Battling Siki: One of Boxing’s Most Interesting Stories

By Travis “Novel” Fleming

Former 1920’s light heavyweight champion Battling Siki, 60-24-4, 31 KO’s, has always been a fighter that piqued my interest. By all accounts, he was one of the most flamboyant, strange, unique, and heroic, characters in the history of boxing. His story is a true rags to riches tale, against all odds. His meteoric rise to the top of the boxing world came just as quickly as his tragic fall and unsolved murder.

The first time I heard about Siki was in an excellent book about tragic boxing stories. I wish I could remember the book’s name or author as it would have been a great point of reference for this article. Anyways, moving along, the book had chapters devoted to various boxers whose careers or lives ended in tragedy, and there was a chapter all about Battling Siki that reeled me in. I checked the book out of my local library as a youngin, and, like anyone in my generation of low attention spans, I immediately went to the middle of the book to flip through the glossy picture section where I was instantly drawn to a dapper young black man in a top hat that was sporting a tuxedo, an opera cape, and a monacle, while holding the leash of a giant lion, which stood by his side.

The caption mentioned something along the lines of “Former light heavyweight champion Battlin Siki walking his pet lion in the streets of Paris.” This was enough to convince me that the chapter on Siki should be my starting point. I was fascinated by his rise from poverty in his native Senegal, to his heroics in World War 1, to his light heavyweight championship winning effort, but most of all it was the stories about his crazy lifestyle outside of the ring that stuck with me to this day. From his flashy dressing, heavy drinking, love of absinthe, and his run ins with the law, to his pet lion that he would walk around major cities with while shooting his gun in the air in case people weren’t already paying undivided attention to the flashy black man with the giant beast.

The story of Battling Siki never fails to stick out to me as one of the most interesting in the history of boxing, so I figured I’d do my best to enlighten those who have yet to hear about this interesting character. This is by no means a complete biography, and there are many conflicting reports on Siki’s life, behavior, and in ring accomplishments. This article’s purpose is just to shed some light on one of boxing’s most unique champions for those who haven’t heard of his exploits. Those that have read up on Siki will likely be familiar with everything mentioned in my shoddy short summary of his tale.

Battling Siki was born in the late 1800’s in the French colony of Senegal, Africa. His family was very poor and times were tough, as they were for the vast majority of his countrymen. At just eight years old in his hometown of Saint Louis, while partaking in his hobby of watching the port city’s harbour traffic, a rich German dancer got off a ship that was en route to Marseilles, France, and asked the young Siki, at the time known by his birth name Baye Phal, or Amadou M’Barick Fall, if he could show her around the city. Siki obliged, and the dancer took quite a liking to him. The lady’s name was Mme Farquenberg and she asked the young Baye Phal if he would like to accompany her to France where she would assure he’d be taken good care of.
The ship was departing shortly after her proposition, and fearing she might change her mind, Baye Phal agreed to join her and left for France without even being able to notify his family that he may never see them again. In France, the lady taught him how to read and write, bought him nice clothes, and made sure his belly was full. Eventually, the dancer had to go to Germany but couldn’t take Phal with her without a passport, so she left him in Marseilles with enough money to take care of himself. Throughout the remainder of his life, he would attempt to write to Mme Farquenberg but was sadly never able to locate the lady who was so kind to the young Senegalese.

On his own in Marseilles, often working as a dishwasher among other menial jobs, he met Paul Latil, a boxing instructor who taught him how to crouch and deliver a proper punch. In 1912, at age 15, already with the build of a grown man, he had his first professional boxing fight, winning by knockout in the eighth round. He soon changed his name to Battling Siki as he felt white men could easily remember such a name.

Between 1912 and the breakout of World War 1 in 1914, he accumulated a record of 8 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws before enlisting in the French army as a 17 year old. Siki fought courageously for the French throughout the war in most of the major campaigns, performing heroic acts under heavy enemy fire which led to him becoming a highly decorated corporal that was awarded the Croix-de-Guerre and the Médaille Militaire for his courage in battle. He was in a regiment compiled mainly of whites and was the champion grenade thrower in his corps while with the colonials. He reportedly could launch a grenade 75 meters. He didn’t receive his first serious battle wounds until 1916 in the infamous “Battle Of The Somme” when bomb fragments went through both of his legs in the middle of the calf.

Rumors have him single handedly wiping out a machine gun nest full of German soldiers. In battle, he used what in boxing would become his trademark crouch that racist sports writers would later dub his “jungle crouch” as he snuck toward the German line where he launched grenades into trenches with wonderful aim. Conflicting reports have Siki successfully capturing nine German soldiers. One has a successful capture, while the other has Siki, worried that they will band together and charge at him, herd them into a shell hole where he quickly lobbed in a couple of grenades after them to do away with the risk.

