Marcel Cerdan

Marcel Cerdan
Data
Birth Name	Marcel Cerdan
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	French
birthday	July 22, 1916
place of birth	Sidi bel Abbès
Date of death	October 28, 1949
Place of death	São Miguel , Azores , Portugal
size	1.73 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	115
Victories	111
Knockout victories	65
Defeats	4th

Marcel Cerdan (born July 22, 1916 in Sidi bel Abbès , Algeria ; † October 28, 1949 in São Miguel , Azores , Portugal ) was a French professional boxer and world middleweight champion.

Life

Cerdan began his professional career in 1934. He fought his first fights in Morocco and Algeria. In February 1938 he won the French welterweight championship. He suffered his first defeat in his 46th professional fight in January 1939 against the British Harry Craster due to a disqualification in the fifth round. On June 3, 1939, he won the European Championship in Milan against the Italian local hero Saverio Turiello by winning points over 15 rounds.

During World War II he served in the Navy until the defeat in 1940 and then boxed in Nazi-occupied Paris . After a victory in a defense of his European title against the Spanish champion José Ferrer by technical knockout in the first round, he sat abroad. He won two tournaments with the Allied troops.

After the war he was again French champion in November 1945 and European champion again on February 2, 1947. He lost the European title in his third defense in May 1948 to the Belgian Cyrille Delannoit . It was only his third defeat in the 110th professional fight and his first on points, before he had only lost two fights by disqualification. The direct rematch against Delannoit two months later, he won on points. In the same year he was voted France's Sportsman of the Year (“ Champion des champions ”) by the sports newspaper L'Équipe .

Marcel Cerdan was middleweight world champion in 1948 and 1949. On September 21, 1948, he defeated Tony Zale , a famous American veteran in a fight for the title , who then ended his career. Cerdan, who was already 32 years old at the time, was offered a film role as a lover of Mae West . But he lost the title in his first title defense against Jake LaMotta . In the first round of this fight, Cerdan was injured in a wrestling bout in the shoulder and could only fight with one arm. Then on lap ten he gave up.

A revenge had to be postponed due to an injury on LaMotta's side. He gained particular popularity because of his relationship with France's chanson star Édith Piaf . On the way to Piaf in New York , he was killed in a plane crash on Monte Redondo in the Azores at the age of 33.

Cerdan was married to Marinette Lopez and had three children.

In 1991, Cerdan was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame . Léon Mathot's life became the fable for the screenplay L'Homme aux mains d'argile (1949, German  The man with hands made of clay ). In this film as well as in Mario Monicellis and Stenos Only You Are My Dream (1949) Cerdan played roles.

Web links

• www.marcelcerdan.com Official homepage
• Marcel Cerdan in the BoxRec database
• Marcel Cerdan in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Marcel Cerdan . In: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 43/1949 of October 17, 1949 (accessed via Munzinger Archive )
2. ↑ The dates that shaped his life on the official homepage

predecessor	Office	successor
Tony Zale	World middleweight boxing champion September 21, 1948 - June 16, 1949	Jake LaMotta