On This Day: Kid Charol Remembered

By Peter Silkov

Kid Charol, which translates as Patent Leather Kid, is a legendary figure in Cuban boxing history, and regarded as Cuba’s first boxing star. Born, Esteban Gallard, on January 11, 1901, in Sagua La Grande, Cuba.

The popularity of boxing exploded in Cuba after Jack Johnson’s ill-fated defence of his World heavyweight championship against ‘white hope’ Jess Williard in Havana, on April 5^th, 1915. While the fight with Willard ended in a disastrous (and controversial) defeat for Johnson, along with the loss of his world title, the event itself caused a feverish breakout in popularity for boxing amongst the Cubans, especially amongst the young men who suddenly saw a way to escape from the poverty in which most of them lived.

Little is known about Kid Charol’s early years, but he would have been 14 years old when Johnson fought Willard in Havana, and it's not hard to imagine that, like many other Cuban men, he was inspired to take up the sport after seeing all the publicity that surrounded the build up and aftermath of the Johnson vs Willard match, especially when seeing how a coloured man like Johnson could lift himself up to riches and fame through boxing.

It is not known precisely when Charol had his first fight, and it is likely that he took part in at least some of the ‘semi-professional’ contests which became so popular in Cuba at that time. His first appearance as a professional in a verified contest was in 1922, and his talent was clear from the beginning. Charol was soon generating rave reviews from anyone who saw him fight. Fighting as a welterweight, and later a middleweight, Charol had the kind of talent that allowed him to do anything in the ring. He was an all-round boxer, with strong technique, speed and punching power. In many ways, the kind of prototype that would be used as a model for so many of the Cuban greats in the years to come.

Charol’s actual professional career was relatively short, lasting just seven years, due to his tragically early death. Yet he fitted in a lot of fighting in those seven years, although despite many invitations, Charol never fought in America. Instead he stayed in Cuba and South America, becoming a huge draw wherever he fought. On March 15, 1924, Charol won the Cuban middleweight title, by knocking out Rafael Fello Rodriguez in the 5^th round. Charol would never lose this title in the ring, and was soon regarded as untouchable amongst his fellow Cuban middleweights.

Charol's ability was such that he soon had to take on light-heavyweights in order to stay active, as many fighters were not inclined to meet him in the ring.

Kid Charol pictured with Kid Tunero (right)

The names on Charol’s record included Enrique Ponce De Leon, Kid Campilo, Clemente Sanchez, Rafael Fello Rodriguez, Jimmy Finley, Homer Robertson, Bearcat Reid, Alex Rely, Peter Sung, Larry Estridge, Ricardo Alis, Panama Joe Gans, Alberto Icochea, Luis Galtieri, Mario Bosisio, Michele Bonaglia, Ko Brissett, and Dave Shade.

Despite his ability, Charol never got to fight for a world title. This is undoubtedly at least partly due to the racial atmosphere of the times, when coloured fighters were often avoided by the world's top contenders and champions (who were often white.) The fact that Charol was so good was also a reason why many of the world's best never faced him. At the same time, Charol didn’t help his cause by refusing to travel to America to fight. Yet perhaps his disinclination to go to America was down to the racial atmosphere that he would certainly be aware existed there at the time.

Indeed why would Charol want to go to America when he was already a hero in Cuba and all around South America. Eventually Charol moved to Argentina to live, where he became an adopted hero with the Argentine fight fans.

Unfortunately, Charol's health started to fail by 1926, when he was still barely at his athletic peak. Possibly exacerbated by his love of the nightlife, and burning the candle of life at both ends, Charol had contracted tuberculosis.

With the brave stubbornness of a fighter, Charol continued to fight even as his condition worsened. Before his last fight, against the brilliant Dave Shade on April 30, 1929, Charol had to drag himself up from a hospital bed. Yet he still managed to secure a 12-round draw with a man whom many at the time regarded as being the uncrowned middleweight champion of the world.

