Sunday, September 25, 2022

Today -100: September 25, 1922: Of sikis and fezes


A Parisian crowd at the world light heavyweight match of Georges Carpentier and Battling Siki force officials to retract the referee’s decision giving the win to the unconscious Carpentier because of alleged fouling (tripping) by Siki (photos show he didn’t trip him, but Carpentier did commit several fouls). What’s interesting is that Siki is black, from Senegal, but the crowd preferred fair play over race, in contrast, for example, to the riots following the 1910 defeat in the US of James Jeffries by Jack Johnson.

Siki was supposed to throw the match but changed his mind sometime during the fight. Ernest Hemingway, one of the audience members, partly based his 1927 short story “Fifty Grand” on this fight.

The changing circumstances of Turkish military victory has brought a major increase in the demand for fezes in Constantinople. They’re even having to import them from Austria.

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