The heavyweight boxing champion called the “Cincinnati Cobra” was actually a Georgia native. Ezzard Charles was born in Lawrenceville in 1921 and moved to Cincinnati when he was young. He fought in boxing’s golden age, when the sport was second only to baseball in popularity. Charles is among the pantheon of great boxers and he […]
He took a Bible with him into the ring. Dubbed the “Georgia Deacon,” he was the first black boxer to be middleweight champion of the world. Theodore “Tiger” Flowers was born in Camilla in 1895 and started boxing at 18. Flowers was the first black boxer after Jack Johnson to fight for a world title, […]
He would box, but he would not fight. At the height of the Vietnam War in 1967, Muhammad Ali was drafted. Declaring himself a conscientious objector, he refused to serve. With his case on appeal, Ali was banned from boxing by several of the sport’s governing bodies. He hadn’t floated like a butterfly nor stung […]