Sakio Bika
Do any of the forum members here think that Sakio Bika doesn't get the attention, praise and adulation he deserves? Amongst boxing fans in OZ, the general public, media and forums (including this one) he seems to not be on the radar a lot of the time. Why people still continue to give Mundine more of their time and hard earned is beyond me when you have a more credentialled and fearless aussie fighter doing what fighters are supposed to do. If you break down his career so far, how could you not consider this guy to be the truest fighter in OZ. Current boxers who I think are the best and realest fighters are Vic Darchinyan, Michael Katsidis, Nader Hamdan, Hussein Hussein and Sakio Bika. All willing to travel, box whoever and if they are going to go down.....they go down fighting. When the most of the boxing public think of those guys mentioned, they think tough guys who like to brawl and swing hard. But anyone who knows a little something about boxing knows that they are fine boxers too. When you break it down, they are stubborn, hard headed guys who love to fight but they can just as easily box your ears off too. I say good luck to this Mundine guy and his bank account. He is playing a game and winning it well. But in the history books and the eyes of real boxing fans, is he being a real fighter? How many of these "real fighters" do we have in this country at the moment?
Anyway I did a quick breakdown on Sakio's career so far, thanks to boxrec and fights I've seen.

1999-2000 All-African Amateur Boxing Champion. I'd say being the Champion and beating all the other tough boxers in Africa wouldn't be an easy task.

2000 Sydney Olympics representing Cameroun

2002 Fought in Sam Solimans BACKYARD (Melbourne), losing a 12 round majority decision which I thought Sakio won.

2003 Won first Australian Title

2004 Fought in Yoshihiro Araki's BACKYARD (Japan), winning OPBF middleweight title 10round TKO.

2005 Fought in Yoshihiro Araki's BACKYARD (Japan)(Rematch), winning/defending OPBF title 5 round KO

2006 Fought in Markus Beyers BACKYARD (Germany), resulting in a 4 round technical draw. Sakio was on top, hurt Beyer and the Germans knew it of course.

2006 Fought in Joe Calzaghe's BACKYARD (UK), losing 12 round points decision. Even Calzaghe said it was one of his toughest fights ever.

2007 Flew to Mikkel Kessler's BACKYARD (Denmark) for 4 weeks sparring after Kesslers previous sparring partners flew home within the first couple of days.

2007 Fought in Lucian Bute's BACKYARD (Canada) losing 12 round points decision. Many don't know that Sakio jumped in a pool 2 days before the fight, thinking it was the shallow
end as he couldn't swim. It was in fact the deep end and he had to be saved while he was fighting to get above water. Fighting 2 days after you nearly drowned and lost your
life wouldn't help your mental state!

2007 Fought in Jaidon Codrington's BACKYARD (USA east coast) winning the Contender title against the odds TKO 8. Plenty of people didn't want Sakio to win and made his time
there more difficult than Jaidon's. That's for sure! Jaidon still hasn't recovered one year and one fight later. Many want him to retire already.

2008 Fought in Peter Manfredo's BACKYARD (Providence, RI, USA) smashing Manfredo into retirement. TKO 3. IBO World title.

One of the points I'm trying to make here is that Sakio genuinely puts his heart, body, head and boxing ability against anyone and fears not about challenging them in their backyard. He might have lost a couple, but look who it was to and look where he is at now. Still there, still fearless, still putting his ability to the test. Trying the hard way to make a better life for his family. Big respect for that.
Personally I think Sakio deserves much more attention and support from the Aussie public. I'd pay $50 to watch him over paying $50 to watch mismatches. Anyone have any thoughts?

30th Nov. 2008

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