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SAKIO BIKA
(logo)
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| Nickname |
The Scorpion |
| Division |
Super Middleweight |
| Height |
6 ft 1 in (1.85m) |
| Reach |
71" |
| Nationality |
Cameroonian / Australian |
| Age |
32 |
| Date of Birth |
18th April 1979 |
| Place of Birth |
Douala, Cameroon |
| Stance |
Orthodox |
| Hometown |
Sydney, NSW, Australia |
Sakio's beginnings
Sakio was born in the African nation of Cameroon, as one of 9 children. He was originally a keen and talented soccer player but started boxing at 13 years old after seeing a tournament advertising prizes of boxes of household items and thought this would be a great way to help the family get by.
A long and successful amateur boxing career followed. With a total of 140 amateur fights and only 8 losses. Also, Sakio represented Cameroon in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was also the all-African amateur champion in that year.
"The Scorpion": The story behind the nickname
His ring name “The Scorpion” was adopted by Sakio after, as a young boy, he was bitten by a scorpion, common around his home in Cameroon. After several days of illness Sakio recovered and become known as “The Scorpion” to his friends and carried that name into the ring.
Sakio's love for Australia
Sakio fell in love with Australia and an Australian girl after his visit here representing Cameroon at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The All-African Amateur Champion impressed many local boxing judges, officials and participants and decided to stay in Australia, joining Team Fenech. He married Belinda, an engineer, and became a permanent resident in Sydney. Belinda and Sakio have now two sons together.
Sakio received his Australian citizenship in October 06 and has fought his entire professional career from Australia.
Professional career
Bika has logged many impressive wins, winning and defending the Australian Middleweight title five times, the OPBF Middleweight title in Japan, and fighting to a technical draw (accidental head-clash: round 4) against champion Markus Beyer for the WBC Middleweight title in Germany, May 2006.
Sakio has continued to improve as a fighter, lives a healthy, respectable family based lifestyle, and now trains with respected veteran boxing trainer Mark Pitts, as part of his new training and management team. He is managed by Robert Burton of Tough Guy Promotions in conjunction with Angelo Hyder.
However, in 2006, Sakio experienced two unsuccessful world title challenges against the world’s best Super
Middleweight champions, Joe Calzaghe (IBF/WBO Champion) and Markus Beyer (WBC Champion).
The Contender
Sakio was one of the featured boxers on the third season of the U.S reality TV boxing show “The Contender” on US sports channel ESPN, which started in September, 2007. Sakio won against Donny McCrary and Sam Soliman, before earning his place in the final against Jaidon Codrington. On November 6th, after eight round, Sakio knocked out Jaidon Codrington and won the title of
Contender 3.
IBO Super Middleweight Champion
In November 2008, Sakio fought the former Contender 1 contestant Peter Manfredo Jr. and won by TKO in round 3. As a result from this sucess, Sakio became the new International Boxing Organization Super Middleweight champion.
Recent fights
In July 2010, Sakio lost an important fight against Jean Paul Mendy for an IBF Super Middleweight title, by disqualification in the 1st round after hitting Mendy with a knowdown while Mendy was still on his knees. Four months later, Sakio unsuccessfully challenged the WBA Super Middleweight champion Andre Ward, handing him with his fifth loss.
Fight Records
See all Sakio's Fight Records
here.