While on a leave, Siki would mingle with nearby English corps’ as they regularly engaged in sport during downtime, namely boxing. He had a give and take battle with one of their men and was invited to stay for lunch where he was happy to eat a much better variety of food than what he was given by the French, this prompted him to continue boxing the Englishmen. From boxing the British soldiers, Siki learned sportsmanship. The Brits were not stylish boxers, but could absorb tremendous punishment, and dish it out too, which taught Siki how to take a punch. After the British soldiers were finished fighting a fellow, they would be friends again as it was all in sport, this led to Siki learning how to no longer take his anger at what transpired in the ring past the final bell.

Siki was honorably discharged from the French Army as a decorated soldier, and returned to Marseilles where he moved up from a pre war dishwasher to a post war waiter, a job he was given because the restaurant’s manager appreciated his service in the French Army. He continued to fight low level professional bouts. He made a bit of a reputation for himself as a boxer while mixing it up with the British soldiers, and was one day approached in his restaurant by a man while his hands were full of dishes who asked him if he would like to fight French Army champion Leon Derensy in Paris. Siki took the fight, and his manager allowed to him to take time off to train as he figured if his waiter got a name for himself as a boxer his restaurant would benefit from his fame. Siki knocked out Derensy in three rounds.

Even after this performance, he was going nowhere as a fighter. He lived to eat, drink, and smoke, and he used fighting as a means to afford these hobbies stating “In France I drink wine like a Frenchman, in Holland I drink beer like a Dutchman. Also, I smoke a good deal. When not training I like to be out with men smoking and talking and drinking.” Between the time of his discharge and the time he fought for the world light heavyweight title, Siki had fought 49 times with a record of 46-2-1, 21 KO’s, in those bouts. He spent time in the Netherlands where he fought a couple bouts, married a white woman, became a fan favorite, and spent time as a boxing instructor. During this impressive run, he held victories over top European fighters such as Harry Reeve and Marcel Nilles which earned him a shot at world famous light heavyweight champion Georges Carpentier who was the sporting hero of France.

Battling Siki would challenge Carpentier for his title on September 24, 1922. Georges Carpentier is regarded to this day as one of the greatest European fighters of all time. He had been successful against top tier fighters from welterweight all the way up to heavyweight, where he still packed a punch. He had movie star good looks, the demeanor of an absolute gentleman and fair sport, and immense popularity worldwide which was further bolstered by his highly publicized service in the French Army during World War 1 as a low flying observation pilot, often flying in harms way to carry out missions which, like Siki, earned him the distinction of being awarded the prestigious Croix de Guerre and the Médaille Militaire. He attracted droves of fans to the sport that would not typically be interested in prizefighting, but were excited to witness the squeaky clean celebrity war hero show off his pugilistic talents. A year earlier, as light heavyweight champion, Carpentier moved up in weight to face world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey in America, and such was his popularity that he was a major reason the bout generated boxing’s first million dollar gate. Dempsey, who reportedly dodged enlisting in the war effort, was actually cheered against by his fellow Americans who were hoping that the French war hero with the good looks, and the humble gentlemanly personality to match, would teach the infamous Manassa Mauler a lesson for being a coward in times of war.

Unfortunately for fans, and Carpentier, Dempsey was too good a big man for the former French welterweight, so Carpentier was overwhelmed and knocked out in the fourth round to the disappointment of fans everywhere. Prior to the Dempsey bout, Carpentier had traveled to the United States to face America’s Battling Levinsky for the world light heavyweight championship. Carpentier proved his worth in winning the title by fourth round knockout.

After losing to Dempsey at heavyweight, Carpentier returned to light heavyweight to defend his championship against all time great Ted “Kid” Lewis. Shockingly, Carpentier destroyed Lewis with a one punch knockout in the very first round. He then returned to France to defend his world title at home for the first time, which is when Battling Siki got the call to square off against the beloved celebrity hero of all of France in front of his adoring fans in Paris.

By the time they stepped into the ring in September of 1922, Carpentier was 28 years old with an outstanding record of 83-12-5, 52 KO’s, while Siki was 25 years old with a record of 49-9-3, 23 KO’s. Carpentier certainly had the edge in experience having fought Dempsey, Levinksy, and Lewis, while also facing formidable opposition in the form of Frank Klaus, Joe Jeannette, Billy Papke, Harry Lewis, and many others that were better than the very best men Siki had squared off with. Both Siki and Carpentier were roughly the same height, with Siki having a two inch reach advantage. Stylistically, Carpentier was a fine technical boxer with a powerful punch and blazing handspeed for a light heavyweight, while Siki fought out of a crouch and launched awkward and unorthodox attacks, at times reluctant, and at times relentless, but usually a difficult puzzle to solve.

