Battling Siki vs Georges Carpentier | Ring Talk with Lou Eisen

This week Jou will talk about the September 24th, 1922 world light-heavyweight title bout between champion George’s Carpentier and challenger Battling Siki.

Louis Mbarick Fall, known as Battling Siki, was a French light heavyweight boxer born in Senegal who fought from 1912 to 1925, and briefly reigned as the World light heavyweight champion after knocking out Georges Carpentier.

Discussing the greatest boxing controversies throughout history, Lou Eisen offers his opinions and insights in this fantastic live-streamed series of episodes. Watch live on TalkinFight.com every Sunday at 2pm ET.

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Transcribed:

[, Music, ] hi, i’m lou eisen, and welcome to this week’s episode of ring talk and today we’re going to discuss a very animatic enough animatics to write word.

But if an incredible flight in boxing history took place a hundred years ago, september 24th, 1922 at buffalo stadium in paris, france between the colorful and well-loved and good-looking matinee idol and world war, one hero and light heavyweight champion of the world.

George carpanche decorated world war.

One hero and the incredibly colorful charismatic and crazy man battling sikhi, whose real name was louis fall.

Louis mcbarrett fall from cynical.

He was known as the singular saint elise and if you get a chance, read peter benson’s book on him, it is fantastic.

Uh battling the sikhis one of the most incredibly colorful characters in the entire 322 history of modern boxing.

Now, what makes this fight incredible was.

This was from beginning to end a fixed fight.

Both sides agreed, except when you look at the history of fixed fights where fighters agreed and and when i say fixed fight, i mean in this instance seeking his manager, charlie heller, agreed on cp’s behalf and see he did to to lose and in order to lose, I mean his reward was rather than get the 50 000 francs, he was promised the carpanches manager, the corrupt francois de champ, said to uh heller, sikki’s manager, we’ll give you carponte’s uh purse of two hundred thousand francs and he’ll take zeki’s purse of fifty thousand francs Ziki was broke, he’d been fighting for twelve years.

That was one of the main differences between boxing today and and 100 years ago.

Back then, a guy fighting for the title, even up to the 40s and 50s with sugary robinson, a guy could have 80 to 140 fights before he got a title shot.

He was a seasoned pro a veteran didn’t happen.

It doesn’t happen today, but it happened back.

Then zeke had been fighting for 12 years before he got a shot and the only reason he got a shot at the at carpanches because he and his manager agreed with francois de jean that they would lose.

They would lose in four rounds and i took the liberty of printing out a thing here from box rec.

The referee was french, henry bernstein and uh.

It just shows you.

Both fighters went down in the third round.

Karpanchi went down again in the fifth round.

He was stopped in the six of course, but he scored two knockdowns in round three with right crosses to the head.

He dropped them in the uh seeking the first round, but a lot of those knockdowns were cke, went down, they weren’t real knockdowns.

They were phony and sikhi.

Uh was not a good actor, so the first knockdown in the first round, the punch, missed him by a foot and a half and the referee said get up they’re booing.

Everyone could see that and carpanche.

You said years later or carpentier.

Wherever you, however, you’d like to pronounce it that um, he was standing in the corner and he wanted to be anywhere, but in that ring he hadn’t trained for the fight.

He thought there was no point hubris which takes down so many people in all walks of life, but especially boxing champions took down.

Carpanche and carpanche was born in um 1894 uh january 12th.

He lived a long life.

He lived to october 28th, 1975.

carpentry fought in every weight class.

He fought from flyweight up to heavyweight, he fought jack dempsey, now density knocked him out, but he dropped dempsey and he heard him several times.

Carpenter was a really good fighter and there was a reason he was the champion.

He was technically really good.

He had great footwork great mobility educated feet, so he could move around the ring.

Well, a great jab and he had a one punch, knockout power in his right hand, and he knew how to hide it.

He knew how to hide the right hand with his left jab and he dropped dempsey and he heard him a couple times as well.

The problem was when he fought dempsey for the world light heavy for the world heavyweight title a year after he won just after one delight heavy title.

He landed flush behind dempsey’s like high in the cheekbone, but he broke his hand into different pieces.

That’S how tough dempsey was, and so the champ wanted to give him some easy fights and they figured we’ll fight sikhi siki when he started out before world war.

One was you know.

He started professional boxing at 14.

He was from senegal and just a fantastic story.

There should be a movie on him seeking this so go ahead and make it well.

