Battling Siki

Peter Benson's book was good but it really blew up the importance of Siki's career beyond what it really was. Several times he acts like guys like Greb etc were ducking Siki and then out of the other side of his admits Siki wasnt ready to face that level of competition (in fact three different times Greb signed to face Siki and Siki refused the fight. Good book but it falls victim to hero-worship a bit in my opinion.

 

From what i know of Siki, the man was a brawler, not a technical fighter, and was a huge underdog when he won the title

 

BIG DEE HERE= Battling Siki was possibilly the worst fighter ever to fight for the Lt Heavyweight championship in the first half of the 20th century.
His record was built on bums and nobodies as he was fighting guys who were
having their 1st pro fight when Battling Siki was fighting his 50th pro fight
and his whole career was like that as he was set up to fight for a title with
a record that was padded more than any fighter who ever fought for a world title. Battling Siki had two things going for him, (1) he could take an enormous
amount of punishment, he really could take it to the point of being shamful
to let a fighter take as much as he could take. If you think TEX COBB took it
against Larry Holmes then you need to see Battling Siki as he made what Cobb took as a mild ass whipping. Battling Siki took a helluva punch like Cobb.
(2) He threw a great punch as he was a puncher and nothing else and I MEAN NOTHING ELSE AT ALL. Siki couldn`t fight his way out of a cardboard
box without a good punch landed. Siki was a second to third rate fighter and nothing else. Many have tried to make him out to be a great fighter like several modern writers have but they are full of it. Some like these writers have tried to make every black fighter of the times as being great and screwed over. YES THERE WERE MANY AND I AGREE THAT THERE WERE BUT
BATTLING SIKI IS NOT ONE OF THEM AS HE WAS NOT WORLD CLASS.
When he stepped up to the best of the Lt. Heavyweights in the world he was
slaughterd. Georges Carpentier was hit with a haymaker out of left field in the third rd and was never again in the fight as he was out on his feet untill Siki finally stopped him in the 6th rd. No-matter what the record says like a No-Dec fight Siki took a beating in all of them like against Kid Norfolk and Jack Taylor who both gave him a absolute hiding. Paul Berlenbach gave Battling Siki one of the worst beatings ever seen in a NY city ring the fight was total mismatch as Berlenbach literally beat him half to death.

 

I'm inclined to believe in guys like Big Dee and Klompton, as they have been around and studied more in depth these eras. They seem to know their stuff and both seem to agree with each other on his standing as a fighter.

 

BIG DEE HERE= Battling Siki wasn`t any Tiger Flowers who on his worst day would have used Siki as an Everlast bag. Flowers wasn`t a mean fighter
by any means he was a very good middleweight who I have in my top 20 of all time. Unless Battling Siki landed a lucky punch like he did with Carpentier
in the 3rd rd. Tiger Flowers would give him an absolute boxing lesson and a hiding which he regret the next morning ever getting in the ring with Flowers.
A MATTHEW SAAD MUHAMMAD BUT WITHOUT THE SKILLS OF MUHAMMAD.
MATT TOOK A LOT BUT IN HIS PRIME COULD FIGHT WITH THE BEST OF THEM.
SIKI WAS LIKE MATT BUT HAD NO SKILLS AT FIGHTING.

 

Well R.I.P. Battling Siki. he has officially diied twice, never more brutally killed off though than by BIG DEE on this thread! Haha.

Thanks for the insight BTW BIG DEE