A boxing gym in the vicinity caught his mother’s eye. She signed him up, wanting her son to be athletic and able to defend himself.

Griffiths has blossomed into a promising prospect at welterweight and will fight in his first eight-round bout against Alan Crisosto on Saturday on the undercard of unified 105-pound champion Oscar Collazo versus Neider Valdez at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California.

“‘You're gonna sign up for that, too,’ so we signed up for that,” Griffiths told The Ring when recalling what his mother said. “The next day we came in, sparred on the first day, and from there it was like, ‘OK, I'm locked in on this.’ I never showed up to a single soccer practice.”

Griffiths (8-0, 7 KOs) is coming off a first-round knockout against Omar Munguia on March 14. The 20-year-old hurt Munguia inside the opening minute with a left hook to the body before a left hook to the temple sent him to the canvas.

He continued the offensive onslaught, and a left hook to the body and head followed by a right hook led to the second and final knockdown with 51 seconds left in the round as referee David Solivan stopped the fight without a count.

It was Griffiths’ first win by first-round knockout.

Griffiths has developed under the tutelage of Antonio Diaz and Joel Diaz, whom he first met at a local community center when he was 9. Griffiths views them as more than his coaches.

The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, native has sparred with former WBA 154-pound champion Israil Madrimov and, when he was much younger, former unified junior featherweight champion Murodjon Akhmadaliev, among other accomplished pros in the Diaz camp.

“They've become like a second family to me,” Griffiths said. “We've evolved as a team, and I'm just blessed to be in the position because and Antonio and Joel have kind of taken a lot of pride in me.”

Griffiths has tried to add skills from those experiences to his repertoire. At the forefront is 2026 International Boxing Hall of Famer Gennadiy Golovkin, whom he met at 11 in Big Bear, California. He moved around the ring with the former middleweight champion.

That singular moment has stuck with him, and with the time that has elapsed, he hopes they can meet again.

“He's a lot of the reason why I kind of stuck with it,” Griffiths said. “He was somebody that I always admired growing up. I always wanted to be just like him.”

Crisosto (12-6, 8 KOs), of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, represents the first step in the next chapter. With it, Griffiths hopes he can continue his progression.

“It's just a whole different level, because we know big things are coming in the future,” he said. “It's getting to that point now where you know we can't take things lightly.”

The Gerbasi Corner honors longtime Ring Magazine and boxing contributor Tom Gerbasi, who passed away suddenly on Sept. 15, 2025. A 2024 Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism, Gerbasi took particular joy in telling the stories of up-and-coming and unheralded prospects in the sport.