I don’t have the money to make it, but maybe eric and his father graham will help you make it anyways by the way special.

Thank you to eric for doing magnificent job.

Producing the broadcast, as always, this wouldn’t be possible any of these without his help um so with sikhi he’s born in cynical and he is born um 1898 and he he um a tremendous fighter sikhi, i’m just trying to actually get the um he’s born.

1897.

.

Sorry about that dies in 1925.

he’s born in saint louis french, senegal.

It was a colony of france and like a lot of young kids back then 14 15 teenagers.

The only way for him to make a living was diving off these cliffs, with other single east kids retrieving coins that tourists would throw into the water.

So he would do this and some lady from france a well healed.

Lady saw him.

The kids were naked when he did this and she was rather impressed with zeki’s musculature his body and various other things and decided to take him to france and and got him a job working in a in the kitchen.

Eventually, he became a boxer and i guess after the first uh, 15 16 17 fights.

He won six and seven and he lost seven.

He lost eight and had a couple draws he uh volunteered and went in and he won a medal.

Uh fighting for the french army in world war, one so after the war he becomes a full-time boxer and he fought.

You know for 12 years, 1910 to 1922 to get a title shot and he’d had 43 wins in a row.

Sikhi was, let’s say, seek.

He was freaky, sikhi was uncommonly strong, he had heavy hands and the best way i can describe this.

There were a lot of guys in boxing and a lot, but through history, matthew, hilton, one of my dear friends and idols and his brother davey the same way.

They had heavy hands, they didn’t have to hit you solid to do tremendous damage marziano’s the best example.

They could hit you a glancing blow on the arm and break your arm, hit your glancing blow on the shoulder and break your collarbone.

You know, hit you and break your cheekbone, very, very heavy hands, and so sikhi was pounding, the hell out of people and just beating them down.

A lot of these fighters were more skilled than ziki a lot of them weren’t, but his strength and his stamina and his iron will to win were just too much for them, and so he was getting paid peanuts.

You know he was broke.

He was married to a dutch woman, a white woman and he had a child with her and, of course, uh after he loses the title in 1923 to mike mctigue in ireland, which was a stupid fight for him to take, because it was on st patrick’s day.

Matigue was an irish american and got the decision even though seeking won the fight.

Sikhi leaves europe never comes back and goes to.

New york never saw his wife or young son again, although he got married again so before the fight with george carpanche, and this is on youtube.

You got to watch us.

This is an incredible fight, because sikhi before the fight is training, full tilt he’s running 10.

15 miles a day he’s doing thousands of push-ups thousands of sit-ups he’s doing chin-ups hitting the speed bag hitting the heavy back and his manager charlie hell.

He says: what are you doing? It’S a fixed fight.

You go down in the fourth round and one of the things that carpentier’s manager, um francois deschamps, said when you go down for the last time in the fourth round, you got to be christ-like, you got to spread eagle, your arms and ziki was agreeing with it.

He he was agreeing with it on the surface.

He wasn’t happy about it, he didn’t like it because he he said i’m broke.

I need the money but to be humiliated like this.

You know against a guy.

No, i can be so.

His manager says to seek: why are you training and he said well? Why wouldn’t i train? We don’t know if george is going to stick to the plan.

What if he starts to really come after me, i don’t want to be out of shape and get hurt and heller is thinking.

Well, that’s a good point.

I mean, if i tell my fighter not to train and we know carponte is not training.

Everyone’S gon na know it’s a fixed fight, it was no.

It was known as um uh cinema, they called it do cinema.

It was uh, it was a play.

It wasn’t real everyone, you know the word got out and so carpentier wasn’t training now.

Bob scanlon is a very interesting guy in this all this he was an american light heavyweight and he was training with siki and he said, sikhi was just pounding the hell out of me, but the thing about ziki was: he wasn’t really a skilled fighter, so he Said after pounding, the hell out of me for a couple weeks, i said to him, i said louis that was his real name, lewis fowle.

Let me help you here.

Let me show you how to get your punches in quicker and and to get the vital spots on the other person’s body, and let me show you what carpanche is going to do and explain to sikhi.

The point of the sparring here isn’t to beat the hell out of me because you could do that easily.

With your eyes closed, i should be mimicking carpentier, letting you know so he was showing what carpanche would want to do.

