to see if you’re fit enough to go to the Europeans.’
Paul Griffin
“I said ‘I’m grand. I’ll strap it up and I’ll be grand.’ But they said ‘No, you’re going up. You have to do it.’
“So I went up and the doctor asked me ‘How to you feel?’ and I said ‘Well, I’m going to be honest doctor, it’s a bit sore, but not that much.’ Now my foot was in bits, I’ll never forget it.
“It was my right ankle, but what did I do? I put my left ankle up. I knew if I put the right ankle up, he wouldn’t have passed me.
“So I put up the left ankle and he started reefing it around and he nearly broke that ankle. It’s lucky I didn’t put the other one up.
“He said “It looks like the swelling has gone down.’ That was it. I was going to the Europeans.
“I went back to the camp and I told the trainer Nicolás Cruz and he laughed his head off.
“So we got to the Europeans. There were seven boxers and I was the youngest on the team.
“I beat a lad from Portugal [Jose Fernandes Pires] and I beat him handy. It was good to start with a fight like that.
“I then beat and Italian Luigi Quitadamo. He was Number Three in the world. He was a silver medallist in the World Juniors and a bronze medallist in the World Seniors in ’89.
“So he was a very experienced lad and he was expected to beat me, but I beat him easily and that was for a bronze medal.
“When I got to the semi finals, I was fighting a fella from England and he was the only one I was kind of worried about.
“It was a fella called Alan Vaughan. He was World Junior champion and he was six foot tall. He was f**king huge.’ I was saying ‘How am I going to sort this fella out?’
“But when we met in the semi finals I got in and I just outboxed him. He was a very hard puncher, but I actually beat him at his own game. That was the biggest surprise.
“So I beat him and I’m in the final of the Europeans, the first time in 42 years a man from Ireland in the final, and who am I fighting? A sergeant major in the Russian army, Faat Gatin. You just wouldn’t believe this.
“He was 26 years of age and was three-time Soviet champion which is no mean feat.
“We went to the weigh-in and he was shouting shite at me in Russian and you can imagine me when I walked in to that. I was like a bleedin’ choir boy.
“But he came close to me and I gave him a small slap and I think I spooked him.
“Now don’t get me wrong. I was sh*tting myself, but I had him raging and I wanted him to do that. I wanted him to run at me, because when you ran at me, that was the end of you.
“After the first round I was beating him 10-4 and there was no coming back from that. I punched the head off him.
“It was mad, because nobody beat Russians back then. But I didn’t realise how big it was because I was so young, but still it was a great win.
“We’re flying back in to Ireland and we’re just about to land and I looked out the window and I couldn’t believe it. There was red carpet on the ground and hundreds of people.
“It was a great experience, but in hindsight, it wasn’t meant for me.
“There were a lot of functions and things that I had to go to when I came back. Everybody wanted to give me awards and the drink was free. I was getting caught up with the wrong people.
“Everywhere you went, you didn’t have to put your hand in your pocket. It felt great.
“I started drinking heavily after winning the Europeans and it really f**ked me up. It kills me to this day
“To be honest, I have got quite an addictive personality and I just started drinking, and once I started drinking I just couldn’t stop.
“Of course, before championships I tried to stop, but there were times when I did go out and drink and I shouldn’t have.
“I still won my National title. I won four National Elite titles in a row.
“But two months before the Olympics I got my jaw broken in Spain. It put me out of training for eight weeks, so I went away to the Olympics in ’92 having done no sparring.
“I was very disillusioned. The drink had caught up with me.
“Even when I was in training camp, I’d sneak out and have my few pints. It was disappointing.
“In the first round of the Olympics I got stopped by Steven Chungu from Zambia. He wasn’t great, but I couldn’t believe how hard he hit me. I was like getting the bang of a hammer.
“He knocked me down in the first round and I was gone. He probably should have stopped the fight then.
“But I got back into it and slugged it out. I got back to the corner and I didn’t really know where I was.
“When the second round started he caught me with a hook. He hit me with his wrist and I went down, but I was nowhere near as hurt as I was in the first round.
“I got up and the referee said ‘Are you ok?’ I said ‘I’m f**king brand new, let me go.’
“So we were trading for a few seconds and next of all the bell went from outside the ring and the doctor stopped the fight, 30 yards from the ring.
“I went bleedin’ berserk. I was screaming ‘I’m f**king grand’.
“I kicked the gum shield away and I got out and chased the doctor around the ring and they dragged me back to the dressing room.
“I was devastated. I went back to the village and everyone was looking at me like ‘here’s the pyscho.’
“The following day then they brought me to a meeting where there were delegates of the Olympic committee.
“I went in and I tried to explain that this was the Olympic Games, it’s all I ever wanted to do. I was actually one of the favourites and I’m broken hearted. I know I let myself down, I let my family down, but it was the spur of the moment and I didn’t mean it and I’m really sorry.’
“I walked out and 20 minutes later I got a two-year ban.
“I can’t tell you how much of an effect it had on me because I was after going from European champion to that. It was such a shock. That broke me. It took me a long time to recover from that.
“I appealed the ban and it was reduced to a year and when I got home, it was reduced to seven months so I could fight in the Seniors.
“I came back and I won the Seniors the next year and went back to the European Championships.
“I had been a 100 percent going out to Gothenburg when I won the gold, but going out to Turkey for the Europeans in ‘93 I was about 25 percent fit. That’s the truth.
“The three fights I won, they were three of the hardest fights I ever had in my life.
“I boxed a tough Hungarian [Laszlo Bognar] and he had me down in the first fight and then the German [Frank Sygmund] had me down too, but I got up off the floor to beat them both by one point each.
