Dick Tiger

Nigerian professional boxer, world middleweight (160 pounds) and light heavyweight (175 pounds) champion during the 1960s.

Tiger learned to box from British military officers stationed in Nigeria. He began his professional boxing career in his homeland in 1952, and he went on to win the Nigerian championship in the middleweight division before moving to England in 1955. After losing his first four matches in England, he improved rapidly, and on March 27, 1958, he knocked out Pat McAteer to become the British Commonwealth middleweight champion.

In 1959 Tiger began boxing in the United States, and on Oct. 23, 1962, he won the World Boxing Association (WBA) middleweight title with a 15-round decision (a fight whose outcome is determined by judges’ scoring) over American Gene Fullmer. Tiger retained the title with a 15-round draw with Fullmer on Feb. 23, 1963, and with a seventh-round knockout of Fullmer on Aug. 10, 1963. Tiger lost the title on Dec. 7, 1963, in a 15-round decision to American Joey Giardello (Carmen Orlando Telleli). On Oct. 21, 1965, Tiger regained the championship by defeating Giardello in a 15-round decision. He lost the title again on April 25, 1966, when Emile Griffith of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the world welterweight (147 pounds) champion, moved up in weight class and won a 15-round decision.

Tiger himself moved up in weight class for his next bout, on Dec. 16, 1966, in which he won a 15-round decision for the world light heavyweight title over Puerto Rican José Torres. The following year, Tiger was successful in two light heavyweight championship matches, outpointing Torres in 15 rounds on May 16 and knocking out American Roger Rouse in 12 rounds on Nov. 17. Tiger lost the light heavyweight title when he was knocked out by American Bob Foster in the fourth round on May 24, 1968. That was the only time in his career that Tiger lost by knockout, and it also was his last championship bout. In his last fight, on July 15, 1970, he lost a 10-round decision to Griffith. He finally announced his retirement in July 1971, after fighting in 81 professional matches, winning 61 (26 by knockouts), losing 17, and drawing 3. Tiger was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

During the civil war in Biafra (May 1967–January 1970), Tiger served in the Biafran army as a public relations officer. He lost his property and money in the war and returned to New York, where he was employed as a security guard at a museum. When he became terminally ill with cancer, he returned to Nigeria to live out the remainder of his life.