Garpanchi is going to come in sort of a crouch he’s going to hold his left hand up and he’s going to keep sticking in your face and come over with the right hand, and he really showed sikhi how to bend at the knees he showed sikhi.

You know he basically showed him how to get more leverage on his shots, how to brace himself for shots, and he was mimicking what carpentry was doing.

Interestingly enough, scanlon still had to quit as a sparring partner because he said, even though he wasn’t going full out on me.

The beating was too much.

He was just too strong.

He said he was a light heavyweight that hit like a heavyweight, and so when he left sikhi’s camp he got hired by francois de champ, carpontia’s manager and carpanche would show up every day they had this beautiful place near a cheese factory in the country that they Shop owned and carpanche started out as a kickboxer and, as i said before, fought in every weight division from flyweight up to heavyweight.

He wasn’t training.

He just said he kept using the n word.

I’M going to beat this n word easily and scanlan the former spartan partner for sikhi, kept saying to him.

Listen, you he’s taking it seriously, he’s running 15 miles a day, doing 5 000, 10, 000 push-ups and sit-ups and chin-ups a day he’s spending an hour on the speed bag.

A couple hours in the heavy bag he’s sparring three four hours a day, he’s ready for a war and carpentry said i don’t care what he’s ready for he’s a n-word he’s stupid.

He can’t fight, and i’m gon na hit him with my right hand and destroy him and carpanche destroyed a lot of people with that great right-hand views.

So carpanche basically did like calisthenics a little bit on the speed back, didn’t spar, didn’t run and scanlan and other people are begging him.

You got to do this and he said no, then he’d get in the car and he’d drive away and play golf all day or spend all day with the ladies.

He was happily married, but but carpanche even when he went to fight jack dempsey and in uh boyle’s 30 acres, promoted by tax record in new jersey in his training camp there and in the hotel he was staying at nearby.

You know he’d go into his hotel room after a day of training and it’d be four or five naked women waiting for him.

There, women just threw themselves at him.

He was a world war, one flying ace, a hero.

He was good.

Looking everywhere he went, there were always women waiting for him and it was hard for him to a bet to turn away these women, but he just was with his wife and a whole bunch of friends.

He did not take the fight seriously.

He said the fight’s already been planned out by my manager.

It’S going to go four rounds and – and i don’t have to train – and that was a big mistake on his part, because, as we’ve seen through boxing history, even though a fighter and the managers get together and they plan out how the fight is going to be Fixed, in other words, sometimes they’ll, say you know what let’s just put on a good exhibition for 20 rounds.

I won’t hurt you, you don’t hurt me, the audience gets the show and we get it running, and that happened a lot back then, because you got guys like you had guys like benny leonard or sam langford or jack johnson, whose skill level was so supreme.

No one would get in the ring with them.

They were terrified, so the champion had or langford who should have been a champion, the greatest fighter to never win the title.

Uh sh, you know, would have to agree.

I i won’t hurt you for this fight or i won’t hurt you for a first date or nine rounds.

I won’t hurt you as long as you don’t take liberties with me and one time langford got in the ring with a guy and they’d agreed to go.

Ten rounds and the guy really went after langford and langford just turned and knocked him flat and after the fight said to him that wasn’t part of the deal the deal was that we go easy on each other and you broke it.

So this was quite common, and this was one of the major problems.

A lot of guys didn’t live up to the deals when langford fought stanley ketchup, they had agreed to go six easy rounds.

Catch hill went right after him, and langford fought back and won the decision and and signed, and he was going to get a title fight, but then quetzal was murdered by two grifters, and so this happened quite a bit.

When you know ketchup did the same thing with jack johnson agreed to go 20 rounds, but then tried to knock johnson out and johnson said that wasn’t part of the deal and then destroyed ketchup knocked him out.

So you have carpanche and he has no respect for sikhi or for blacks in general.

At that time his views changed later, but what it the way you it was a common view held.

Then it’s not acceptable by any means, it’s still viciously racist and evil.

But there was a perception back then that frank, that black people josephine baker for one the entertainer – got treated much better in france, what she did than she did in the united states.

But there was still that racism in france towards blacks.

There was racism, uh against blacks in england and all over europe.

It just wasn’t as pronounced and overtly vicious as it was in the united states.

So they’re, not training carpanche is not.

Training.

Sikhi is in great shape.

They get to the stadium, it’s an overcast day and they’re waiting for the fight to start and the announcer is interviewing all these celebrities, pavo nurmi, the famous finnish long distance runner, who won an olympic gold medal and he’s introducing other famous boxers actors and different people And kurpanchi just walks out and says, shut up.

