Unlikely Champions: Battling Siki

How the Sengalese born Battling Siki came to hold the world light heavyweight title remains somewhat contentious to this day and has its roots in the murky world of boxing promotion in the 1920s. He is not likely to ever appear on anyones list of great champions but how he came to hold the title at all is quite an interesting story involving tales of backstabbing, fixing and politics. And furthermore still remains disputed to this day.

Battling Siki was by most accounts a larger than life character with a rather amazing life. Began life in Senegal but wound up all over Europe and America and was a highly decorated war hero and was ultimately murdered in the United States. In 1922 he knocked out fellow French war hero Georges Carpentier in 6 rounds to become world light heavyweight champion. This bout has remained controversial and the theory persisits that the bout was a fight that was intended to not be on the level, but somebody forgot to tell Siki! Back then, it was not entirely common for the odd fix to take place or the odd challenger to comply with going easy on the champion. Siki's credentials as a legetimate world challenger at the time were fairly light. He had a good record on paper but had largely fought indistinguished low level opposition and nothing really approaching world level. The theory persists that Carpentier management had looked to put on a show at short notice while Carpentier was back in France. Spotting a bit of opportunism, they had offered Siki's management a decent price if Siki would put on a show for a few rounds before ultimately laying down in a batle between two highly decorated war heros. Sikis promoter accepted this unexpected offer. What happened next was 6 faced paced rounds ending, against the odds, with a new champion. Its not exactly certain what happens but there are a few suggestions.

One is that Carpentiers team, believing they had a deal, had relayed this to Carpentier who is reported to have done very little training or preparation. Meanwhile with Sikis team the double cross was on. Siki never admitted to a fix. So its possible that his management simply didnt tell him, and Siki just went out to win against an underprepared Carpentier who waited for a fix that was never coming.

Another that Siki knew the fix was on and Carpentiers was expecting him to be knocked out. So having hit the floor a couple of times playing possum to some extent he lured Carpentiers into a false sense of security.

Another is that Siki himself new about the fix and had originally intended to comply, but racial taunting from Carpentier enraged Siki enough to simply change his mind and dish out revenge. Footage from the fight shows Siki going down on a couple of occasions but the referee telling him to get up which might support this theory. But it would seem unlikely that Siki, who would have encountered racial abuse and discrimination on a daily basis back then would be so offended as to suddenly lose it. A case in point was that, ridiculous as it sounds, he was at one point promoted as a man from the Sengalese jungle who could not read, write or barely speak and had learned to fight by watching chimpanzees. He had actually never set foot in a jungle and could speak several languages fluently.

There is also the possibility of course that the fight was actually on the level and Carpentiers had simply taken it lightly. But this also appears to be somewhat skeptical. The ending of the fight is difficult to interpret. Carpentiers goes down from what may/may not be legitimate punches but seems to clutch his leg and claim foul. The referee (some suggest was in on it), heard Carpentier angrily telling Siki to stay down at one point, possibly realised the wrong man might have won and dutifully disqualified Siki. This was overruled by the French boxing Federation and ultimately and Siki came away with the title. Another bit of evidence that this fight was not all it appeared is Sikis own record post this win which would indicate a fighter that was not really world class at all. He would lose his title immediately and then go on to lose over half of his remaining bouts over the next few years to very average opposition.

For Carpentier, he would never again win a world title and would go on to lose to the top American light heavies in the following years. For Siki, success was short lived. He would lose his title to the next of the unlikely champions in another bout shrouded in mystery - against Irishman Mike McTigue. less than 5 years later he would be killed in an altercation in New York.

Much of what makes the Carpentiers/Siki bout interesting is the fact there is know true way of knowing what exactly happened for sure. There are different theories, conflicting reports and evidence and strange circumstances. But whatever happened it transpired to produce a rather unlikely (black) champion in Siki and,as a result, probably as equally unlikely one after in Mike McTigue who will be my next subject. Since its such a controversial fight with any number of cloak and dagger possibilities any other potentials theories or outcomes has any else come across that might fit?

Great article and interesting read. Thanks for that.
I'm sure Truss will put forward Honeyghan vs Curry as a modern(ish) counterpoint!!

Interesting stuff Manos, have not read any theories other than those put forward about what mya have happened, have read bits about the Siki McTigue fight but would not want to pre-empt any article on that. Will say of all the theories put forward I am most persuaded by the theory this was meant to be a fix and Siki just saw an opportunity in renaging and took it, this was not without precedent in that era, there is a lot of evidence to suggest that is exactly what happened in the second Tommy Burns v Jack o'Brien fight where Tommy was allegedly meant to roll over so it does strike me as the most plausible.

I certainly think something was afoot in the bout alright. My belief is that Carpentier thought the bout was a fix and had prepared minimally, expecting Siki to roll over after a few rounds. Whether or not Siki himself was aware, or his management had just made a deal with Carpentier and not told Siki is something Im not sure. But Siki was not even a particulalry big puncher at low level fights. And Carpentier was pretty durable. It would seem strange if Siki could take him out within 6 rounds. But to cap it all off the ref and judges tried to DQ Siki for tripping which is ridiculous. So it would seem to me that they knew Carpentier was supposed to win.

I think Carpentier was underprepared and when he saw Siki wasnt going to lay down and suspected he was being double crossed he moved to dive himself and try and get Siki disqualified. Which almost worked.

Great stuff, Manos. I had read a theory on the Siki-Carpentier fight (which I'll get to in a minute) and, until reading your excellent offering here, I was pretty content with it. But alas, it seems whichever theory you go with, there's evidence both for and against.

Now if my memory serves me correctly, the rumour was that Carpentier had worked out a lucrative deal to sell the film of the fight to some of his contacts in the French theatres, and was to be paid on a 'round by round' basis, and so naturally he wanted the fight to go a little longer than it looked like it was going to early doors! Might explain why he seemed to let Siki off the hook having decided to ease up a little, and if it is true, no doubt he regretted it badly afterwards!

Very interesting read on an even more interesting character.

Interesting theory Chris and another not without precedent, as I'm sure you're aware a similar arrangement was rumoured to be in place in the Johnson Ketchel bout.

Fascinating stuff, manos.

Don't know if you are aware of it or not, but Adam D has set up a 'v2journal' website as an appendix to this one, and he is always on the lookout for original and interesting articles.

Here's a link :

http://www.v2journal.com/

Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to refer him to this article. I'm quite sure he will be interested.

Carpentier had his off moments but losing to Siki for the title has always seemed very iffy, even without definitive proof I have to strongly question the validity of the fight.