Siki claims he had reneged on a promise to take a dive in the fight, and said throughout the bout he was consistently told to lie down by Carpentier who was expecting an easy night with a pre determined dive, but instead received an unexpected walloping. It’s unknown if this is a legitimate claim, or one that Siki invented to try and taint the clean reputation of the French hero in retribution for all of the nasty things that were written about him by the racist media who were horrified at the sight of their beloved champion falling to a black man that they said fought with an ugly style in a jungle crouch and mimicked a chimpanzee in battle, despite Siki never having witnessed a battle between chimps in his life. Siki claimed he was supposed to take a dive, but wasn’t supposed to suffer a beating in the process, so when he realized Carpentier was really trying to hurt him, he changed his mind about falling.

Carpentier took it to him from the opening bell with Siki not doing much offensively but occasionally coming forward in his awkward crouch. When Carpentier knocked Siki down twice in the third round with powerful right crosses, Siki said he abandoned any thought of taking a dive, and he responded with a four punch combination to the body and head to score a knockdown that shocked Carpentier. In rounds four and five, Siki continued his onslaught and dropped Carpentier again in the fifth.

In round six, Siki hit Carpentier with an uppercut that put him down for the count, however, the referee claimed Siki had tripped Carpentier on purpose and awarded the bout to the still floored Carpentier on a bogus foul. The crowd knew what they saw and began an uproar which prompted the three ringside judges to overrule the referee, crowning Battling Siki as the new king of the light heavyweights, and the first ever champion from the continent of Africa.

To say the media were not receptive to Siki’s courageous story from the streets of Senegal, to decorated war hero, to conquerer of the great Georges Carpentier, would be the understatement of the century. The media would engage in a smear campaign against a man in Siki who in reality was as much of a French hero as Carpentier, having been decorated with the same military honors for his service in World War 1. If Siki were not a black man, his unlikeliest of rags to riches story would have propelled him to idol status in France right alongside Capentier, instead he was labeled a fighting chimpanzee employing a jungle crouch and the tactics of a wildman. The fact that he was a highly decorated war hero no longer held any value, he was the African who dared to try and destroy Carpentier’s messiah type reputation, and France would never forgive him.

In response to the poor press, Siki would say “A lot of newspaper fellows have written that I have a jungle style of fighting, and that I am a sort of chimpanzee who has been taught to wear gloves. I was never in the jungle in my life. I haven’t seen many chimpanzees and never saw any fight. Every fighting man builds up his own way of hitting the other fellow and of trying to keep from getting hit. Call it by what name you will, the whole game is to hit the other fellow and keep from getting badly hurt yourself. If I can bend and stoop in such manner that all the other fellow can hit is my elbow or the top of my head, that’s my game. He can’t hurt my elbow, and I have a black man’s head. It can stand a lot of bumping.”

It was in the aftermath of his championship winning KO of Carpentier that the legend of Siki’s outrageous out of ring escapades came to light. He engaged in a highly publicized rampage of partying and carousing. It wasn’t odd to see the athletically built black man walking his pet lion down the world famous Champs-Élysées in Paris, dressed to the nines in a tuxedo, cape, top hat and monocle. When he opted on strolls without his Lion, he would take his two great danes and was known to shoot off his revolver in the air as a signal to have his two giant dogs perform tricks. He was regularly reported as being intoxicated in various nightclubs, and he lavishly spent his earnings on flashy clothes and partying. He was particularly fond of white women, seen regularly with various white women by his side, and he actually married to two of them. Siki was consistently reported for being kicked out of Boulevard cafes on absinthe binges.

Eventually, offers began to pour in to the newly crowned light heavyweight champion from the United States. There were rumors of a lucrative offer to move up in weight to face heavyweight kingpin Jack Dempsey, among offers to face Harry Greb, Harry Wills, and middleweight champion Johnny Wilson. Oddly, Siki chose to defend his title against unheralded Irishman Mike McTigue in a less publicized bout on Saint Patrick’s Day, in Ireland, six months after winning his title. By agreeing to face an Irishman in Dublin, Ireland on Saint Patrick’s Day, Siki allowed the cards to be heavily stacked against him. It was another bad decision in a long line of poor decisions, with more to come, for the 25 year old Siki.