It’S enough.

Just no more introductions just get the fight on it’s going to rain and he says, but you know, mr carpentier, we have to just do what i tell you, i’m the champ.

I don’t want to hear it and carpanche wanted to be anywhere, but where he was, he just wanted to get this charade.

Over with.

There was a big thing in the paper about sikhi that when they met at the weigh-in sikhi addressed him as uh.

He said bonjour monsieur corportiere, hello, mr carpenter, or carp ponchay.

He didn’t say like a fighter with today: hey george, how you doing or hey champ, and they looked at that as as a fear, they said, look how stupid and ignorant he is he’s so afraid of the champion.

He can’t even call him by his first name.

He has to call him mister and that had nothing to do with fear.

That was just because of the fact that foul was inherently polite battle and seek.

He was a polite guy and he thought since carpentier was the champion.

You address him, as you know, monsieur carpentier, and so when the fight started, uh sikhi had stage freight and people said, look he’s afraid he wasn’t afraid stage.

Fright is different than fear.

He had stage fights from fighting and such he never fought in front of an audience of 25 000 people before so.

It’S overwhelming, but it didn’t mean he was afraid of carpentier carpanche was five eleven and a half waiting at 175.

sikhi was five ten and a half and weighed in at 175.

So sikhi was much more muscular.

Carpanche was a lean fighter and the fight starts and by the way back then they didn’t wear mouthpieces.

That was relatively new.

That came in with ted kid lewis was the first one.

The great jewish two-time world, welterweight champion from britain and people fought louis about that and back then, in the 20s and later on fighters had to fight for the right to wear a mouthpiece and so the fight starts and it’s about a minute.

In a couple of minutes in and carpanchi throws a right hand and sikhi goes down to one knee and you can see on the tape.

Clearly the fight, the punch didn’t land, it did not land the referee walks over and says to seek.

He get up and seek, he looks at me, says, get up, everyone saw the punch, miss you know, you’re gon na be booed out of the stadium get up and he gets up and they’re fighting again and basically they’re going through the motions and then they get To the second round – and you know all all this time – his manager seek his manager, saying, don’t forget the deal and see he’s like yeah.

I remember the deal, but while the fight’s going on carponte is calling him a stupid, n-word and ignorant n-word sikhi wasn’t stupid.

He people throughout the year said he was illiterate.

He wasn’t, he one-on-one like a lot of people.

He was incredibly shy in a group of people.

He wasn’t and he also had a problem with alcohol.

He was very expansive when he drank that’s how he got into trouble.

So sikhi spoke french, he spoke sangalese and he had a passing knowledge of english.

It wasn’t his first language, so second round goes on and carpanji hits him and he goes down again, not a real knockdown and he gets up and karpanchi is starting to really hit him.

Now he’s not just throwing blows and faking, it he’s really hitting him and see he’s getting angry he’s saying you know, what’s going on here, you’re not supposed to do that and he just says: shut up you n-word bastard, shut up and go down.

Ziki didn’t mind.

Being hit, he didn’t like being disrespected no fighter likes that you don’t disrespect a professional prize fighter.

That’S the worst thing you can do verbally and especially physically, that gets you a beating second round ends and his manager’s like okay, it’s going fine, you got to go down again now and the third round he goes down.

You know a couple more times, but the point: it’s the phone they’re funny knockdowns, but he gets up and he starts hitting cp.

He starts going after cp or excuse me, he starts going after carpanche and he starts hitting him for real and carpanchy can’t really believe.

What’S going on here and he’s hanging on and bob scanlon, his former spartan partner was in sikhi’s corner and he said to him: he’s got a high guard.

Forget the guard go after his ribs dempsey, crushed his ribs and he probably hasn’t fully recovered from that go after the ribs and he did he ignored carponte’s head and he started pounding his ribs with hard body shots and carpanchi who hadn’t trained and was not in Shape was gasping for air and in the fourth round you know once again, cq goes down and gets up and then he starts dropping carpentier and he knocks him down and he knocked down a couple of times.

