Rare footage of Dick Tiger - two of the best left-hook KOs you'll ever see!!

For all the fans here of Tiger - and left hooks.

Thanks once again to Raging B(_)LL for this footage.

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Both these fights occurred in 1961, a year in which Tiger came into his own. Both fighters were former opponents, and the outcomes plainly illustrated how much Tiger had improved since then. These wins back-to-back catapulted Tiger to the top of the MW rankings.

The first fight was against Gene Armstrong, a fighter who often gets overlooked amidst the deep well of prospects and contenders that was the MW division of the late '50s / early '60s. Armstrong was a very quick and skilled boxer. It was often said in his day that he would've been champion if not for Tiger. Tiger handed him the first three losses of his career. The first two fights, which came not too long after Tiger arrived in the US, were fairly close and competitive. Going into their third fight, Armstrong was coming off probably the biggest and best win of his career over dynamite-punching contender Henry Hank, and was still considered a pick 'em fight against Tiger. But Tiger turned in a shocking performance and battered Armstrong into a 9th round stoppage. Although he still looked a bit rough around the edges at times, particularly when he threw his right hand (LOL at him elbowing Armstrong on top of the head ), he cut off the ring better than he had before and was hitting much harder and more accurately with his punches. Armstrong finished the fight with broken ribs, and was never the same fighter. He tried to comeback a year or so later against Luis Rodriguez, but showed nothing and was stopped again.

The second fight was against Spider Webb, one of the best MW contenders of the '50s and probably one of the best MWs never to win the title. I went into much more detail about Webb and this fight in my recent thread on him. Over the course of his career, he stopped both Joey Giardello and Terry Downes and had also beaten Tiger in a previous fight. Webb had retired a year before this fight here after losing the only title shot of his career to Gene Fullmer, but he chose Tiger to be his "comeback" opponent. A win over Tiger would instantly re-establish him as a top contender, and he probably figured he had a good shot at pulling it off after having beaten him decisively only a couple years earlier. However, it turned out to be a colossal misjudgment by Webb as Tiger had vastly improved since then, and he paid a hefty price for it. This was the only time in his very distinguished career that Webb was stopped. After this, he never fought again.