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.