People rarely talk about him as an amazing p4p ATG boxer. After he fought everybody at middleweight division(giardello, fullmer, benvenuti, griffith,downes, florentino fernandez and beat almost all of them, The guy moved up to light heavyweight and fought hall of famer jose torres and defeated him. He did something hagler or monzon never did but rarely gets praised for that. Hagler never wanted to fight michael spinks while tiger fought bob foster and jose torres. Monzon also never moved up to fight ahumada, galindez or conteh. Now Im not shitting on hagler or monzon for not doing it. Also im not saying tiger is a better middleweight or that his middleweight resume is necessarily better. All im saying is he did something those guys never did and that argument could be made about tiger actually being better p4p boxer then both monzon or hagler. I know this is controversial but im ready to take the heat. For me tiger is one of the most underrated boxers in history.
Tiger is very good against certain styles but limited against others. That is what prevents people from rating him too high on eyetest. He is an ATG regardless
I think a lot of folks see the losses on his record and write him off. They don't get that the losses made the fighter.
True, he had a lot of losses against questionable opponents earlier in his career. But from what i heard a lot of those were combination of bad management and lack of amateur experience. Basically he started from a bottom in a non boxing country like nigeria. Im not makin excuses but i think that played a role too.
In addition to the above answers; He was not flashy. Ali changed the sport with his hand and foot speed and was doing things guys at the higher weights never did. So guys like Dick Tiger and Gene Fullmer and Vito Antuofermo & others looked a whole lot different than what Ali and later Ray Leonard brought to the proceedings. And they get guaged differently.
Tiger did something monzon and hagler never did. Yet they are remembered and way more appreciated. Kinda unfair in my opinion
That's pretty much all true. He was horribly mis managed and took fights in other guys home towns for scrappy money. Fast forward a few decades and a guy named Gken Johnson had a very similar career path. Some guys get built uo through the amateurs and have promoters that protect them. Guys like Tiger came up the hard way and had to grind their way to greatness. He was a truth machine. Everyone that fought him found out what they were made of.
I wholeheartedly agree w/ this point - Tiger's capture of the LHW title, along w/ his late-career upset of reigning mw champ Benvenuti, should both receive far more attention/acclaim than they do today. The Benvenuti win was like the Hopkins-Pavlik of its day. I remember when HBO was doing its pre-fight buildup for Hopkins-Tarver, & despite discussions of past examples of mws moving up to challenge lhws, I don't think they mentioned Tiger's name even once.
Which styles do you think he suffers against? I'd say he's one of those guys who could beat any type of fighter, like Azumah Nelson or something. He beat some huge punchers like Carter and Fernandez. He went 2-2 against elite out-boxer in Giardello, also beat Mims, Gene Armstrong and Nino Benvenuti. He went 2-1 against a suffocating pressure fighter like Fullmer; two wins over aggressive tecnicans like Jose Torres and a stoppage over Spider Webb. He also has a win over a defensive genius and fun, skilled fighter in Henry Hank. I suppose with the losses to Griffith/Archer, you could say he struggled against well schooled spoilers.
He's gotten some love on the Classic forums in the past. The greatest African boxer alongside Azumah Nelson. Awesome fighter.
He will struggle against guys who use their feet on him, who fight negatively and who have speed and a long active jab. Anybody trying to take the fight to him is probably in for a lot of hurt because that's his bread and butter.
I don't think he's underrated on here...generally gets in to the 9-14 range on ATG middleweights lists here and that's about right, he's right around LaMotta and Steele, which is it.
I would say he is more forgotten than he is underrated. To me, this is the same as other fighters like Emile Griffith and Kid Gavilan. Those who were around back then and boxing historians certainly know of these great fighters, but the general boxing fan populous does not
If you want to see an in depth Tiger breakdown from the best in the business have a look here at Tin_Ribs post - https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...-robinson-or-dick-tiger.743216/#post-23608419
