On this day: Bob Foster destroys Dick Tiger to lift the light heavyweight title

The nation of Biafra lived solely lengthy sufficient to generate a brutal warfare, a devastating famine, and the identify of a well-liked punk-rock singer. However amid all that heartbreak and loss, one in all his sons turned gentle heavyweight champion throughout that historic interval, placing the embattled Central African nation within the sports activities map for only some years.

Dick Tiger was born Richard Ihetu in Amaigbo, again when the city was a part of Nigeria. However in Could of 1967 a brand new nation was born, constituted by the persecuted ethnic group named Ibo, to which Ihetu belonged. He was already a middleweight champion campaigning in America by the point this occurred, however he turned a military lieutenant within the fledging Biafra armed forces and took the nation’s citizenship, which might later trigger him to be banned in Nigeria for a very long time after that nation invaded and annexed the rogue province in 1970.

It was throughout this time that Tiger, already a well-liked fighter within the States, tried to make the third protection of the sunshine heavyweight title he had taken from Puerto Rico’s Jose Torres in opposition to a a lot taller and rangier opponent.

Bob Foster was already referred to as a knockout artist, and his bodily attributes made him an prompt favourite in opposition to the extra skilled however already older Tiger, who was 13 years his senior.

The combat occurred on Could 24, 1968, a couple of days shy of the primary anniversary of Biafra’s declaration of independence, at New York’s Madison Sq. Backyard. Tiger’s WBC and WBA belts have been at stake, in addition to the Ring journal championship.

Foster was 6’3½’’ whereas Tiger measure solely 5’8″, and that disparity turned evident with the sound of the very first bell.  Foster, born in Texas however residing all his life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, dominated the motion from the lengthy vary and scored at will, with Tiger making an attempt to sneak in from a crouching place to land his devastating left hand, however with solely occasional success.

It was within the fourth spherical that Foster lastly discovered his vary and related a brutal mixture of three punches capped by a brutal left hook that despatched Tiger to the canvas on his again, whiplashing his head and leaving him glassy-eyed as he was counted out.

In the long run, the combat resulted in little greater than a showcase bout for Foster’s vaunted left hook, a devastating punch that he used to rule the division with an iron fist for greater than seven years and 14 defenses, which nonetheless stand because the second-best variety of defenses within the historical past of the division.

Foster moved on to an ideal profession during which he suffered solely eight defeats in 65 bouts, with most of these defeats coming throughout his incursions within the heavyweight division. Throughout his reign he misplaced by stoppage to Muhammad Ali however not earlier than turning into the primary and solely man to chop Ali in a combat. He retired after a controversial draw in opposition to Argentina’s Jorge Ahumada however returned for a handful of bouts one 12 months after that, retiring for good in 1978.

Tiger fought solely 4 extra occasions after that, defeating Nino Benvenutti and later dropping a choice to Emile Griffith in his last bout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk7IjRkxw08

Diego M. Morilla writes for The Ring since 2013. He has additionally written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and plenty of different magazines, web sites, newspapers and retailers since 1993. He’s a full member of the Boxing Writers Affiliation of America and an elector for the Worldwide Boxing Corridor of Fame. He has gained two first-place awards within the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he’s the moderator of The Ring’s Ladies’s Scores Panel. He served as copy editor for the second period of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is presently a author and editor for RingTV.com.

Follow @MorillaBoxing