Carpanche fell a couple times, while throwing wild right hands and sikhi is doing exactly what bob scanlon said, ignoring his head, destroying the body and eventually carpanche’s hands come down to protect his ribs and sikhi launches a right hand to the left eye, and it it just Opens a big cut over his left eye bust crab, poncho’s nose, he’s bloodied and shredded his lips he’s bleeding from inside the mouth now garbance, because carpanche disrespected him he’d really gone after cp and people in the audience which what carpentry couldn’t believe was of all the 25 to 30 000 people they’re sitting ringside.

They were all cheering for sikhi.

Now they all came in cheering for carpanche they’re, all frenchmen, but now they wanted carpentry who’ve been who’ve, been treating ck poorly to pay for what he’d done after the fourth round.

When you watch the tape on youtube, you can see this little gnome-like man, francois de champ, carponte’s manager.

He goes scurrying across the ring and he grabs charlie hello.

What the hell’s going on here he’s not he’s not being um uh, um covert about it.

You know he’s not making he’s not being quiet about it.

Everyone knows now that it was supposed to be fixed.

He’S screaming out, hey your guy’s supposed to go down.

He said he would go down this round.

What the hell is going on, you’re not getting paid, and then he runs back to his corner as the round ends.

Fifth round comes out and ziki just boards into him now and it’s a real fight.

Knocker ponchay is not just fighting to win he’s fighting just to stay alive, because sikhi is just focusing on his ribs and pounding into the body and carpanches.

He can’t get the airing he’s getting hit in the solar plexus getting hit in the broken ribs he’s getting hit over his cut eye, getting hit in the broken nose getting punched in the mouth and what does sikhi do from the fourth and fifth round on head? Butting he keeps going after or excuse me, karpon jake starts to headbutt seeky and it’s overt he’s going after him.

You know in the fourth round three four five headbutts same in the fifth round.

He keeps head-butting him using his forearms and elbows referee says one thing to him and seki’s like holds his arms out.

What are you doing? You’Re not supposed to be head-butting and carpenting goes right back at it because he’s desperate he can’t afford to lose the title.

This is supposed to be an easy fight, see he’s not going along with the battle battle plan in his head.

He was saying: okay, i’m supposed to take a loss and if i take a loss, i’ll look like a bum but i’ll get a lot of money and then it occurred to him.

But if i win the title i’ll get a lot more money after and so the fight continues on until around the sixth round, specifically the sixth round and they’re, going at it and and seeking is just annihilating carpanji karpanchi is holding on he’s head biting he’s, throwing Wild punches but there’s nothing behind them and he’s missing, and you know bob scammons calling from the corner yelling at seeking get rid of him.

Now.

You know hit him in the body hit him in the ribs, and so the wrestling in the center ring and sikhi turns and as he’s turning carpanche almost trips over his feet loses his balance.

A bit and sikhi seeks sinks a right hand into his left, ribs, which are broken and karpanchi goes down on his side with his left leg up in the air.

It’S a strange, pose he’s holding it up, it’s helping him breathe and he can’t beat the cow.

You see his face is covered in blood.

His mouth is open, he’s gasping for air, but the referee on reed merstein won’t count.

He said i can’t i can’t count, because if i count all the people that better kurpanche i.

e, the french mob will kill me.

But if i don’t award the fight to seeking the audience in attendance will kill me, so he declares sikhi disqualified by foul.

He said he tripped him.

People have always said it.

He disqualified him for a low blow.

It wasn’t a low blow.

He said he he didn’t trip him, so the audience is going.

Nuts they’re charging the ring and the head of the french boxing commission says we’re gon na we’re meeting with the other three commissioners we’re gon na meet in a hotel and, while he’s saying his people, twenty five thousand people seek one and ziki won the fight.

So we’re gon na retire to a hotel, we’ll have a decision tomorrow and then they start pelting and trying to get at the commissioners well and the head boxing, commissioner, says: i think if we want to get out of the stadium alive, we’re going to have to Reach a decision now and so they take.

Oh, you know some time.

They said we’re going to come up with the decision now and they come back a while later and they say seeking one by naco, which he did, unfortunately, because he won by knockout.

He didn’t get paid and try to get his money, but francois deschamps said the deal.

Was you get 200? 000 francs? If you lose in four rounds, you didn’t lose, you fought for real and then zeki’s manager said can at least get his original purse of 50 grand and deshawn said.

No.

That was patently illegal, but the deal they made was illegal and deschamp had so much power.

There’S nothing you could do about it.

So sikhi was now the champion and that night he walked down the the boulevard in paris with his lion on a chain.

