Tiger Flowers: The Georgia Deacon Who Became Boxing's First Black Middleweight Champion

Theodore "Tiger" Flowers carried a Bible into the ring, fought left-handed and fast, and in February 1926 took the world middleweight title from Harry Greb at Madison Square Garden. That made him the first African American to hold the championship. He lost it ten months later on a disputed decision in Chicago, and within a year he was dead at 32, after an operation on the scar tissue around his eyes. Atlanta gave him one of the largest funerals in its history.

From Camilla to the Brunswick Docks

Flowers was born in 1895 in Camilla, in Mitchell County in southwest Georgia. Wikipedia lists February 14 as his birthday and names his parents as Aaron Flowers and Lula Dawson Flowers, who had six children. The New Georgia Encyclopedia gives only the year, and Boxing News, marking his birthday in 2015, gave August 1895 and said some sources put his birth as early as 1893. The family moved to Brunswick on the Georgia coast while he was still a baby, and he grew up there.

Before he boxed, he worked as a stevedore loading ships on the coast. He moved north to Philadelphia, and Wikipedia dates the move to 1918. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says he took up boxing at 23 while working at a shipbuilding plant in the city. He was a grown man with a working life behind him before he had a professional fight, which was a late start for a future champion.

Walk Miller and the Road Years

Around 1920 Flowers settled in Atlanta, and that is where his career got going in earnest, under the manager and trainer Walk Miller. According to Wikipedia, he beat Billy Hooper in his first fight and then won about two dozen in a row before Panama Joe Gans beat him.

Miller kept him busy. Boxing News reported that the pair covered more than 70,000 miles and that Flowers fought 36 times in 1924 alone. That year, Wikipedia says, he was rated the leading contender for Greb's middleweight crown. The two men met for the first time on August 21, 1924, over ten rounds at Legion Stadium in Fremont, Ohio. It was a no-decision bout, so the official result could only come from newspaper verdicts. Greb's record lists it as a newspaper decision for Greb, and Boxing News calls it a loss for Flowers. The Ring, looking back in 2026, records no official verdict and says Greb had trouble with Flowers' speed.

The Deacon in the Ring

His nicknames, "the Georgia Deacon" and "the Fighting Deacon," came from a religious life he kept up in public. Boxing News described him as a Methodist, and the Journal-Constitution says he was a steward at Butler Street CME Church in Atlanta. Wikipedia records that he took a Bible into the ring and recited a passage from Psalm 144 before every fight. The Georgia encyclopedia suggests this sober, devout image helped change how the public saw Black boxers in the years after Jack Johnson.

His fighting was nothing like the quiet manner. He was a southpaw, and the encyclopedia describes him as a very quick left-hander. Wikipedia says he was fast and hard to hit, took little heavy punishment, and scored with quick, sharp punches. "He was very much a spiritual person," the Atlanta historian Rev. Herman Mason told the Journal-Constitution.

February 26, 1926: The Title at Madison Square Garden

Greb finally put the middleweight title on the line against Flowers on February 26, 1926, in a fifteen-round fight at Madison Square Garden. Wikipedia gives the crowd as 16,311. The Ring's account has Flowers controlling the early rounds and hurting Greb several times. Greb came back in the middle of the fight, especially from the seventh round to the ninth, but Flowers won the last two rounds against a champion who looked tired and had lost his timing.

Flowers won a split decision. The Ring says that opinions on the verdict were divided and that Greb reportedly admitted he had fought poorly. Wikipedia's article on Greb calls it a disputed decision and describes Flowers as a defensive specialist who countered Greb's attacks well. Either way, the result made Flowers the first African American world middleweight champion.

The Rematch Nobody Agreed On

They fought again at the Garden on August 19, 1926. This verdict caused more argument than the first. Flowers got the decision again, and according to Wikipedia's Greb article, fans stormed the ring in protest. Greb insisted he had won, saying afterward, "Well, that was one fight I won if I ever won any," as quoted in his Wikipedia biography. Many observers agreed with him. Greb never boxed again. The Flowers rematch was the last professional fight of his career.

So Flowers' two wins over Greb were both disputed, one more than the other, and they still sit at the center of any argument over how good he was.

Chicago, December 1926: The Mickey Walker Decision

His reign lasted less than ten months. On December 3, 1926, at the Coliseum in Chicago, he defended the title against the welterweight champion Mickey Walker over ten rounds and lost on points. Wikipedia's Walker article calls it a controversial ten-round decision. The Georgia encyclopedia says critics and fans alike condemned the verdict and that rumors that local gangsters had fixed the fight never went away.

The sources disagree on what came next. Wikipedia says the Illinois Athletic Commission investigated the result and left it unchanged. Boxing News says the New York State Athletic Commission ordered a rematch. Station HYPO says Flowers was still trying to arrange a rematch with Walker when he died. The rematch never happened.

A Routine Operation in New York

In early November 1927, Flowers went into a hospital in New York City for surgery to remove scar tissue from around his eyes, damage left by years of fighting. The Journal-Constitution calls it a minor procedure. Boxing News says it was done at a clinic in Manhattan to remove lumps from his forehead. Complications followed, and he died on November 16, 1927, aged 32.

Seventy-Five Thousand Mourners

Atlanta's grief was enormous. Wikipedia and the Georgia encyclopedia both estimate that about 75,000 people came to pay their respects, and that about 7,000 packed the City Auditorium for the memorial service. Boxing News gives about 15,000 inside the auditorium and 70,000 outside. The Journal-Constitution notes that the crowds were so large the city let the family use its public auditorium, and both it and the encyclopedia compare the public mourning to the scale of Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral four decades later. Flowers was buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Atlanta.

His money had shaped his city too. The Journal-Constitution reports that he built a 20-room house on Simpson Road in northwest Atlanta and gave generously to Black colleges, his church and local orphanages. During the Jim Crow era the city named a street after him, which was rare for a Black resident at the time. Two historical markers now stand at Fire Station 16, which was built on land he once owned.

Records and Recognition

Sources give different totals for his career. Wikipedia lists 160 fights with 119 wins, 15 losses and 8 draws, rising to 135 wins and 17 losses if newspaper decisions are counted. The Georgia encyclopedia gives 115 wins, 14 losses, 6 draws and 21 no-decisions. The Journal-Constitution counts 115 wins in 157 fights, 53 of them by knockout.

The honors came after his death. He entered The Ring's 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. Bert Sugar ranked him 68th among the greatest fighters, and the International Boxing Research Organization ranks him 12th among middleweights, according to Wikipedia.

Sources

• Tiger Flowers, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Harry Greb, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Mickey Walker (boxer), Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Tiger Flowers (1895-1927), New Georgia Encyclopedia, accessed October 2026
• Tiger Flowers vs. Harry Greb II: 100 years ago today, The Ring, February 26, 2026
• On this day: Middleweight great Tiger Flowers was born in 1895, Boxing News, August 4, 2015
• Tiger Flowers: Trailblazing southpaw left indelible legacy on Atlanta, Shaddi Abusaid, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 13, 2023
• Theodore "Tiger" Flowers, Station HYPO, February 14, 2025