Tiger Flowers

Tiger Flowers
Born	Theodore Flowers (1895-02-14)February 14, 1895 Camilla, Georgia
Died	November 16, 1927(1927-11-16) (aged 32) New York City, New York
Nationality	American
Other names	Georgia Deacon
Statistics
Weight(s)	Middleweight
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	160
Wins	135
Wins by KO	55
Losses	17
Draws	8

Theodore "Tiger" Flowers (February 14, 1895 – November 16, 1927) was an American professional boxer. Nicknamed "The Georgia Deacon", he rose to prominence in the early 20th century, becoming the first African-American World Middleweight Boxing Champion after defeating Harry Greb to claim the title in 1926. He was inducted into The Ring Hall of Fame in 1971, The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1976, The World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990, and The International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.^[1] A left-handed fighter, Flowers was fast and elusive, usually avoiding heavy punishment while landing quick, sharp blows.

A celebrated African-American prizefighter, Flowers is considered a trailblazer of his era, competing during a time when the boxing profession was predominantly white. Flowers is often compared, in precedence, to fighters George Dixon, the first black boxing champion who won the Bantamweight World Title in 1892, Barbados Joe Walcott, first black to win the World Welterweight title on December 18, 1901, Joe Gans, the first black to win the World Lightweight Title in 1902, and also the more controversial Jack Johnson, the first black to win the World Heavyweight Title in 1908.

In addition to becoming the first black Middleweight champion, Tiger's unprecedented accumulation of wins (136) and knockouts (56) in his career spanning less than ten years proved to many skeptics that African-Americans could compete at the highest level. Prominent Atlanta area rapper Killer Mike, of Run the Jewels, memorialized Tiger Flowers in the song "Kill Your Masters" on RTJ3