The Story of Eugene Criqui
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By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White
The other day whilst scrolling through my news feed, I came across a brief article from the Boxing News about a former French fighter and World Featherweight Champion. That French Champion being Eugene Criqui.
After some light reading and research on the Hall of Fame fighter, I couldn’t help but feel hugely inspired by his story and therefore, I’ve opted to write about him today, for one of my articles this week on the Ringside Report.
Criqui was born in Paris and before turning Professional in 1910, he worked as a pipe-fitter.
Within two years of fighting as a Pro, Criqui had won the French flyweight title and was on track to go far!
However, during the first World War, he was called up to fight for the French military. Preventing him from progressing any further with his career. For now…
It was during the war that Eugene Criqui overcame his biggest battle however, after being shot in the face by a German sniper.
This left the Frenchman with a shattered jaw; requiring plastic surgery, which back in the day was still a very new and dangerous procedure.
Surgeons were able to reconstruct and refigure the French fighters face, however, it was done using wire, silver plates and plastic (with some sources also sighting the use of a goats leg…).
Despite successful surgery, Criqui was unable to speak for several months and one can only assume that it was deemed highly unlikely that the man would ever fight again as a professional, let alone go on to win titles and become such a dominant fighter throughout his era.
Before being called up to fight against the enemy in WWI, Eugene Criqui had amassed an already impressive professional record (42-9-13) as a flyweight and was pretty much dominating the French division.
However, after the war, Criqui moved up to featherweight and seemed to have obtained iron fists as well as an iron jaw. The French fighter would go on to win 44 of his next fights by KO.
Although many fighters would’ve perspectively given up their chances in the fight game, this near-death experience and new, mechanical jaw seemed almost to invigorate Criqui. Who went on to re-capture another French title as well as the European and World title belts too.
Maybe it was the horrors and the brutality of “The Great War” which helped turn Eugene Criqui into a knock out machine. Maybe it was the internal strength that he felt after surviving such an unforgiving injury…
Whatever it is, there is no denying that Eugene “The KO King”, was a changed man after his experiences in the trenches of WWI.
There is also no denying that this little man had a big heart, a big punch and an inspiring story/career. Which is why I wanted to bring him up in this post today.
According to BoxRec – Cirqui retired in 1928, with an impressive record of 105 wins, 16 losses and 15 draws.
He went on to become a well recognized French Boxing referee and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005.
The French fighter passed away, in 1977, at the age of 83.
May his legacy live on forever and his story inspire us all, as we remember the sacrifices all those men and women made – for us here today – throughout the Great War.
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