Fought the best of his day. Apparently gave as good as he got against top heavyweights Sharky and Larry Gains, even with Loughran and Tiger Flowers - top light heavy and middle of the day, prime Joe Gans and on and on. How is name isn’t dropped more is a mystery. Footage of the battling siki fight exits that had the speed corrected and frames smoothed out. Looks like a modern fight.
He was what would have been called, in his day, a cheese champion. He was a spoiler who fought to survive not to win when against top competition. His fight with Flowers was considered one of the worst decisions in New York at the time. They used three inexperienced judges and they blew the scoring on that fight. The decision was so controversial that Flowers was given a title shot against Greb. His fight with Siki was an atrocious decision. Siki fought an Irishman on St. Patricks day during the Irish Revolt and despite taking the fight to McTigue in every round and basically keeping him on the ropes, on the defensive, and taking punishment the entire fight he lost the decision. When he defended his title against Young Stribling he lost by a wide margin but his handpicked referee changed the result after they had left town and spread lies that the KKK had tried to influence the decision. Nothing could be further from the truth. The ringside reports show that McTigue was outboxed and outfought in every round. This was illustrated when the had a rematch in New Jersey five months later and Stribling beat him again. McTigue was supposed to defend his title against Greb in 1923 in what everyone was sure would be a victory for Greb as he had already beaten Mctigue twice by a wide margin so McTigue backed out at the last minute and refused to defend. He did, however, fight a great fight against Sharkey which was totally uncharacteristic of him.
I’m sure there is truth there. He was also someone who fought over 20 times a year. I would imagine part of the goal was not to get hurt so you could do it again next month and pay the rent. Hard luck life back then. A lot of hall of famers never made much and ended up dead broke, or just dead early in life. Sure, he was absolutely something of a dandy. But his career was impressive. I doubt he cared how is legacy would be rated on a message board 100 years later. He was probably quite a character. Not comparing him to Sugar Ray L talent wise, but there are some similarities. As much a businessman as a fighter. Sugars best wins, Hagler and Duran were smoke and mirrors. Get them at the right time, lots of bs to steal a round. Great show though. And very smart. anyway, cheers Mike.
Mike was not the greatest of champions but he was no dub either. "His December 1st 1921 revenge victory over Jeff Smith on another Rickard promotion was particularly worthy. Smith was anything but washed up and would go another twenty-four fights with only a loss to Greb until Tommy Loughran would defeat him. These were the elite middle/light heavies of the time. Smith had held a version of the World crown and had defeated a host of THE IRISH HEAVYWEIGHT BOOK 239 stars including Australia’s tragic Les Darcy, Bandsman Rice during a trip to Europe and had even managed a draw with Greb. He had earned his “Globetrotter” nickname the hard way and had previously twice got the better of the man from Clare. Harry Greb credited Smith with giving him his toughest fight, fair praise indeed. Madison Square Garden in New York was the venue for the top-of-the-bill clash with Jeff in front of a disappointing crowd of 5,000. The fight itself was disappointing too. The Evening Public Ledger gave a brief report: “Mike McTigue, of New York, received the judges’ decision over Jeff Smith, of Bayonne, at the end of their fifteen-round bout in Madison Square Garden last night. Both were claimants of the Canadian middleweight championship. McTigue had the Bayonne boxer on the verge of a knockout on several occasions but Smith’s ruggedness enabled him to pull through and he appeared at his best in the last three rounds.” Other more detailed round-by-round breakdowns had Mike as a clear winner."