Kid Charol II at the grave of Kid Charol

This was Charol’s final appearance in the ring. He died less than 5 months later, on October 7, 1929, three months before his 29^th birthday.

Despite his early death, and abbreviated career, Charol would inspire a generation of future Cuban boxers, including Black Bill, Kid Chocolate and Charol’s own protégé, Ramon Castillo ‘The Cuban Baron’.

Charol’s final verified record was (53-3-10, 34koes) he was only beaten three times during his professional career, and was never stopped. 

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The Nonpareil: The Original Jack Dempsey

Remembering…Nonpareil Jack Dempsey
December 15, 1862 - November 2, 1895

By Peter Silkov

Long Before the ‘Manassa Mauler’ Jack Dempsey reigned as World heavyweight champion in the 1920s, there was ‘Nonpareil’ Jack Dempsey. This Dempsey was considered one of the greatest boxers ever seen, pound-for-pound. Fast and clever, with a good punch, Dempsey was a boxer-puncher who was decades ahead of his time in his ring generalship. Dempsey could adapt to any style of opponent, and in his prime, he ranked only below heavyweight champion John L Sullivan in fame and popularity. Technically, he was a far greater fighter than Sullivan, and many boxing followers at that time believed that he would be able to beat Sullivan if he was just a stone or so heavier than the 152 pounds, which he weighed at his prime. Fans gave him the name "Nonpareil" because he was considered unrivaled in his fistic prowess.

Nonpareil was the first internationally recognized World Middleweight champion, and helped bring acceptance and recognition to the middleweight division at a time when the heavyweights dominated boxing.

Dempsey was born in Curran, County Kildare, Ireland, on December 15, 1862, but grew up in Brooklyn, New York, after his family moved to America while he was still very young. Dempsey’s real name was John Edward Kelly, and it is not clear why he changed his name to Jack Dempsey, but it is likely to be because he did not want his family to know that he was boxing. After training to be an apprentice Cooper, Dempsey began to box for pay in 1883. 

In just over a year, Dempsey had picked up the Lightweight championship of New York and then the Lightweight Championship of America. On February 3, 1886, Dempsey knocked out John Forgarty out in the 27th round to win the Middleweight Championship of America. One month later, The Nonpareil knocked out George Lablanche in the 13th round, and gained recognition as the World middleweight champion. Dempsey was to hold this title until 1891. In August 1899, Dempsey was knocked out in the 32nd round by George Lablanche, but retained his status as the World middleweight champion as Lablanche had weighed in for the fights at 161 pounds, over the middleweight limit. Lablanche had also knocked Dempsey out with the illegal ‘pivot’ punch. Other than this dubious setback, Dempsey reigned supreme at middleweight until January 14th, 1891, when Bob Fitzsimmons shockingly beat him in 13 rounds. In what was a sensational result at the time, the gangling and freckled Fitzsimmons handed Dempsey a terrible beating, and the Nonpareil gave a great exhibition of courage to last as long as he did, before he was finally pulled out by his corner-men in the 13th round.

Fitzsimmons would go on to become one of the greatest fighters in the ring, and the first man to win world titles at 3 weights, however for Dempsey, it was all tragically downhill after his defeat by Fitzsimmons. After he lost his world championship, Dempsey’s life went into a downward spiral, he started to drink heavily, and then contracted Tuberculosis. He would fight just 3 more times, winning once. His last fight was on January 18 1895, against the Welterweight world champion, Tommy Ryan. Dempsey’s condition and display in the ring was so poor that he was unmercifully jeered and booed from the ring after the fight had been mercifully stopped in the 3rd round. Nine months later, on November 2 (some sources say Nov 1st) 1895, the Nonpareil died of tuberculosis, at just 32.

Nonpareil Jack Dempsey’s final record was 54(23koes)-4-11.

