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Battling Siki-Singular Senegalese


BoztheMadman
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Battling Siki was one of the first, if not the first, world boxing champions from Africa and he briefly held the light heavyweight world title by knocking out none other than Georges Carpentier. He was a wild and reckless personality known as a party animal and a flamboyant dresser. He was said to promenade the streets with a leopard on a leash and he frequently got cast out of cafés and other indoor places because his flamboyant personality was at odds with the rest of the world at that time. As a fighter he was a brawler who possessed an amazing pair of whiskers and punching power in both hands. He wasn't fond of training however and coupled with his love for women, it contributed to cutting his time as world champion and world class boxer short. He was found shot in the early morning hours of 15 December 1925 in New York. He was known for getting into brawls in the speakeasies and bars and together with the fact that he was a Negro, it wasn't hard to connect the dots for the police.

 

He was born in Saint Louis, capital of Senegal, which was then a French colony, on 16 September 1897. His birth name was Amadou M'Barrick Fal or Baye Phal in other sources. Baye is a Senegalese name corresponding to Louis. He chose the nickname Battling Siki as he thought that white men would remember it easier. Siki means "darling" in Senegalese and is a word the parents use to call their children. A professor of languages in Paris wrote that Siki was a title of nobility and Phal name of kings. Siki went to Marseilles and started to train boxing and eventually made his professional boxing debut in 1913, but at the outbreak of world war 1, he served in the French colonial forces and fought bravely there, getting wounded and receiving medals for valor. He continued his boxing career after the end of world war 1 and defeated several noted European boxers like Victor KO Marchant (by KO 8), Rene de Vos (by PTS 10) and Willem Westbroek (by KO 7 and TKO 5 respectively). He also lost a couple fights due to fighting dirty. In one of them he even hit the referee! He stood almost 5'11, had a reach of 75" and was very muscular and strong. In his later fights, he weighed in at as much as 180. Between late 1920 and September 1922, he put on a streak of 28 wins and 1 draw, before he was to fight the European and World light heavyweight champion, the greatest French fighter ever: Georges "Orchid Man" Carpentier. Carpentier viewed him as just a tune up and reportedly did not train for the fight. That turned out to be a great mistake. On 24 September at Buffalo Stadium in Paris, Carpentier was the better man in the early going and dropped the Senegalese twice in the third round, both times with right crosses to the head. He was famous for his punching power and everyone expected him to stop Siki right there and then. But Siki showed a tremendous recuperative ability and he stormed back to put the champion down with a four punch combination to the body and head in the same round. Carpentier told his corner he had broken his right knuckles after the round. Siki then took over and scored many body blows, while Carpentier retorted to butting. Siki put him down again in the fifth before finishing him off in the sixth with a right to the ribs.

 

The ringside judge then disqualified Siki, ruling that the punch was illegal while the crowd reacted with boos and jeers. French Federation however overruled the decision and declared Siki champion. The first world boxing champion from Senegal, he could now call himself. Siki was seen as a favorite in his first defense against Mike McTigue from Ireland, even though the fight was in Dublin, in March 1923. The fighters did not weigh in for the bout, which was unusual. Like Siki, McTigue was a tough and hard-hitting scrapper and he edged out the Singular Senegalese, as Siki became known as, over 15 rounds to earn the victory and the title by decision. It is possible that Siki's love of nightlife led to him losing his title but it is also possible that McTigue was just the wrong opponent for him. In his next fight against Emile Morelle he was again disqualified for hitting low. He also refused to weigh in before the fight, so no title was at stake here. He then knocked out Marcel Niles in 2 and Gaston Mamouget in 3 before he went to USA for the first time and lost to Kid Norfolk on PTS 15 in November 1923. He then decided to relocate to USA and married an "Octaroon", a woman who was one-eight black, which brought him problems with the authorities since he already had a wife in Holland. He won a few fights there but would never again be as successful as before he became world champion. In August 1924 he got stopped for the first time in his career against Mike Conroy, when he quit after 8 rounds with a shut left eye and said "I am getting nothing for this. I quit." In March 1925 he fought against future world champion and former wrestler, Paul Berlenbach. Siki endured incredible amounts of punishment until the fight was finally stopped in the tenth. It was said that he had endured longer than any ordinary man could. He would fight insignificant fighters for the rest of his career and his last fight was on 13 November '25, when he lost on points to Lee Anderson, who had a 35-29-12 record. Siki had now just become a tomato can.

 

He was found murdered on 15 December 1925 and left behind a wife. Although Siki was born a Muslim, his wife gave him a Christian burial in a Negro funeral parlour and he was buried in Flushing, Queens. He left an estate of less than 600 dollars-far from the fortune he earned in the ring. He was known to drink absinthe and therefore it is no wonder that his career suffered such a downward spiral as it did. He was involved in numerous altercations, including with taxi drivers, since he liked to take cab rides around Harlem and refused to pay afterwards. He was a fine offensive fighter but had poor defensive skills, which is another reason he could never be truly successful on world stage. He left behind a record of 60 wins (35 by ko), 21 losses and 5 draws. As one writer wrote: "He was dangerous and terrible now; he was the negro springing along the forest path. The sudden smell of blood, the hallucination of victory, the dark disfigured mask which had taken the place of the fair white face had unlossed in him the savagery of his race, dormant since the dark and distant centuries...the referee, whose face had gone very pale, raised above the crowd the black arm of the new champion."

Edited by BoztheMadman
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