{"product_id":"9781557288165","title":"Battling Siki: A Tale of Ring Fixes, Race, and Murder in The 1920s","description":"Battling Siki (1887-1925) was once one of the four or five most  recognizable black men in the world, and was written about in detail  by such figures as Ring Lardner and his son John, Damon Runyon, and  Westbrook Pegler. One can find his legacy in the name of a popular  rock group,  one of Che Guevara's lieutenants, a character on Xena,  Warrior Princess, and the Battling Siki Hotel in the fighter's  homeland, Senegal. Peter Benson's biography of the first African to  win a world championshipin boxing delves into the complex world of  sports, race, colonialism, and the cult of personality in the early  twentieth century.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  Born Baye Phal, Siki was taken from Senegal to France by an  actress and assumed the name Louis M'barick Fall. After an  inauspicious beginning as a boxer, he served in World War I with  distinction then returned to boxing and compiled a most impressive  record (forty-three wins in forty-six bouts). Then, on September 24,  1922, at Paris's Buffalo Velodrome, before forty thousand stunned  spectators (including a young Ernest Hemingway, who wrote about the  fight), Battling Siki, employing his trademark \"windmill\" punch,  fought and defeated the reigning world and European light heavyweight  champion, Georges Carpentier.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  The colorful Siki embarked on a rampage of partying and  carousing, often firing his pistols in the air, and spending his  fortune on drinks, women, and exotic animals. He was frequently seen  on the streets of Paris, dressed in flashy clothes, walking his pet  tiger on a leash. Offers rushed in for him to fight in the United  States, maybe even against Jack Dempsey. But in a move many have  called one of the strangest a fighter ever made, he fought Irishman  Mike McTigue in Dublin on St. Patrick's Day-and lost.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  After losing his European title he came to the United States  and fought without much success. He continued to drink and get into  street brawls. On the evening of December 15, 1925, at the age of  twenty-eight, he was shot and killed in Hell's Kitchen in what some  claimed was a gangland execution.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  Peter Benson's biography beautifully captures Battling Siki's  amazing boxing career and sheds new light on the scandal surrounding  his marriages and public behavior, his alleged participation in ring  fixes, and the mystery surrounding his death.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e  Peter Benson is associate professor of English at Fairleigh Dickinson  University and the author of Black Orpheus, Transition, and Modern  Cultural Awakening in Africa. He has been a Visiting Fulbright  Professor at the University of Dakar, University of Nairobi, and  Kenyatta University.","brand":"University of Arkansas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47056197091568,"sku":"9781557288165","price":32.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781557288165_p0.jpg?v=1763756545","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781557288165","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}