Rondinone, Troy – Friday Night Fighter. Gaspar “Indio” Ortega and the Golden Age of Television Boxing

Description

Rondinone, Troy ‘Friday Night Fighter. Gaspar “Indio” Ortega and the Golden Age of Television Boxing’ 2013. 274-pages. VG+ in VG + mylar protected dust jacket.

The 2008 first edition hardcover of Nine… Ten… and Out!: The Two Worlds of Emile Griffith, written by boxing historian and author Ron Ross, PhD, was published in February 2008 by DiBella Entertainment (with distribution and co-printing variants also registered under AuthorHouse). This 268-page biography stands as a definitive, raw, and empathetic look into the conflicted double life of one of boxing’s greatest world champions.

Book Synopsis & Editorial Focus:
The biography chronicles the dual life of Emile Griffith (1938–2013), an International Boxing Hall of Fame charter inductee who won six world championship belts across the welterweight and middleweight divisions. The book’s subtitle, The Two Worlds, frames the central thesis: Griffith’s struggle to navigate his identity as a ferocious, hyper-masculine prize fighter while privately living as a bisexual/gay man in an era of extreme institutional homophobia.
Key focal points of Ross’s narrative include:
• The Benny Paret Tragedy: A deep exploration of the infamous March 24, 1962, nationally televised bout at Madison Square Garden. After Benny “Kid” Paret taunted Griffith with homophobic slurs at the weigh-in, Griffith unleashed a devastating 12th-round knockout that put Paret into a coma from which he died ten days later. The book explores the psychological trauma and “ethereal demons” that haunted Griffith for the rest of his life.
• The “Two Worlds” Split: It details how Griffith spent his days training in crowded boxing gyms and his nights navigating the mid-century underground gay culture of New York City (including his presence during the early eras of the Stonewall scene).
• The 1992 Assault: The text covers his later life, including a near-fatal 1992 hate-crime assault outside a New York gay bar that left him severely brain-damaged, ultimately highlighting his resilience and the stark contrasts of his life’s battlegrounds.
(Note: Author Ron Ross served as a principal consultant and appeared in the acclaimed feature-length documentary, Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story, which was heavily adapted from and produced alongside the development of this book).

Physical Design & Features:
• Binding & Format: The hardbound first edition features a sturdy casing wrapped in standard publisher’s cloth or paper-covered boards, distributed concurrently with a widely circulated trade paperback format.
• Dust Jacket Art: The book was issued with a distinct pictorial paper dust jacket heavily utilizing the sports photography of famed photographer George Kalinsky, capturing dramatic imagery of Griffith.
• Pagination & Interior: Features exactly 268 pages printed on standard woven trade stock.
• First Edition Identification: True first printings are marked with a 2008 publication date on the copyright page, accompanied by the ISBN-10: 0979994713 (the identifier designated specifically for the hardbound print run, whereas the ending ‘2’ signifies the softcover variant).