Im not trying to catch any heat for this but from what Ive seen on tape of Tiger he just doesnt seem that special to me. Am I missing something here or maybe havent seen enough of his bouts? Ive seen him vs Rouse, Griffith 2 and a few highlights.
One of the all time great middleweights and a pretty bloody good light heavy too, considering that his frame wasn't ideally suited to light heavy. If the footage of him doesn't impress you, all I can say is watch more of it, though it's definitely understandable not being overly impressed on first glance. But the man beat Giardello, Fullmer (both), Fernandez, Carter, Torres, Benvenuti, arguably Griffith, Casey, Mims, Hank, Downes and dropped a very close one to Archer (a stylistic nightmare) with no rematch. He was practically done by the time of the Griffith rematch.
Griffith II was his single worst fight ever. He was 40 years old and badly deteriorated by then, and died of cancer a year later. He was past his peak when he fought Rouse, but overall I felt he still showed solid form. Rouse was a legit #1 contender at that time, not a pushover. As said, his fight with Fernandez was one of his best performances, and a great fight in general. Here it is on Youtube, courtesy of TheGreatA: [yt]Qh9JE2EsTlg[/yt] Here are some of his other prime performances. vs. Spider Webb: [yt]ptPaG_ekrPA[/yt] vs. Henry Hank: [yt]7GSCZZDoHoY[/yt] vs. Gene Fullmer: [yt]nBTq2sldIA0[/yt] [yt]4oq_-ZIfMf8[/yt] [yt]2uJZWZnahmY[/yt] vs. Rocky Rivero [yt]j9d3SccwJlE&feature=related[/yt] vs. Ruben Carter: [yt]jgzGyypTkhg&feature=related[/yt] [yt]UmQAigjIZHo&feature=related[/yt] [yt]Y5K-CG-7Q80&feature=related[/yt] I believe this was his best performance ever, in his 4th and final fight vs. his great rival Joey Giardello: [yt]vuu03b6bozc&feature=related[/yt] [yt]MNIynuaPjKU[/yt] [yt]VDfa4BVWveo&feature=related[/yt] [yt]RS7VXUgoYVg&feature=related[/yt] [yt]5Q77MBpLhk0&feature=related[/yt] [yt]yiXqNQ3HPno&feature=related[/yt] In a nutshell, the guy was a great inside technician and counterpuncher, immensely strong for his size, a quick, solid puncher with both hands, and had an iron chin. He could sometimes be troubled by slick boxers, but he was virtually impossible to beat in an inside slugfest.
You haven't seen nearly enough. The Tiger love stems from his scary strength, his engine, and his ice-cold blood. In terms of historical ranking and head to head ability, he's probably overrated a bit by some, and underrated by others.