By all accounts Siki was the only man fighting for his title that Saint Patrick’s Day. At times he launched furious attacks at McTigue who appeared as if he was just trying to survive in a defensive posture without mounting any offense, other than the occasional pawing jab. The New York Times reported that with four rounds remaining, the Irishman was losing by a wide margin and would need a knockout to win. At the fights end, Siki had clearly battered his first title challenger, but somehow the referee awarded Irish Mike McTigue Siki’s world title in one of the most overtly corrupt robberies in championship history. Not surprisingly, the referee’s scorecard would go missing to erase any evidence of such corruption.
Siki would get raked over the coals by the racist media once again. His wartime heroics purposely forgotten, they couldn’t resist rubbing salt in the unjust wounds of the man who dared to beat the beloved Georges Carpentier. Prior to the McTigue fight, Siki grew paranoid with good reason. He was locked in his boat cabin on his way to Dublin, and became convinced that everyone was out to get him. Before the fight, he refused to weigh in and demanded he be paid in advance. He actually had much of his purse for the bout sewn into a belt that he wore during, and after the fight. To further complicate matters, after he was robbed of his world championship, Siki had to remain in hostile Ireland for two weeks with his Dutch wife as he had been outlawed from reentering Britain.

Siki would return to France for three more bouts, and would then make a highly publicized move to the United States in late 1923. His move was well reported in America, largely due to his colorful out of ring antics. In America, Siki’s talent was quickly fading due to his lifestyle and lack of discipline. He would never again win a significant bout. From the time he moved to the US, until the time he was murdered, he went a poor 8-15-1, 6 KO’s. He continued his party hard ways, walking the rough Streets of New York and engaging in drunken street fights.

He was regularly accused of taking long taxi trips around Harlem then refusing to pay the fares, offering cabbies to fight him for the money owed. He gained a reputation for getting intoxicated in speakeasies, refusing to pay his tab, then fighting his way out. These instances culminated in various arrests for disorderly conduct. Despite his fervid spending on booze, clothes, and partying, Siki would regularly dole out hundreds of dollars to people he liked, or felt needed it. He once gave his entire purse for a bout to passengers on his ferry ride home from the fight.

There are several reports of him leaving home in his expensive clothes and returning in nothing but his underwear because he gave his nice clothes to someone he felt could benefit from them. Siki was arrested in July of 1925 for slashing at a Policeman with a knife, which led to the US government initiating deportation proceedings. France actually refused to accept his deportation. A month later, an emotional and sobbing Siki was brought before the boxing commission and suspended while his American manager was told to keep Siki out of the three mile radius of New York City.

Aside from his erratic behavior while in drunken stupors, he was generally regarded as kind hearted, fun loving man. Siki was known to be a dangerous drunk, and after smashing up a speakeasy in New York’s notorious Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood in August, he was stabbed in the back. In December, he was fined for slapping a Policeman. There was no doubt that within his short tenure as a resident of Hell’s Kitchen, Siki was its most notoriously troublesome citizen.

Siki’s torrent and tumultuous fall from grace came to a boil on the night of December 14 of 1925. In the early evening, he told his new American wife that he was going out with the boys and would return in time to pack for their trip to Washington the next day, where he was scheduled to appear in a theater. Shortly after midnight, a patrol officer who was familiar with Siki saw him wobbling near Forty First Street and was told by Siki that he was on his way home. Shortly after 4 am on December 15, 1925, the same Patrolman noticed a body a hundred feet east of the corner in the gutter in front of 350 West Forty First Street. As he approached the body, he recognized Siki. Siki had bullet wounds in his chest and abdomen. About forty feet east of where Siki’s body was discovered, detectives found a pool of blood which suggested Siki tried to crawl home after being shot. They also found the gun that had been used to cut Siki’s life short in front of a building across the street. Later, autopsies revealed that Siki had been shot through his lungs and kidneys. Surprisingly, autopsies also showed that Siki suffered from an anemic condition.

At his funeral, fittingly, Siki’s body was clothed in the finest of evening dress as he would have no doubt wished. He left behind, on record, no father, mother or child, when he died in one of societies most destitute manifestations.

The murder of Siki remains virtually unsolved to this day. An eighteen year old who lived near Siki’s house was booked on a homicide charge in March of 1926. The suspect signed two statements, one of which said he saw Siki stumble into a cafe where he threw a chair at a gathering of eight men including the suspect before exiting. The young man said that he lured Siki to the cafe with the promise of buying him a drink. He claimed as Siki left the cafe, he followed and was joined by two men outside, one of which shot Siki in the back two times. The young man was held in custody for five months, but was released by the court because the state was not satisfied with the case.

Finally, in 1993, Siki’s remains were repatriated to Saint Louis, Senegal where he currently rests as Africa’s very first world boxing champion.

[si-contact-form form=’2′]