It's easy to forget how resilient Tiger was when we see his concussion at the hands of Bob Foster, who is widely regarded as the hardest ever punching light heavyweight. Tiger was thirty seven years old. By the time he won the light heavyweight title he'd been boxing professionally for fourteen years already, and of course, was only really destined to be a middleweight in the first place - a pretty big one, but a bit short for light heavyweight. 168lbs would have been perfect. Anyone who knows about Florentino Fernandez and Rubin Carter will know they were two of the strongest and most wicked punching middleweights, not just of the '60s, but of all time. Just as anyone who has seen the fights will know Tiger dominated them both physically, which is madness. Everyone says how hard a ******* Carter was, but then they forget how Tiger forced him back, chewed him up and then spat him out. He cranked the left hook and bashed Carter to the deck twice and washed him out on points. Fernandez had his nose smashed, broken, and was not allowed to continue fighting. Tiger had the upper hand. Gene Fullmer wasn't exactly in the prime of his career when Tiger beat him up, but it's only what happened to Tiger in 1968 and what Fullmer did to Carmen Basilio, isn't it? Still, he did it, he won, he forced the notoriously stubborn Fullmer to give ground and broke him down. Henry Hank, a tough, warring and more than respectable contender who tested, tried and beat a whole inventory of light heavyweights was shut out and again, forced backwards by Dick Tiger in 1962. Now, a bit of a patchy record going on before he made it big, but that comes down to a lot of factors. If you look at Tiger's record and the locations in which he fought, you'll see that at some point in the mid '50s there is a sudden transfer; it's because he moved to England and started beating up people there instead of Nigeria. Well, he tried to, but found it hard to adapt at first; food, temperature, boxing styles. British fighters at the time were typically tall jabbers and Tiger just couldn't reach them - yet. Although it has to be said, Tiger could be outboxed right throughout his career. I've heard some fans on this site claim 'he was a pretty good boxer' - but he wasn't. It might look like it sometimes, because of a jab and a duck, but that doesn't mean much. Tiger often left himself well within range of his opponent's combinations and could sometimes be a bit slow on the uptake if he had a smart boxer in front of him. There was a much bigger plus side though - cat-like speed, of hand at least, a truly iron jaw (aside from Foster, Tiger was down perhaps twice in his whole career) and conditioning to impress anyone. Has anyone ever seen Tiger exhausted in a fight or even anywhere close? As he aged, the footwork was plodding, but back in the middleweight days it was quite adequate. Film shows him as visibly quicker and more aggressive all over in the early '60s. In these times, Tiger could still beat good or even great boxers through nothing more than sheer hard work - see the Joey Giardello & Emile Griffith fights. There are a handful of fighters at the medium weight who could beat Tiger, always on points, but not many. The usual suspects, plus a few lesser greats or even contenders who had a bit of skill on the back foot, but I don't believe any of them would outfight him, not in a man's fight. The man just wasnt deterred by any kind of power, at least not from any middleweight. Not a bad record either; first up are Hall of Famers, the rest are fighters who, at one time or another, were in the Ring's world top ten at middleweight or light heavyweight: Gene Fullmer x2 Joey Giardello x2 Jose Torres x2 Nino Benvenuti Gene Armstrong x2 Rubin Carter Henry Hank Holly Mims Terry Downes Frank DePaula Roger Rouse Yolande Pompey Spider Webb Don Fullmer Jose Gonzalez Andy Kendall Cool?
I've been arguing forever that Tiger is a top 10 (borderline top 5) middleweight of all time, and also one of the most underrated fighters ever in general. His resume is just fantastic, and he's the only fighter since Bob Fitzsimmons to become the undisputed champion at both 160 and 175 (look it up, it's true). His title fight rematch with Giardello is one of my favorite fights ever. Tiger put on a counterpunching clinic in that one. It irks me that his name hardly gets mentioned anymore by the mainstream boxing media. For example, when Hopkins was going up in weight to challenge Tarver, HBO's analysts were talking about previous MWs who moved up and won the LHW title. Incredibly, they never once mentioned Tiger's name, which to me is absolutely disgraceful. He should be the first name to come to mind when that topic comes up.
I'll say Tiger is vastly underrated as well. I've seen a few videos, but have read much about him. A hard-hitting MW...and a Biafran revolutionary in Africa. An all-around warrior, who also dabbled in commercial ventures as well. I must say that this tough-as-nails Nigerian is among my top guys in the fistic world.
I'll have to disagree on the bit about him not being a good boxer. For a short, stocky fighter like himself to fight out of a standup style with that much success due to his defense and counter-punching, he had to have had some serious skills. His problem was in his slow feet. He had trouble finding and catching fleeter footed boxers because of his flat-footed stance. He had to set himself to punch, and a very clever boxer could fight off the backfoot, use angles, turn him, etc. Still, his success even despite that handicap just speaks volumes about his effectiveness in that area. From close to mid-range, in a stand-up fight, he was hell for anyone. Due to his physical tools yes, but enhanced greatly by his boxing brain and ability to bring out the best in them. I'm sorry, but I saw a lot of skill in Tiger's game.
I saw attempted skill, but not actual boxing skill that was noteworthy enough to credit him as having 'underrated boxing ability.' I saw Tiger slip punches, perform some nice blocks, and slide out of range - but it wasn't effective because he'd be hit by the next two or three punches. He had a good jab for a short man, I'll give him that, but I class that more as part of his overall offensive skill set. To have good boxing skill I think you need to be defensively sound, not adequate. Tiger did become a better boxer over time... But at the same time his feet slowed down even more. They were alright in the early '60s. Tiger's greatness for me stems from his stamina, pressure, explosive handspeed, durability and clubbing power that just broke anyone in front of him. He took a little piece of life out of every fighter he met.
You make solid points, as always. You have tremendous logic, and I see your points. However, I don't think a fighter of his stature that fought as flat-footed as he did would've had anywhere near that kind of success against boxers if his boxing skills (though very upright and plodding at times) weren't on point. I think he was an excellent counter-puncher, he timed and placed his shots very well, and that is a part of skilled boxing. His skills in the center of the ring are what often opened up his opportunities to get in and press the fight. His skills seemed on point against Carter and Fernandez to me, when he was at his physical peak. He out-boxed both fighters from mid to close range. It was Fernandez doing most of the rougher work and power-punching before Tiger's accurate attack started to pay dividends. No question. I just think he had a lot more skill than given credit for. Sorry, but I have to say he was an underrated boxer. Again, you make good points, and you make me re-consider, but I don't let my eyes fool me often.
Agreed. Tiger could sometimes be made to look plodding by a good boxer/mover, but when a fighter came to him, he showed very impressive infighting/counterpunching skills. As I said, his title fight rematch with Giardello is one of the best displays of aggressive counterpunching I've ever seen.
Yeah, I hate that too. I wish Tiger had met Foster in different circumstances. That was the first training camp he ever had where he was looking to talk about somehitng other than the fight with the press (the civil war in Nigeria was at it's height). It's even possible he was working on liver cancer at the time of the fight. Tiger always loses, probably, but I would have liked to see a more organised version with his head in the fight...of course it's all about how long he can stay away from that punch. The man beat a crazy number of champions.
I have just started watching alot of Dick Tiger and i think he is a very good MW. I have him in the Top 5 MWs of all time hes definitly of that level. His strength is very impressive, the strongest i have seen in a Middleweight. Theres not much more i can add that hasnt been covered
