Early Years
He was born Baye Fall in the port city of Saint-Louis, Senegal. While still a teenager, Siki changed his name, and moved to metropolitan France, where, by the age of 15, he began his professional boxing career. Siki's early years were inauspicious. From 1912 to 1914 he compiled a record of just 8 wins, 6 losses and 2 draws.
When World War I erupted, Siki joined the French army. During the war he was decorated for bravery in battle, and honorably discharged.
Read more about this topic: Battling Siki
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“I got a little secretarial job after college, but I thought of it as a prelude. Education, work, whatever you did before marriage, was only a prelude to your real life, which was marriage.”
—Bonnie Carr (c. early 1930s)
“Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong lands swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;”
—Henry Holcomb Bennett (18631924)