Tyson wasn’t the first fighter to own a lion and he’s got this beautiful hat on and he’s got his white manager there holding his arm he’s got cigar in his mouth and he’s drinking and he’s partying for days, and he rides around paris in a cab and He’S shooting off his guns and he’s just getting drunk and when he was drunk he was out of control.

So carpentier who’d won the title from battling lewinsky uh by fourth round naca lewinsky was a great fighter.

Um is now no longer the champ.

He doesn’t get a chance to win the title back again.

He fights on for a short time uh later and then he you know he retires.

His final record was 112 win, 112 fights, 89 wins 15 losses and i believe he had six draws 57 ko.

So he was a great all-time fighter, but he lived to be in his 80s, so his life is fine.

He’S got all his money he’s a movie star.

Sikhi makes the worst move of his life.

That was the highlight of his life in his boxing career.

After that, it was all downhill he he got offers from united states to fight the black heavyweight harry wales, to fight harry grab, the great middleweight life heavyweight and and to fight paul bernal back.

Excuse me, who was also a great light heavyweight who went on to win the title and he turned those offers down and they were for considerably more money than he would have got to fight mike boutique mike mctee was an irish american.

The mistake sikhi made was fighting him in in ireland on saint patrick’s day and so sikhi wins the fight and they give it to mike boutique seeking a complaint.

He was a sports man, he shook his hand and congratulated him.

Then he went to united states because he figured he’d have better luck there.

The problem in the united states at that time was boxing was controlled by the mafia under the auspices of oni, matted and all his cronies.

So it was thought for years.

Well, he had.

He lost more than he won when he went to the united states.

He got knocked up by paul berlin back mike conway, the only time he’d ever been stopped.

He was losing decisions now the common and he was shot um when he was coming home.

One night from a bar in new york, he was drunk two guys that walked into the bar and they bought him drinks.

He didn’t really know them.

They walked him home, they walked by a cop, they said he’s drunk we’re just helping him home cop noticed the gun in the side pocket one of these guys and about 200 year yards later he hears two shots and sikhi was found.

He had two bullets behind his right ear.

That’S a mob execution, so people said fears well the mob killed him, which i believe they did, because he wouldn’t go down in fights that they said he had agreed to lose.

But when you look at his record, he lost his last three fights, but before that he had two wins.

They asked him to go down in those fights he didn’t.

So why would they kill somebody who then listened and lost three fights in a row? What had happened was he owed money to everyone? He just didn’t pay his bills and he kept boring money against his future paydays from the mob and because of the color of his skin and because of his drunken behavior and the racism that was endemic to boxing back then and mob control.

He was getting banned.

State by state in the united states he was banned in new jersey, massachusetts, new york, georgia.

He was running out of places to fight and he owed the mob a lot of money and he he never paid his bills.

He kept going out and getting drunk.

He didn’t train, he no longer cared and at one point you know they said to him.

They said.

Don’T imagine he’s just not listening.

Well, he lost his last several flights like we said he lost him because he was drunk and out of shape, but whatever we tell him to do he just shoves us or slaps us or hits us, and you know the rollback fan as it is today.

You don’t touch a mate guy, the mob and sikhi, who had a passing understanding of english at best just wasn’t paying attention.

He just didn’t care at that point.

He was so drunk so often and finally, only managers said get rid of him.

Four words: madden didn’t even look up from the ledger.

He was looking at he’s in his office.

Looking at something and just says: okay get rid of him and they did they shot him.

They shot him and killed him on december 15, 1925 and the man was 28 years old.

He was dissipated, he’d been screwed over by the sport of boxing.

For so long, and you know he only got fights against top fighters if he had agreed to lose.

He had no choice, otherwise he never would have got the carponte fight and the kerpantje fight was a complete fluke, because if he, if it was on the level deschamps said no there’s no way, i won’t give you a chance to fight my guy only because he Agreed to lose with a handshake verbally and in writing.

Did he get the fight and it’s an incredible fight to watch so who shot him? They don’t know who shot him, but who doesn’t matter? It’S why he was shot.

It was shot because he owed a lot of money to the mob and he touched him.

He was roughing up made guys and he wasn’t paying his bills and he wasn’t paying the mob back and as a boxer, since his license was revoked all throughout the united states and all throughout europe.

There was nowhere left for him to fight so the mob just said it’s time he goes, and that was it uh.

He was buried in an unmarked.

