Shadowboxing

Steven Laffoley is the author of eight books, including the award-winning biography Shadowboxing and the bestselling novel The Blue Tattoo.

George Dixon was the finest boxer of his generation and arguably among the finest boxers ever. His accomplishments in the ring were extraordinary: the first black boxing champion, the first Canadian boxing champion, the first boxing champion of multiple weight classes, and the first boxing champion to lose regain his title. He defended his title more than any other champion - then or since - and he reportedly fought in an unprecedented 800 bouts. Making these achievements more astonishing was the context within which these achievements were earned: George Dixon publically fought and beat hundreds of white boxers in an age when black men were routinely lynched for simply being black. Boxing historian and Ring Magazine founder Nat Fleischer once said of Dixon, "For his ounces and inches, there never was a lad his equal. Even in the light of the achievements of John L. Sullivan [the first heavyweight champion in boxing, the critics of his days referred to 'Little Chocolate' [George Dixon as the greatest fighter of all time. I doubt there ever was a pugilist who was as popular during his entire career." Simply put, said Fleischer, "He had everything." Sam Austin, the larger-than-life sports editor at America's first tabloid newspaper, the Police Gazette, described George Dixon as "The Fighter Without a Flaw." Said Austin, "The fact cannot be disputed that the greatest fistic fighter, big or little, that the world has ever known is George Dixon." Still, despite his extraordinary accomplishments, effusive adulation, and spectacular riches, George Dixon died a beggar, in the alcoholic ward of New York's Bellevue Hospital - homeless, forgotten, and alone. And yet, ironically, while George Dixon was being forgotten, his story was becoming a familiar archetype - the tale of a young black man who uses his fists and wits to fight his way against unrelenting challenges to become Champion of the World. He becomes famous, rich, and loved by all. But then he overreaches. He lives the life of the "sport" - he gambles, carouses, and drinks - until he stays in the ring one fight too many. And he loses it all. But George Dixon's story is singularly different. George Dixon followed no one. And for this reason, his story - his triumphs and tragedies as well as his rise and fall - transcends cliché. So who was George Dixon? And what motivated this genuinely modest man, born in Africville, Nova Scotia, to achieve what no other black man had achieved before him? What strength of character earned him, against all odds, true greatness? And what failure of character, in the end, took that greatness away? Before Mohammad Ali and Joe Louis, before Sugar Ray Robinson and Jack Johnson, before Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard, before all the great black boxing champions of every age and every weight class, there was George Dixon. He was the first. He was the greatest. And this is his story.