Young Griffo

Young Griffo
Griffo, c. 1890
Born	Albert Griffiths (1869-04-15)15 April 1869 Millers Point, Sydney
Died	7 December 1927(1927-12-07) (aged 58) New York City, USA
Nationality	Australian
Other names	Australian Will O' The Wisp
Statistics
Weight(s)	Featherweight Lightweight
Height	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Reach	68 in (173 cm)
Boxing record
Total fights	229
Wins	118
Wins by KO	33
Losses	12
Draws	68
No contests	31

Albert Griffiths (1 January 1871 – 10 December 1927), 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. Ring magazine founder Nat Fleischer rated Griffo as the eighth greatest featherweight of all time.^[1] He 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.^[1]

During his career he defeated Abe Willis, champion Ike Weir, Horace Leeds, and Joe Harmon. He won bouts against champion Torpedo Billy Murphy a total of four times, twice in World Featherweight title matches.^[2] A prolific boxer of great opponents, after coming to America, he fought champions Solly Smith, "Kid" Lavigne, Joe Gans, Tommy Ryan, George Dixon, Frank Erne, and featherweight contender Joe Bernstein. He was recorded as fighting over two hundred professional fights in his career.

Griffo also put together the most consecutive bouts without defeat in recorded boxing history. As of May 2021, with the addition of Newspaper decisions, boxrec.com lists his record as initially starting off at 7–0–3 (2) before he lost his first fight. After losing, he went on a four-year unbeaten streak, accumulating a record of 79–1–38 (20) before being defeated again 125 fights after his first loss.^[2] While newspaper decisions are not officially counted, he still went undefeated over this stretch when sportswriters determined the outcome.