By Robert Brizel, Real Combat Media Correspondent
New York, NY (March 1st, 2013)– Colorful he was, yet Battling Siki has never been inducted into either of the professional boxing halls of fame. He was born Louis Mbarick Fall in the African nation of Senegal on September 16, 1897. He would go on to knock out Georges Carpentier to become the Light Heavyweight champion of the world.
From 1912 to 1914, won only eight of his first 16 professional bouts in France. Joining the French Army in World War I, Siki served five years for France, and was decorated for heroism. Siki returned to the ring after the war and went 47-1-1 en route to knocking out Georges Carpentier at Buffalo Stadium in Paris, France, on September 24, 1922. Siki would fight in Ireland once, and France twice, before fighting the last 28 bouts of his career in the United States.
Battling Siki versus Georges Carpentier, Highlights on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5LBLtCV4p8/
Siki was known for partying, getting involved in street brawls, not paying taxicab fares, not paying bar tabs, flashy clothes, drinking champagne in nightclubs, carousing with white women, firing guns into the air to get his two great dane dogs to do tricks, and wearing his top hat and tuxedo while walking his pet lion!
Better known for booze, street brawls, and his white wives, Siki’s reckless lifestyle finally caught up with him on the night of December 15, 1925, when he was found lying face down, shot twice in the back, dead. Siki finished his career with 64 wins, 25 losses, and five draws, with 35 knockouts.
Over a century before before Iron Mike Tyson’s lions, there was a colorful boxer who walked in dapper top hat and tuxedo with his pet lion, a colorful soul on the streets on New York City. Battling Siki is buried in his hometown of Saint-Louis, Senegal. While his later career in the United States did not go as well as he did in Europe, Battling Siki was one wild dude.
If Siki had lived in another time period, he would have given Bob Foster, Joey Maxim, Archie Moore and Bernard Hopkins a run for their money. Proposed matches between Battling Siki and Harry Wills, Harry Greb, Johnny Wilson, and Jack Dempsey, all famous names back in the Pioneer day, never took place. Battling Siki was 28 years old when he died. Rest in peace, brother.
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