Publisher's Synopsis
Dick Tiger: The Life and Times of Africa's Most Accomplished World Boxing Champion, originally published in 2002, is the first full length biography of the Nigerian born, three-time world boxing champion, Richard Ihetu, aka Dick Tiger (1929-1971). This New Edition of the book published two decades after the original, is an update with additional information and newly acquired photo-material.
The concise biography places Dick Tiger's still unparalleled international record as a professional boxer in historical perspective. It recounts his selfless and courageous partisan role during the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War, over which he readily sacrificed much of what he had struggled for and earned from his arduous professional calling. Chronicled herein, for the first time ever in a book dedicated solely to the subject's life and times, are the fascinating facts regarding his humble origins and social background in pre-independence Eastern Nigeria, his relatively late introduction to professional boxing at age 23 and his spectacular rise to world prominence and acclaim, following professional sojourns in the UK and America, his eventual fall from grace and favor in his Nigerian homeland due to his principled stand on the civil war and finally, the circumstances surrounding his untimely death at age 41 in 1971. Details, statistics, (including rare photographs) and a fight-by-fight professional record of the subject, painstakingly assembled by the author over several years of personal research, are presented in meticulous, but straight forward and easy to read style.
This book further enriches the ever-growing biographical literature on modern African sporting legends and heroes. It will make delightful reading for everyone with an interest or desire to learn more about the positive images of the continent.
