Dick Tiger vs Jose Torres II on Youtube!!! -rare & thrilling light-heavyweight battle

Great to see some Tiger fights making their way to Youtube. Dick is one of the most underrated fighters ever IMO.

This footage is ultra, ultra rare.

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About year earlier, Tiger had lost his middleweight title to Emile Griffith on a very questionable decision. Unable to get an immediate rematch, and too old to wait around for one, he decided to move up in weight and try his luck with the formidable light-heavy champ Jose Torres. Tiger was a heavy underdog, but he surprised Torres and the rest of the boxing world by outworking and outfoxing him to a close-ish but fair decision. It was a surprisingly lackluster fight, with Tiger fighting a cagey tactical fight, getting Torres' respect early and then doing just enough to stay a step ahead of him through the rest of the fight. For the rematch, Torres was clearly in better shape and much more motivated, but Tiger (perhaps more comfortable at the weight now) rose to the occasion and matched everything Torres dished out. The crowd was very pro-Torres (as Garden crowds usually were whenever Torres fought, as his Puerto Rican fans from in and around New York usually crammed the arena) and protested the split decision in favor Tiger, but most sportswriters and unbiased observers in general felt Tiger was a fair and square winner. Score it for youself and decide who won.

Tiger was one of the best infighters and inside counterpunchers ever IMO. He was immensesly strong for his size (which was never more than a super-middleweight), had fast hands and threw very fluid and accurate combinations if given the opportunity. He also had one of the very best chins in boxing history.

Incredibly, he was close to 40 years old when this fight took place. :shock:

Tiger was one of the all-time top 10 middleweight champs IMO, and proved to be a very good light-heavy champ as well. He was the second of only two fighters in the entire history of boxing to become the unified champ at both middleweight and light-heavy (the other being Bob Fitzsimmons); no one else has done that since.

 

Tiger always "looked" smaller than he really was, even as a middleweight. For example, Emile Griffith always looked bigger than him in both their fights, even though he was about 10 pounds less both times.

Conversely, Torres was a big-looking light-heavyweight, even though he had actually been a middleweight himself at one time.

The result when you put them in the ring together makes you think, "Oh ****!" :shock:

Still, you're right that Tiger never was a full fledged LHW (he never weighed more than 167 pounds his whole career, I believe). Had there been a SMW division at that time, that would've been the ideal weight for him to move to when he moved up.

 

Bump.

 

Are you sure it was the 2nd fight and not the 1st?

Anyway, click on the "HQ" at the bottom of each vid as you play it, and you'll see it in HQ.

 

Start playing the vidoes, then double click on each to take you to the site of the original video.