2013 has been an unbelievable year for our only current world champion. Sakio can hold his head high after accomplishing a few things in the past 12 months: February: He was ordered to fight Nicola Sjekloca (25-0) in a WBC Eliminator which he won, thus becoming the official #1 ranked fighter in the WBC. June: He was ordered to fight Marco Antonio Periban (20-0) for the vacant WBC Super Middleweight World Title, which he won and became Australia's newest world champion. December: He was ordered to fight Anthony Dirrell (26-0) in his first defense of the WBC title, which was declared a draw with Sakio retaining his world title as champion. Not many people can say they fought for the chance to be ranked #1 in the world and won. Fewer can say that in their next fight they won a world title and to finish off the year by defending and keeping the title is something special. What also makes it special is that Sakio fought the guys they wanted him to fight without hesitation with every opponent being undefeated and having a combined record of 71-0. He came and he conquered and finishes the year as our only champion. I think 2013 has been a huge year for Sakio Bika and it is now written in history. This is my Salute to a champion.
It's a great effort alright. What is amazing is that Sakio's first shot at the WBC title was in June 2006 against Markus Beyer and 7 years later he finally won it in June 2013. During those 7 years Sakio remained a top ten super middleweight and fought: Joe Calzaghe 41-0 Lucian Bute 19-0 Sam Soliman 34-9 Jaidon Codrington 18-1 Peter Manfredo 31-5 Jean-Paul Mendy 28-0-1 Andre Ward 22-0 Dyah Davis 22-2-1 Nikola Sjeckloca 25-0 Marco Antonio Periban 20-0 Anthony Dirrell 26-0 There were other "lesser" well known fighters in between also but Sakio's longevity at the top is something to be proud of. Ring magazine has had him in the top ten for 346 weeks now, pretty much 7 years. Incredible effort I would say and I can't wait to see Sakio chase the big fights in 2014.
Surely Bika vs Kessler has to happen. It wouldn't be to hard to sell this match-up. It'd be a candidate for fight of the decade
Would be if he was a drug dealer. On a serious note, IMO he needs a good publicity person, how would forever knock-up pressers for media. ATM, Brendon Smith is doing a top job for his team. Adam This content is protected (had to spell it as such for this site) is also doing a good job for guys he manages
Fenech? Lester Ellis? Barry Michael? Kostya? Vic? All well known people I this country especially Syd and melb
Fenech, Ellis, Michael and Kostya are from eras when boxing was popular among the general population and they are widely known because they were seen on TV and in the newspapers on a regular basis and over a period of many years. That isn't the case now and of today's fighters only Mundine and Green would turn heads in a crowd. Other recent Aussie winners of world titles would go unnoticed except by real boxing fans.
