wow I know nothing about this guy. Looks like a tough guy, tough rugged fighter... was him a brawler type ?
Quite the opposite, he was known as a flashy slickster & counterpuncher. He claimed the WW title from Barbados Joe Walcott when the champ was controversially DQ'd late in a fight that he otherwise appeared to be dominating. The controversy & unpopularity surrounding Dixie's title win somewhat overshadowed what was otherwise a great career. Like Walcott, Dixie often ventured well above his weight class & even fought HWs. He twice challenged a peaking Langford for his "black HW" title claim, but was soundly beaten/KO'd both times, which may have contributed to his somewhat rapid decline as a world class fighter that followed soon afterward.
He wasn’t from the South, and apart from a short stint in Memphis never practiced professionally there. So the nickname seems out of place.
Thank you my man, yeah a quick read shows that he was that type of slick fighter, I just make this threads without any research exactly because I want to start it from here fresh... You look at his picture and you know he meant business.
I’d consider it to be in the Midwest. I mean, it’s on a line between the rust belt states like Ohio and Illinois and Kansas, which is a plains state. It does barely border in the lower east corner Tennessee and Kentucky, but it’s more in line with the Midwest imo. I think you’d have to live in Minnesota or the Dakotas to consider Missouri to be in the south, haha. (FWIW, Missouri was split during the Civil War … both sides claimed it, but even so I just can’t see calling it the South.)
No, it isn't. Although I've heard Californians call Nevada an Eastern State because, well, it's mostly East of California.
I see. Thanks. I googled it and the reason for him getting this nickname is a little disturbing, no anachronistic by me but just saying..... "His stage name came from “Dixie,” a song often performed in blackface about a slave who misses the plantation." Apparently there is good info on him in that book The First black champions.... He used the rope a dope ! “He would launch himself off the ropes and catapult toward his opponent,” van Ingen said. “He had this crazy fighting style that appealed to people.”
Where do you live? It’s in no way geographically in the South, so I’m wondering where that comes from. You couldn’t find sweet tea or grits there to save your life!
I believe we non americans mix up Missouri with Mississipi, because of the rivers maybe... ? They both start with the same letters...
I’m the same way with Austria and Australia … like prove to me those are different countries! And don’t even get me started on Switzerland and Sweden. Not to mention Swaziland.
