BATTLING SIKI

Northern Advocate, 23 February 1926, Page 6

BATTLING SIKI

I 1 ) AND DIED VIOLENTLY. i «1 known as Battling Siki, lie i' - ench Senegalese boxer, who brought •lent or t e most disastrous de (i . .ad over known, died as ve i —violently. . ng Sil i’s body was found at four 1 in the morning of December 15, e down .cards on the pavement in , York's “tough” district known as •, I s K.tchcn. . ii.i i:ad been.stabbed as well as shot, tit ■ ..enters correspondent. ..oliceman- who found Siki’s body, rate: that he had met'and exchanged greetings witli the Senegalese boxer a title after • midnight, a short distance Iroin where the body was found. A re volver lay in the gutter near by, from i.lnch two shots had been bred, and it ;s believed by the police that this was the. weapon used to commit the murder, and that it was thrown away as the murderer lied. TRAGIC COINCIDENCE. j Siki was well known throughout the neighbourhood where he met his death, and it is suggested that he lu.J been to one of the numerous night clubs, and had become involved in an argument, which was continued in the street, where he was murdered. Only last duly Siki'was struck down with a knife in the same spot. He then lost consciousness from loss of blood, and for some lime Ids recovery Avas in doubt. Siki, when a boy of about fourteen, was employed as a dishwasher in a Nice hotel, and thus early became known for his fondness for a light. At the age of ■sixteen he had engaged in several,contests with well-known French boxers, winning the majority of them. CARPENTIER BATTERED. After the war, when grown to man hoed, Siki was frequently seen in Continental rings, hut he was never. rated highly, and when Doscamps, manager,,of Carpentier, promoted an open-air tournament in the Velodrome Bulfalo, Paris, on September 24, 1922, and matched Carpentier and Siki as the big attraction, there was no thought in the minds of anyone that the affair would be other than a soft thing for the French idol. In fact, it was asserted afterwards, that Siki was to “lie down”; hut though in tiie first round, in which Carpentier made an exhibition of him, he dropped on his’ knooj and put his hands together in supplication, he jumped up as soon as the referee sternly told him he had scarcely been touched, let alone hurt. He was a different Siki altogether in the second round, in which lie fought savagely, and in the third battered Carpenter" all over the closing both his eyes and doing other damage. REVERSED DECISION.

Carpcnticr, who had done no training, fared even worse until the bout ended in the sixth round, by which time the sympathy of the huge crowd of 00,000 turned from Carpenticr because of butting and hitting low. Even so, the deck sion went to Carpentier after he had been knocked down and, in falling, had tripped over Siki’s leg, the official ruling being that Siki was disqualified for this al.eged foul. But there was such a dangerously hos tile demon trntion, that the verdict had to be reversed. Siki was declared winner, , and the new light heavy-weight champion of France, Europe and the world.

There was ranch washing of dirty linen and legal actions were started, hut these were, stopped, though Carpenticr fell into disgrace with the French governing body of boxing. Siki proved an insufferable champion as well as citizen, and there were no regrets when, on St. Patrick’s Night, 1923, Mike McTigue gained the referee’s decision over Siki in a 20-round cat' llweight contest in Dublin, to the outside accompaniment of rifle fire an-.l bomb dropping. SIKI THE UNWANTED. Before this Major Wilson sought to bring off a contest in London between Siki and Joe Beckett, but the Home Secretary would not grant the Senegalese a passport. There was great dlffi culty, indeed, in getting Siki into Tie land. After returning to Paris, Siki's conduct became le--8 tolerabie than before He was for ever brawling, and when he took a fancy to patrolling abroad with more.or less tame lions and bears, and other dangerous pets, he became a person to be avoided. At the end of 1923 he Went to HaStates, where, as in Paris, be had mana ger afte- nrannger and took no heed of any of theft.,, He-Ava-s several in gaol; and finally, last August, the New York State Athletic Commission revoked bis license and the immigration authorities ordered his deportation within thirty days. This order was somehow evaded, and Siki remained to meet lus death at the hand of an assassin. A