Grave years later, the veteran boxers association put a headstone there for him marking his grave and he was repatriated in 1993 to senegal, where he was from, where he’s revered as a hero as well.

He should be.

He stood up to the racism of his times and defeated a truly great champion.

Now, there’s been no movie on siki, there should be a movie on seeki.

There hasn’t been one as far as i know, uh he wasn’t necessarily a skilled fighter, but he could punch well and he became more skilled as his career went on.

So he would pull his arms back to punch he.

He was an enimatic person because people that interviewed him one-on-one and got to know him said he was very shy, very introverted, very kind, but once you put the demon rum into him, he would shoot his guns off.

He wasn’t shooting at people.

He was shooting to get his great danes to do tricks and every time you get in trouble in france or the states, the police will go.

Oh man seeky.

What are you doing this to us, for we don’t want to put you in jail again, you’re going to get more trouble, just go home and the night he was killed.

The cop said you know what i’ll walk him home just to make sure and those two guys said: no, don’t worry about it.

Officer will take care of him and they took care of him.

Two bullets behind the right ear is the signature execution style of the new york mob of any mob.

So you know his wife went down to see him and she collapsed.

When she saw him he was only 28.

He was broke.

He was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt uh, but his name.

His name still resonates today and i’ve thought about him for so long that when i was walking in a bookstore in the states and saw peter benson’s book battling sikhi, i went oh my god.

I’M not the only person that remembers him and the wonderful photos in the book of sikhi and uh of him fighting, carpanche and fighting other fighters.

He beat a lot of good fighters by the time he got to the stage he was way past his prime, even though he was 28.

He still he came to the states uh two three years earlier, but because of all the drinking and not training, he just wasn’t the same guy anymore.

He was just out to have a good time and his attitude, really i thought, was one of you don’t care about me.

So why should i care about me? Carpenter, lived in 1975.

He became very close with uh, jack dempsey and gene tony and many other fighters.

He was an elder statesman uh, interestingly enough about 15 years ago, at the boxing hall of fame in new york um, i was at a collector’s show and a man approached me because that’s with angela dundee – and he said, i have a book here of photos and He did, but it wasn’t photos he’d seen a book.

These were like you know, kodak photos that someone took at a home gathering and they were of george carpanche battle and sikhi uh marcel sudan, and he wanted thousands for them and angelo said to me.

Well, you know, buy it if you want, but for what reason right you don’t know who owns them.

You may not be able to publish them it’s great to have, but you know i didn’t buy them, but um.

It was a fascinating time because in the hall of fame, you can see stuff on sikhi, and you know his gloves exist.

His trunks exist, his raps exist and, thankfully, on youtube.

His fight still exists and if you get a chance to go on youtube, you should check out this fight.

Carpanche became an elder statesman.

He was beloved all over the world fluent in french and english, but i still can’t forgive him for the way he treated sikhi and the fact that his ego was so great.

He thought he could get by with fixing a fight didn’t have to train, because the man he was facing was black and therefore didn’t have the respect of carpanji.

That’S just inexcusable.

You have to respect every opponent you fight and seeking when he you know, went to the states.

The mob just turned them inside out, like it did so many other fighters used them and then got rid of them.

Carpanche was smart enough to fight only for a little more time and then retire with his money and uh remain an elder statesman and a hero to the french people to the day he died 1975.

, so go to youtube.

Watch this fight.

Now the great thing about this fight on youtube is, you can get the whole fight all six rounds and it’s not like sun fights fights 1922.

But it’s not like some fights from that era, where the film is sped up and the fighters are like that and it doesn’t make any sense.

It’S actually in real time.

The way you would see a fight today, which makes it really a lot more fascinating, and then you see you know after the fourth round.

I think once you see the shop or during the fourth round, run to see his corners screaming and then running back.

So it’s a great fight to watch.

I i you know.

I watched it the other day for the first time in a couple years, if you get a chance, get peter benson’s book uh battling seeking it’s a wonderful book, and it just gives you a really full appraisal and biography of his life and it’s well worth reading.

Sikhi deserves to be remembered.

I don’t know people have asked if you do.

Let me know, i don’t know what happened to his son that he had in france with the dutch woman, um uh louis junior was born in 1922, but i’ve been researching.

It haven’t found anything yet so go on youtube, watch the fight, and let me know what you think i hope you enjoyed today’s version of ring talk, i’m lou eisen and enjoy the rest of your day, and we will see you here again at 2 p.

m.

Next sunday take