Of all prize fighters, Colored or white, the world has ever known, George Dixon was declared the most wonderful of them all. Being a little over four feet tall, weighing less then 130 pounds, with small tapering legs that seemed to sweat tears of pain under the weight of his gigantic chest and unusually broad shoulders from which dangled muscular arms of such thickness and length that they looked unnatural, Dixon presented a most uncanny and formidable foe when stripped in the ring waiting for action. He always proved just as formidable as he looked; for when he warmed up and got into real action, it seemed to his opponent that Mr. & Mrs. Satan and their entire brood of little Satan imps from Hades had been turned loose in the ring. During a period of ten years (1890-1900) Dixon at different times held both the Bantamweight and Featherweight championships of the world. And one of the main reasons why his name will ever go down in ring history as the “Wonder of Wonders” is that he did something no other world champion has ever done--he “came back” three times and regained his lost championship. It is said that he made a record of over a thousand clean knockouts during his fighting career. His three “Come backs” were staged as follows: Benny Jordan took the title from him and he regained it from Eddie Santry; Frankie Erne gave Dixon a good spanking one year and the next year he thrashed that same Frankie Erne; Sol Smith gave him a good lacing, and the same year, Dixon in a return battle took back his title and in doing so (to use a frequent and amusing expression of one “Tommy” Howard, a jolly fellow and Virginia old-time friend of the writer’s) “nearly shook the living life out of him.”
Because Dixon always went into the squared-circle to give his best in manhood fighting and not his worse in childhood playing and faking, he was respected and beloved by fight fans of all classes and colors, which was proved by the most celebrated sport followers of the day, including ex-Heavy-weight Champion James J. Corbett, acting as pallbearers at his funeral.
Joe Walcott and Dixie Kid were two other great little fighters and they both became Welterweight world Champions, Walcott from 1901 to 1904 and Dixie Kid from 1904 to 1908. It is said of these two fighters, that, like Dixon, they became famous in their readiness to meet top-notch fighters who were nearly twice their height and weight. When they could get such big men in the ring with them, they usually jumped clear off the floor to land a mighty crushing paw upon some rival’s tempting jaw that then and there felt nothing more.