Richard ‘Dick Tiger’ Ihetu: The Nigerian world boxing champion who trained Biafran soldiers

The 30-month Biafran War (July 1967 – January 1970) to some was more than a fight or avenue for vengeance, it was a means to an end and an opportunity to renegotiate Nigeria’s union.

 

 

The war may have been lost by the Eastern region who declared secession from Nigeria, but May 30, 1967 remains a special date in the calendar and history of the Igbos.

It was the day Col Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared the secession of the East from Nigeria and announced the Republic of Biafra. The result of the announcement was a three-year civil war from 1967 to 1970 with an estimated casualty of three million people. It remains a horrible period in Nigeria’s history. 

Ojukwu may have been the commander of the war, but there is an endless list of prominent Igbos who played active roles. Chinua Achebe. Lt. Col. Philip Effiong. Victor Banjo. Richard Ihetu. The list goes on.

This is the story of Richard Ihetu, popularly known as Dick Tiger, who used his skills, resources and global fame to support the war.

Dick Tiger was a boxing champion who did not only fight inside the squared ring picking up global titles, but he also fought in the civil war on the side of  Biafra, defending what he believed in.

He etched his name in a significant part of Igbo’s socio-political history following his support for the Biafran cause as a soldier, troops trainer and for renouncing a British title conferred on him by Queen Elizabeth II in protest against the British support for the Nigerian government during the war.  And that’s not all.

Both in and out of the ring, Dick Tiger was a beacon of hope and freedom and a legend to many Nigerians.

Born on August 14, 1929 in Amaigbo, Imo State, Dick Tiger discovered his boxing talent as a teenager. He started throwing punches at age 19 in 1948, during inter-club contests organized by British military officers.

 

He became known as Dick Tiger after an Englishman was overwhelmed by his display of acrobatics when he jumped in the air to clobber an opponent in a bout. “What tenacity he thought, almost like a Tiger. A Tiger is what he is!” the Briton exclaimed. Legends says that’s how he became known as Tiger. In the west, those named Richard are often nicknamed Dick – that explains how he became known as Dick Tiger.

After almost a clean professional sheet, winning 15 of 16 contests in Africa, he relocated to Liverpool in England. It was not so easy adapting to the new life and fighting style of his British opponents. He suffered defeats in his first four matches before eventually finding his feet.

As soon as he got used to the British life, he returned to winning ways. But just as his fame was soaring in the U.K, he decided to relocate to the United States.

The year was 1959. Tiger moved to New York City where he became a two-time world middleweight champion after beating Gene Fullmer in 1962.

Four months later he retained his championship after a rematch with Fullmer at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Still not satisfied, Fullmer challenged Tiger to a rematch, this time, Tiger wanted the rematch at home in Nigeria and it was the first world title bout in Africa before Mohammed Ali vs George Foreman’s ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in DR Congo, on October 30, 1974.

Before a crowd of 35,000 spectators at Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, with $250,000 generated from ticket sales, Tiger defeated Gene Fullmer again on August 10, 1963, winning $100,000 while Fullmer went home with $60,000.

“Tiger was a rough guy…I went to Nigeria to fight him, and, of course, I don’t know what happened over there….He beat me. He beat me bad. My mother and father could have been the judge and referee, and I couldn’t have won a round…” Fullmer was quoted by Peter Heller in his book – ’In this Corner… !: Forty World Champions Tell Their Stories’.”

Tiger also won the light heavyweight title in 1966 when he dethroned José Torres of Puerto Rico. A much younger and taller Bob Foster was the first boxer to knock Tiger out in May 1968.

In 1965 while interacting with journalists in his dressing room at Madison Square Garden ahead of his fourth match against American boxing champion – Joey Giardello, Dick Tiger revealed he had invested in a bookstore in Lagos.

“With my purse I bought a beauty shop for my sister and a bookstore in Lagos,” he told newsmen. Asked why he bought a bookstore, “He flashed a smile that revealed a gold tooth and said ‘because I like to read books. Har, har. Why else?”, American journalist Sam Toperoff wrote.

After the outbreak of the civil war in 1967, Dick Tiger returned to Nigeria to support the Biafran forces. He was enlisted as a lieutenant in the Biafran Army where he trained the Biafran soldiers in physical combat.

On June 15th 1967, Dick Tiger publicly declared his allegiance to Biafra at a pre-match press conference in New Jersey. He told newsmen: “I called you to let you know that I am relinquishing this Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) title I won in London because I can not wear this around my waist while the British government is supplying ammunition to kill my people in Biafra.”

The next morning, he mailed the title back to London, with a note: “I am hereby returning the MBE, because everytime I look at it, I think of the millions of men, women, children who died and are still dying in Biafra because of the arms and ammunition the British government is sending to Nigeria and its continued moral support of this genocidal war against the people of Biafra.”

When the war ended in January 1970, Dick Tiger returned to the U.S.

On July 15, 1970, World welterweight boxer Emile Griffith put an end to Tiger’s reign after defeating him in New York. In the fight which turned out to be his last, he lost a 10-round decision to Griffith. Four years before then, on April 25, 1966, Tiger had also lost his middleweight title to Griffith.

Dick Tiger, twice the world middleweight boxing champion and once the light‐heavyweight titleholder, retired from boxing in June 1971 after fighting in 81 professional matches, winning 61 (26 by knockouts), losing 17, and drawing three.

In a professional boxing career spanning 15 years, his manager, Willis (Jersey) Jones said he made $500,000 but Tiger died virtually penniless.

He lost his early riches, invested in seven apartment houses, in the 30-month civil war.

Following his unrepentant allegiance to Biafra, he was declared ‘persona non grata’ in Nigeria and banned from returning to the country. After retiring from boxing, he took up a job as a security guard at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

In October 1971 he was incapacitated at work by stabbing pains in his back, right side and abdomen, the pain was so severe that he fell to his knees. He was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York, where he was diagnosed with liver cancer.

 

“The United States is a very good country, a very nice country, but Biafra is my home. I will die in Biafra,” he told Toperoff before heading back to Nigeria in 1971.

The Nigerian government lifted the ban placed on him and permitted him to return to Aba, in Abia State. For days after his return, Toperoff recalled that “thousands of visitors – mourners, really – from miles around walked the hot, dusty roads to Aba. When they found Dick Tiger’s house, they saw a muscular but pain-withered boxer sitting in front, in the shade of a solitary acacia tree.”

He eventually died in Amaigbo, his hometown, on December 14, 1971 and was buried on December 19, 1971 in his hometown.

New York Times reported on December 20, 1971 that: “mourners from miles around crowded the hot, dusty streets of the remote township as the 42‐year‐old former world champion was laid to rest.”

The boxing idol left behind his wife – Abigail and eight children. His widow, Abigail also passed on aged 73 in 2008.

Tiger was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991.

 

 

• This story was first published on November 10, 2020.
• Cover design by Kume Akpubi