Eugene Criqui Name: Eugene Criqui Career Record: click Nationality: French Birthplace: Belleville, France Born: 1893-08-15 Died: 1977-07-03 Age at Death: 83 Stance: Orthodox Height: 5' 4 Reach: 68 Manager: Robert Eudeline Another photo Born in Belleville, France, Eugene Criqui was a successful flyweight, fighting twice for the world title, before joining the French army at the start of World War I. While there, he became a war hero but would have his jaw shattered by a German bullet. His jaw was then rebuilt by adding a silver plate and put back together using plastic. Criqui returned to the boxing ring at the end of the war, changing his style from a slick boxer to a crowding puncher. He would go on to win the World Featherweight Title from Johnny Kilbane in 1923, ending his eleven-year reign, only to lose it to Johnny Dundee fifty-four days later. Criqui continued to fight until 1928, losing along the way to Panama Al Brown in 1927. According to the Ring Magazine: April 1930, p. 56, he had become a popular referee in France. Lincoln State Journal 1923-07-27 CRIQUE CARRIES ON WITHOUT A CHANCE With the same stout heart that carried him thru the horrors of Verdun and the same indomitable will that urged him to grip his bayonet when a shell had removed part of his face, game Eugene Criqui the- Frenchman with the twisted face, passed over the' featherweight championship of the world last night to Johnny Dundee. As he "carried on" under the blue uniform of France when everything seemed lost, so Criqui kept going last night for fifteen rounds when he knew that he couldn't win, even with a bayonet. When he had survived fifteen rounds of cruel and merciless bombardment, he stood unsteadily in the center of the ring, his mouth pouring blood in a stream, his eyes cut and puffed and his twisted face trying to smile and heard the announcer hail Dundee as the "new champion of the world." Criqui Keeps Coming in ' Floored once in the first round for a count of nine, downed three times in the second round as the ten count of the referee was about to -fall on him, beaten all over the ring in every round Criqui kept going and going. "What's holding him up?" A youngster, at the ringside asked. A "sage judge of the supreme court next to him answered: "A heart, my boy, nothing but a heart." There was romance and a moral for sermon in the virtue of patience in the feat of Johnny Dundee, who had after thirteen years of effort been rewarded with a championship, but there was so much tragedy in the downfall of the gamest champion that ever defended a title that the wild partisans of little Dundee went away with a picture that will remain for a long time of that bleeding Frenchman with the twisted smile and the (Shattered jaw. Criqui never had a chance. He won not a single round. He was never close to victory. The right hand that dropped Johnny Kilbane just a little over a month ago never found a target. Round by round from the first to the fifteenth it was one story "Criqui missed and Dundee countered with a left hook and a right to the jaw." To have been a king ,if only for a little more than a day, to have earned just a little money and a reputation for sportsmanship and gameness that will be to his undying credit, are all that Criqui has to take back to his , France, which just a few weeks ago - was celebrating its first real world's championship. Shoved Into the Match. Perhaps America can rejoice that the featherweight championship is back in this country, but there is no occasion to warrant boasting. Criqui was blackjacked into a match with the toughest man in the class before he had a chance to use his title. The Frenchman was poorly handled by his manager. He could have demanded the right to stay away from the Dundee bout for at least six months, but Frenchmen are in awe of American boxing" commissions. Criqui was badly handled last night. "When one of his false teeth had been knocked clear thru his cheek, there was nothing in his corner to stop the flow of blood and his seconds just let , him bleed. He was badly advised and greatly neglected in his corner. Officials estimate the crowd at 32.420 and the receipts at $114,523. Criqui drew 37 1-2 per cent or $42,845, while Dundee's end of 12 1-2 per cent brought him $14,281. Criqui defended his title a little over a month after he had won it. Watch Dundee now and see what he does! The Bee, Danville , VA - 4 June 1923 CRIQUI NEW FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPION; KNOCKED KILBANE OUT IN SIXTH ROUND OF BOUT A lithe-limbed panther like warrior of France, bearing the scars of the fight of fights, boxed and punched his way to dramatic victory and a world championship here today. Eugene Criqui, who came back to the ring after his jaw had stopped a German bullet at Verdun seven years ago, rose to the greatest heights of his pugilistic career when he knocked out Johnny Kilbane, veteran American holder of the world's featherweight crown, in the sixth round of an International battle before a crowd estimated at 25,000 in the Polo grounds. It was a battle of master ring men, Veterans of two continents, but in the end Criqui's greater stamina and ability carried him to triumph. Kilbane who had held the world title for 11 years had a shade the better of the defensive fighting, but at critical moments he was unable to stand the tide of Crlqui's cyclonic attack. The finish came with sensational suddenness in the sixth round and when Kilbane's generalship appeared to have baffled Criqui's fiery onslaught. Time after time he had weathered a storm of rights and lefts to the head and body but Criqui was not to be denied. Starting from his corner in the sixth round with determination in his features he feinted, then whipped in a terrific left to the body that staggered the champion. Kilbane drew away, expecting another left, but Criqui shot in a right to the jaw and sent the American back on his heels and toppling to the canvass. At the count of six Kilbane tried to rise and succeeded in getting on one knee, but groggy and weak, he fell back as Referee Jack Appell tolled off the count of ten. It was the second time in his long ring career that Kilbane had-been counted out.-In 1917, when at the height of this career as featherweight king he went out of his class to meets Benny Leonard, lightweight champion, and was knocked out in the third round. Dramatic ringside scenes followed Criqui’s sudden triumph. The challenger himself, almost stunned by the quickness of, his victory was quickly seized by jubilant seconds. Freeing himself for a .moment, however, he rushed to the fallen title holder's corner and kissed Kilbane on each cheek. Then as the crowd enthusiastically acclaimed the new champion, Criqui was carried from the ring by his manager and several comrades in uniform, who had escorted him, to the ring before the bout to the strains of the "Marseillaise," It was several minutes before the way back to the dressing room could be cleared. The principals in the most picturesque international boxing event, since the Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier battle two year ago, Kilbane and Criqui were a marked contrast. The champion, gray haired and 34 was all smiles as he climbed through the ropes and went through the preliminary ceremonies .Criqui however, apparently in finely drawn conditions was silent and unmoved, a look of determination and his face such as It might have worn before the zero hour as he waited in the front line at Verdun in 1916 . From the first tap of the gong, Criqui’s rugged aggressiveness gave hint of what was to come. Kilbane fought off the Frenchman's rushes cooly and cautiously in the first two rounds, preferring to spar at long range. He clinched repeatedly as Criqui tore in and blocked most of the challenger's rushes from a comparatively slow pace, Criqui plunged and worried the champion with a into a faster clip in the third round series of jabs and hooks to the head and body. Often the challenger missed his swings but his defense left the champion few openings. Kilbane, who was apparently fighting well within himself took the aggressive for a short time in the fourth. He stung the Frenchman with shots to the jaw but the chin that had stopped a bullet proved a durable target and the challenger bored in unchecked. Criqui brought blood from Kilbane’s Nose in the fifth and jolted the champion with hooks to the jaw. Plainly worried Kilbane fought back gamely but found an impregnable defense. The sixth was over almost before it started. Criqui’s fiery attack this time was not to be denied. His two punch assault sent the title holder down after one minute and 54 seconds of the round had elapsed. Criqui's victory was, clean cut and decisive but experts tonight were agreed that Kilbane had shown far from the form that won the featherweight crown for him in 1912 in a twenty round battle with Abe Attell at Los Angeles.