“Then I fought a Moldovan [Ivan Chornyy] and it was eight-all and I won on a countback. I wasn’t even fit. It was raw boxing ability and guts that got me through.
“I couldn’t fight in the semi finals because I had a cut on my eye so I got a bronze.
“In 1994, I felt I was back to my best. I was just that bit more mature.
“I boxed a guy in the National Stadium, Serafim Todorov, a three-time world champion. No one gave me a prayer, but I trained for 10 weeks, never had a drink, nothing.
“It was 11-all and I lost on a countback, but I really felt I won the fight.
“He [Todorov] beat Floyd Mayweather in the Olympics in 1996. That’s the league I was in and I beat him, I know that.
“I then went out to Bangkok for the World Cup in June and I beat a fella from Kyrgyzstan [Janybek Imangaziev] and then an Australian James Swan, a Commonwealth champion.
“In the quarter finals I boxed Falk Huste from Germany. In the fifth round I thought I was winning the fight by about six at least. I was cruising.
“Next of all Barry McGuigan, who was doing commentary, shouts into the ring ‘It’s eight all.’ I couldn’t believe it.
“So we’re in a clinch with half a minute to go and there’s a shout ‘Stop’ and he gives me a public warning. I hadn’t even been given a caution.
“Your man automatically got three points so I went after him and he got another one on me so he won 12-8.
“I was only after getting over a ban and here I was, I just wouldn’t get out of the ring. I was going to wreck the place.
“Barry McGuigan jumps up on the apron and he said ‘Paul please, I’m begging you. You’ll never box again if you don’t get out. F**k this amateur game. You’re going to turn professional.’ So I got out of the ring but I was fuming.
“And that lad Huste, in his next fight, he beat Joel Casamayor, the Olympic champion who beat Wayne McCullough, and in the final he beat the Olympic champion from 1996 [Somluck Kamsing] from Thailand.
“I came home and three months later the IABA sent me out on my own to Finland for the Tampere Box Cup, a very prestigious ranking tournament.
“I beat a fella from Moldova, then a Finn who was the favourite, and finally a lad from Ukraine in the final.
“I beat the three of them easily and they were my last three amateur fights and I got the ‘Best Boxer of the Tournament’.
“I was on fire and I said to myself ‘That’s it I’m going pro’, but I should have stayed amateur because in my heart and soul I knew I wasn’t a big puncher. I could punch hard, don’t get me wrong, but not hard enough for the pros.
“I fought my first pro fight in 1995 and, this is what kills me.
“The 1996 Olympics was only a year and half later and the fella who won gold there in the featherweight was that Thai lad that Falk Huste beat in Bangkok. And the lad he beat in the Olympic final was Todorov.
“I had boxed them and got the better of them and it kills me to this day.
“When I turned professional I didn’t even drink for two years at the start.
“But one night I boxed in the Point Depot. I hadn’t drank in ages and a fella said to me, ‘We’re going up to the nightclub do you want to come?’ and I said ‘F**k it, I’ll go with yous.’ After two years not drinking, that one night set me right back.
“It’s an awful shame and I’m raging I didn’t stay amateur, even for the Olympics.
“I turned pro with Frank Warren and I was travelling up and down to Belfast and I got sick of it. So I moved to England and I was based there in Sheffield with Brendan Ingle for three years.
“I fought for a World Inter-Continental title in ’98 against Dean Pithie.
“I had been fighting at super bantamweight and this title fight arises and it was at Super Featherweight, eight pounds heavier.
“But I said ‘F**k it, I’ll take that fight.’ I was doing well and it was a very close fight, but I got caught in the ninth round with a haymaker. I was wobbled and the referee jumped in and stopped it.
“I moved to Australia, but I wasn’t over there to box. I was working on building sites every day. I only boxed when I got a fight and I was basically drunk every day, that’s the way I was. It was crazy.
“I fought Patrick Hyland for the National Featherweight title in 2008. It was for a nice few bob, so I said “I’m in”, but I hadn’t trained and I was a stone and half overweight.
“I came home and I lost the weight, but I was b**loxed after the second round and I lost. But coming home and stripping down from 10 stone 7 to 9 stone, it was madness.
“In 2011, I was asked to fight a lad [Kid Galahad] up in Belfast. I hadn’t trained in about nine months.
“I was raging I took the fight because I knew I had no chance, but the money was good so I said ‘I’ll give it a go. I might land a haymaker.’
“But this fella was good. He caught me with a dig and I went down. I got up, but the referee looked at me and he knew. I was 40 years of age and I was glad he stopped it. I wasn’t even a shell of myself.
“I was raging I took the fight, because I only done it for money for drink. I was very bad at the time.
“I had a problem with drink since I was 20. I’m off the drink now a good little while especially with the pubs closed. The Covid kind of saved me.
“There were people who let me down badly after I won the Europeans back in ‘91. I wasn’t protected.
“But Drimnagh Boxing Club was my saviour when I was young. It was the only place where I was happy.
“I had great years in Drimnagh. Austin Carruth was not only a coach, he was a mentor. He was just a lovely man and he’s sorely missed.
“Mick Dowling was a great coach and very genuine fella. And there was Phil Sutcliffe too. They were all great coaches.
“But my mother and father were the biggest influence in my life. I’d have done nothing without them.
“I’m actually in a relationship with a girl, Aisling Murphy the last eight years and she’s been my rock.
“I’m 50 on the 3rd of June and I’m after getting voted on to AIBA Champions and Veterans Committee, so I’m on that with Michael Carruth.
“A good friend of mine, Fran Long, and me are going to do a course to go up a level in coaching. I live for the club and I’d love to be a successful coach.
“I won seven gold medals in major tournaments around the world and I had an absolutely amazing career so I feel I’ve got so much there to give.”
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