Manassa
07-30-2009, 11:33 PM
It's easy to forget how resilient Tiger was when we see his concussion at the hands of Bob Foster, who is widely regarded as the hardest ever punching light heavyweight. Tiger was thirty seven years old. By the time he won the light heavyweight title he'd been boxing professionally for fourteen years already, and of course, was only really destined to be a middleweight in the first place - a pretty big one, but a bit short for light heavyweight. 168lbs would have been perfect.
Anyone who knows about Florentino Fernandez and Rubin Carter will know they were two of the strongest and most wicked punching middleweights, not just of the '60s, but of all time. Just as anyone who has seen the fights will know Tiger dominated them both physically, which is madness. Everyone says how hard a bastard Carter was, but then they forget how Tiger forced him back, chewed him up and then spat him out. He cranked the left hook and bashed Carter to the deck twice and washed him out on points.
Fernandez had his nose smashed, broken, and was not allowed to continue fighting. Tiger had the upper hand.
Gene Fullmer wasn't exactly in the prime of his career when Tiger beat him up, but it's only what happened to Tiger in 1968 and what Fullmer did to Carmen Basilio, isn't it? Still, he did it, he won, he forced the notoriously stubborn Fullmer to give ground and broke him down.
Henry Hank, a tough, warring and more than respectable contender who tested, tried and beat a whole inventory of light heavyweights was shut out and again, forced backwards by Dick Tiger in 1962.
Now, a bit of a patchy record going on before he made it big, but that comes down to a lot of factors. If you look at Tiger's record and the locations in which he fought, you'll see that at some point in the mid '50s there is a sudden transfer; it's because he moved to England and started beating up people there instead of Nigeria. Well, he tried to, but found it hard to adapt at first; food, temperature, boxing styles. British fighters at the time were typically tall jabbers and Tiger just couldn't reach them - yet.
Although it has to be said, Tiger could be outboxed right throughout his career. I've heard some fans on this site claim 'he was a pretty good boxer' - but he wasn't. It might look like it sometimes, because of a jab and a duck, but that doesn't mean much. Tiger often left himself well within range of his opponent's combinations and could sometimes be a bit slow on the uptake if he had a smart boxer in front of him.
There was a much bigger plus side though - cat-like speed, of hand at least, a truly iron jaw (aside from Foster, Tiger was down perhaps twice in his whole career) and conditioning to impress anyone. Has anyone ever seen Tiger exhausted in a fight or even anywhere close? As he aged, the footwork was plodding, but back in the middleweight days it was quite adequate. Film shows him as visibly quicker and more aggressive all over in the early '60s. In these times, Tiger could still beat good or even great boxers through nothing more than sheer hard work - see the Joey Giardello & Emile Griffith fights.
There are a handful of fighters at the medium weight who could beat Tiger, always on points, but not many. The usual suspects, plus a few lesser greats or even contenders who had a bit of skill on the back foot, but I don't believe any of them would outfight him, not in a man's fight. The man just wasnt deterred by any kind of power, at least not from any middleweight.
Not a bad record either; first up are Hall of Famers, the rest are fighters who, at one time or another, were in the Ring's world top ten at middleweight or light heavyweight:
Gene Fullmer x2
Joey Giardello x2
Jose Torres x2
Nino Benvenuti
Gene Armstrong x2
Rubin Carter
Henry Hank
Holly Mims
Terry Downes
Frank DePaula
Roger Rouse
Yolande Pompey
Spider Webb
Don Fullmer
Jose Gonzalez
Andy Kendall
Cool?
Anyone who knows about Florentino Fernandez and Rubin Carter will know they were two of the strongest and most wicked punching middleweights, not just of the '60s, but of all time. Just as anyone who has seen the fights will know Tiger dominated them both physically, which is madness. Everyone says how hard a bastard Carter was, but then they forget how Tiger forced him back, chewed him up and then spat him out. He cranked the left hook and bashed Carter to the deck twice and washed him out on points.
Fernandez had his nose smashed, broken, and was not allowed to continue fighting. Tiger had the upper hand.
Gene Fullmer wasn't exactly in the prime of his career when Tiger beat him up, but it's only what happened to Tiger in 1968 and what Fullmer did to Carmen Basilio, isn't it? Still, he did it, he won, he forced the notoriously stubborn Fullmer to give ground and broke him down.
Henry Hank, a tough, warring and more than respectable contender who tested, tried and beat a whole inventory of light heavyweights was shut out and again, forced backwards by Dick Tiger in 1962.
Now, a bit of a patchy record going on before he made it big, but that comes down to a lot of factors. If you look at Tiger's record and the locations in which he fought, you'll see that at some point in the mid '50s there is a sudden transfer; it's because he moved to England and started beating up people there instead of Nigeria. Well, he tried to, but found it hard to adapt at first; food, temperature, boxing styles. British fighters at the time were typically tall jabbers and Tiger just couldn't reach them - yet.
Although it has to be said, Tiger could be outboxed right throughout his career. I've heard some fans on this site claim 'he was a pretty good boxer' - but he wasn't. It might look like it sometimes, because of a jab and a duck, but that doesn't mean much. Tiger often left himself well within range of his opponent's combinations and could sometimes be a bit slow on the uptake if he had a smart boxer in front of him.
There was a much bigger plus side though - cat-like speed, of hand at least, a truly iron jaw (aside from Foster, Tiger was down perhaps twice in his whole career) and conditioning to impress anyone. Has anyone ever seen Tiger exhausted in a fight or even anywhere close? As he aged, the footwork was plodding, but back in the middleweight days it was quite adequate. Film shows him as visibly quicker and more aggressive all over in the early '60s. In these times, Tiger could still beat good or even great boxers through nothing more than sheer hard work - see the Joey Giardello & Emile Griffith fights.
There are a handful of fighters at the medium weight who could beat Tiger, always on points, but not many. The usual suspects, plus a few lesser greats or even contenders who had a bit of skill on the back foot, but I don't believe any of them would outfight him, not in a man's fight. The man just wasnt deterred by any kind of power, at least not from any middleweight.
Not a bad record either; first up are Hall of Famers, the rest are fighters who, at one time or another, were in the Ring's world top ten at middleweight or light heavyweight:
Gene Fullmer x2
Joey Giardello x2
Jose Torres x2
Nino Benvenuti
Gene Armstrong x2
Rubin Carter
Henry Hank
Holly Mims
Terry Downes
Frank DePaula
Roger Rouse
Yolande Pompey
Spider Webb
Don Fullmer
Jose Gonzalez
Andy Kendall
Cool?