Dick Tiger

Dick Tiger in our words

Dick Tiger was a professional Nigerian boxer born on the 14th day of August 1929 in Amaigbo, Orlu in Imo State Nigeria and died on the 14th December 1971. He held the title as World Champion in Middleweight and World Light Heavyweight.

He was formally admitted to the International Boxing Hall of Fames in 1991 as he was also referred to as the Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring magazine in the 1960s.

In 1962, Tiger won the title as the world middleweight champion after he defeated an American professional boxer and a world middleweight champion, Lawrence Gene Fullmer. He also represented the country in America and other foreign countries as well.

The total number of fights he faced when he was alive was estimated at 82 which among them he won 60 and lost 19 whereas the remaining other three ended in a draw.

From Amaigbo to Aba

Richard Ihetu was born on 14 August 1929 in Amaigbo, in today’s Imo State. At 17 he moved to Aba, where he traded in the market with his mother and learned to box. Fighting as “Dick Tiger”, he became one of the best boxers in Eastern Nigeria before leaving for England.

Liverpool and the Empire title

In Liverpool he lost his first fights on small undercards, but a stunning stoppage of the popular Terry Downes in 1957 turned his career around. In 1958 he won the British Empire middleweight title, and in 1959 he moved to the United States.

World champion

On 23 October 1962 in San Francisco, Tiger outpointed Gene Fullmer to become world middleweight champion. After a draw in Las Vegas, the third fight came home: on 10 August 1963 at Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, Fullmer retired after seven rounds in the first world title fight ever held on African soil. Tiger lost the title to Joey Giardello in 1963, took it back in 1965 and lost it to Emile Griffith in 1966.

Light heavyweight king

Moving up in weight, he beat José Torres in December 1966 to become world light heavyweight champion, beat Torres again in a rematch and defended against Roger Rouse, before Bob Foster knocked him out in May 1968. His 1968 win over Frankie DePaula was named Fight of the Year by The Ring.

Biafra and his final years

During the Nigerian Civil War Tiger declared for Biafra, served as an officer training soldiers and returned the MBE he had received in 1963. After his last fight in 1970 he worked as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He came home and died in Aba on 14 December 1971, aged 42.

Legacy

Tiger was named Fighter of the Year by The Ring in 1962 and 1965 and by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 1962 and 1966. In 1991 he became the first African inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, and The Ring ranked him 31st among the greatest fighters of the previous 80 years.

Key fights