Thursday, October 1, 2026
When a newly written opera, entitled “Champion,” opened at the St. Louis Opera House last Saturday, Oceanside resident Ron Ross and his family were front row center. For Ross, who celebrated his 81st birthday that day, watching an opera based on a book that he wrote about the renowned boxer Emile Griffith was the culmination of a long journey from years of boxing in his youth to the world of publishing and the performing arts.
Ross has lived in Oceanside since 1967. While he earned his living in real estate, his twin passions have always been writing and boxing.
He boxed as a teenager in Coney Island. Then, in the U.S. Army, he won the 10th Division championship in 1954.
“I hung up my gloves when I was 24,” Ross said this week. “I went to Brooklyn College to become a writer, but it didn’t work out that way.”
He eventually went to work for an advertising firm, a job that he didn’t much like. Then he tried promotional work before moving into real estate, which became his career. But in 1992 he sold his real estate office, and returned to writing.
In 2004, Ross published a book about a Jewish boxer named Bummy Davis, titled “Bummy Davis vs. Murder, Incorporated: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Mafia and an Ill-fated Prizefighter.” The book was well received.
Ross had met Emile Griffith in the 1960s through Griffith’s manager, Gil Clancy. The two remained friendly through the years, often meeting for dinner or drinks, or at fights.
“He was charismatic and charming,” Ross said of Griffith. “He had come from St. Thomas with his mother and was working in a hat factory, actually designing hats, when he was discovered by Clancy.”
Griffith won the 1958 Golden Gloves open championship, and three years later he captured the world welterweight crown from Benny “The Kid” Paret. Paret won the title back six months later, and then, on March 24, 1962, the two fought again, in what became one of the most notorious fights in boxing history.