Copyright © 2015 The Boxing Glove, Inc. Peter Silkov Art. All Rights Reserved. Peter Silkov contributes to www.theboxingglove.com

TBG Book Review: Battling Ski by Peter Benson

 

The Boxing Glove Sunday Night Book Review by Peter Silkov

“Battling Siki: A Tale of Ring Fixes, Race & Murder in the 1920s”  By Peter Benson.

 “A lot of newspaper people have written that I have a jungle-style of fighting, that I am a chimpanzee, who has been taught to wear gloves. That kind of thing hurts me. I was never anywhere, but in a big city, in my life. I have never even seen a jungle.” Battling Siki

The life story of Battling Siki is one of the darkest and most dramatic of any world champion in boxing’s long history.  Dark, because of the tragedy, which his life became, and because of the thick cloak of rumour, myth, and mystery that surround both his life, death, and his boxing career.

In “Battling Siki: A Tale of Ring Fixes, Race & Murder in the 1920s” Peter Benson explores the life and career of one of boxing’s most notorious and misunderstood champions.  Siki rose to fame and won the World light-heavyweight championship, but found only persecution and disdain as champion.   Just a little over three years after he won the world title from Georges Carpentier, Siki was found dead in a dark alley in New York’s ‘Hells Kitchen’, his turbulent life ended by two bullets in the back.

Born Amadou M’Barick Fall on September 16, 1897, (though his exact birth date has also been a subject of dispute) in Saint Louis, Senegal, he would later call himself Louis Phal, and fight under the name of Battling Siki.  From early on, Fall’s life seemed destined to be removed from the ordinary.  When he was around 10 years of age, Fall was ‘adopted’ by a wealthy woman, who may have been either Dutch or German (and either a dancer or an actress) and taken with her to France. For a while, she dressed and fed him and taught him to read, before suddenly disappearing from his life.  As with many aspects of his life, Siki’s benefactress is a mysterious figure, and there are many conflicting stories about how and why she took Siki under her wing, and also why she eventually either abandoned him, or was forced to leave him behind.  Left to fend for himself, Siki went through a range of menial jobs, before eventually coming across boxing.

Siki’s professional boxing career started when he was barely 15 years old, and despite its mediocre beginnings, his early record was just 6-7-2. With the interruption of the 1st World War in which he fought and was awarded medals for bravery, would eventually lead him to the World light-heavyweight championship in 1922.Siki was the first coloured fighter to win a world title since the fall of Jack Johnson, and he was the first African to win a world championship in the sport’s history.

When he went from a boxing unknown, to World light-heavyweight champion, after beating French idol George Carpentier in front of his own adoring French fans, Siki became an overnight sensation.  Unfortunately, almost immediately his achievement was swallowed up by a tremendous backlash of malignant publicity.  The fight itself was controversial, with rumours that Siki had agreed to ‘lay down’ for Carpentier, only to change his mind midfight.  The press generally was horrified by Siki’s victory over Carpenteir, and immediately began to attack Siki with a mixture of ridicule and condemnation, and with the strong racist overtones plain for everyone to see.

Siki, who was a come-forward, free-swinging slugger, was depicted as a savage figure straight out of the jungle.

"Even Siki’s own manager, Charlie Hellers was quick to point out the fighter’s “gorilla’s skill and manners” to reporters. “He’s a scientific ape,” Hellers said. “Just imagine an ape that has learned to box and you have Battling Siki.” http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-fight-that-wouldnt-stay-fixed-126493491/?no-ist
Siki was described either as a ‘savage’ or a ‘clown’ and an illiterate, who grunted and rolled his eyes in the ring, and was barely able to speak.  Siki’s cause was not helped by the fact that his character was not of the shy and retiring type, he was more Jack Johnson in personality, than Tiger Flowers. 

Confronted by a wave of negative publicity almost from the minute that he had won his world title, the new champion, rather than bow down and try to hide away, began to revel in his notoriety and fame. He indulged in long nights of drinking, partying, and walking through the streets of Paris with his pet lions and loaded guns. The press quickly jumped upon this aspect of his personality, which along with his colour, made him even more of a threat to modern civilization in their eyes.

Add to this, Siki’s cardinal sin of being married to a white woman, and soon he was being viewed as great a menace, as Jack Johnson ever was before him.  In the end, even the generally more tolerant French press and public turned on Siki, still shocked and devastated by the fall of their beloved George Carpentier to the hands of a savage.

Siki’s reign as world champion was short and turbulent, with Siki getting in more trouble and fights outside the ring, than inside it. The world championship soon proved to be a poisoned chalice for Siki, who found himself unable to get a fight of any kind, as the boxing authorities around the world turned upon him.  When he did finally secure a place to defend his world title, six months after he had won it, Siki found himself defending his world title in Ireland against an Irishman, Mike McTigue, on St Patrick’s day, in the midst of a civil war.

It almost goes without saying that after the fight had traveled the full 20 rounds, to the sound of constant gunfire outside the building, it was McTigue’s hand that was raised in victory, and Siki left Ireland shorn of his world crown. Many writers over the years have used the story of Siki's St. Patrick’s Days world title defence, in Ireland, against an Irishman, as an illustration of the Senegalese fighter’s lack of intelligence. The truth is that Siki had no other options of fighting and defending his title anywhere else.

Being an ex-world champion did not bring Siki peace from the constant barbs of the press and public in general.  If anything, it intensified the ridicule that he had to endure daily.  Struggling to find fights, he went to America, where his reputation deepened further, as did his wild and reckless nightlife.  By the time he was shot dead in Hell’s Kitchen, Siki’s boxing career was more or less finished, as he had suffered a trail of damaging defeats.  Siki’s greatest achievement in the ring had brought him only personal and professional ruin.

Peter Benson goes through Siki’s life meticulously, trying to separate fact from fiction, exposing the virulent abuse that Siki had to suffer for his achievements, and his wish not to bow down to the constraints of his time.  Siki emerges from this book as a colourful and extrovert character, who found himself, overwhelmed by the mixture of fascination and repulsion, that his exploits generated.  It’s easy to see that Siki’s non-stop carousing was at least in part an effort to block out the reality of the hostility that he had to deal with every day.  He was also stuck in a vicious circle of needing to play on his infamy, as it was the only way in which he could gain fights, and earn money.

More than anything, he was a victim of the racism of the day. He did not have the kind of character to weather the barbs of his time, unlike Tiger Flowers and Joe Louis later on.  Instead, Siki tried to snub his nose at his detractors, in a manner much like Jack Johnson, but unlike Johnson, was in the end overwhelmed by the reputation that he and his detractors had created. 

Siki comes alive in these pages, and the reader finds himself sympathizing with his plight, and admiring his courage. This is an absorbing and engaging portrait of a fighter who has, until now, been much maligned and misunderstood. It is also a searing documentary of the times, and the prejudice’s and hostility that fighters of colour had to deal with on a daily basis.  Most of them dealt with their situation with quiet stoicism. Those that dared to stand up and try to break the constraints of their time ended up like Battling Siki.

Perhaps most poignant in this biography is Siki’s plea that he is not an ignorant beast.  “A lot of newspaper people have written that I have a jungle-style of fighting, that I am a chimpanzee, who has been taught to wear gloves. That kind of thing hurts me. I was never anywhere, but in a big city, in my life. I have never even seen a jungle.” In the end, however, he seemed to give up on himself as he fell into a steady decline of drinking and getting into constant scrapes with the New York police.

“Battling Siki” is made complete by a collection of rare photographs of Siki.  This is a haunting biography that will appeal to any boxing fan wishing to explore the life of one of the ring’s most tragic and enigmatic figures. 

Copyright © 2015 The Boxing Glove, Inc. Peter Silkov Art. All Rights Reserved. Peter Silkov contributes to www.theboxingglove.com and www.theboxingtribune.com