IHe is unanimously considered the greatest French boxer of all time. With 108 victories in 110 fights, Marcel Cerdan was one of the first great icons of French sport, if not the first. As he became world middleweight champion in September 1948, following his resplendent victory over Tony Zale, his popularity knew no bounds. Likewise, his relationship with Edith Piaf brings him into a new dimension, beyond sport. The “Moroccan bomber” embodied the perfect champion, already at ease in his communication and spectacular on the rings. His brutal death in a plane crash still arouses strong emotions, 73 years later.
A defeat still shrouded in mystery
This sudden disappearance comes at a time when Marcel Cerdan is in a rather unprecedented situation in his career: that of being in the shoes of the defeated. A few months after his victory over Zale, the 33-year-old boxer must defend his belt against Jake LaMotta, a rising but controversial American boxing star. The shock organized in Detroit on June 16, 1949 will unfortunately not keep all its promises: disturbed in its preparation after a change of manager and a fight advanced by 30 minutes, Marcel Cerdan falls from the start. A shoulder injury caused by his opponent? An unfortunate slip? The versions differ.
If he gives everything to keep his crown, the Frenchman cannot fight forever with such a diminished body, and ends up giving up in the tenth round. Invited on TF1 in 1981, LaMotta described this confrontation with the ardor which characterized him on the rings: “It was a very enthralling but also exciting fight. I must say that we were almost even until the start of the last round. He was a very tough man. He never backed down, he remained firmly planted on his legs. It was a clapper that banged all the way. Nobody was doing any skirmishes. And to conclude with a beautiful posthumous tribute, worthy of the reputation that Cerdan had made in America. “He remains the best fighter that Europe has known. »
The return match postponed by LaMotta
However, not everyone is of the same opinion on this failure and the reasons surrounding it. The son of the French champion, Marcel Cerdan Junior, does not budge: this fight was rigged. “It was arranged for LaMotta,” he told The Team. Nobody wanted to fight my dad anymore, so there was an agreement that there would be three fights. […] I’m sure it was LaMotta who proposed to him, because he was a thug. They won’t get it out of my head that they did business like that. He wasn’t the one who could beat my father. »
The failure of Detroit obviously leaves Cerdan on his hunger. That’s good, the return leg is planned fairly quickly between the two boxers: Madison Square Garden in New York says it is ready to welcome this new clash of the titans at the end of September 1949. Except that, a few days before the fateful date, Jake LaMotta affirms that he was injured in training. Tainted with a sulphurous reputation, did the American lie to keep his title of world champion a little longer? In reality, he wanted a financial extension for this fight. He will prevail.
Returning to Morocco, where he spent his childhood and discovered the world of boxing, Marcel Cerdan is fixed on his fate after a few weeks. His adversary has finally made up his mind: the revenge will take place on December 2 in Manhattan. Sharpened and put back on his feet after his physical glitches, the man with hands of clay is ready. If her clan first thinks of taking the boat to cross the Atlantic and reach America, it is Edith Piaf who urges her lover to join her as soon as possible. It will therefore be the plane and flight F-BAZN of Air France. While the apparatus was complete, the manager of the boxer, Joe Longman, manages to win three places: an American couple and a director of a perfume house agree to leave their seats to Cerdan and his family.
France mourns its champion
Marcel Cerdan will never see New York and Edith Piaf again. The capricious weather forces the pilots to choose the Azores rather than Ireland as a stopover. The plane is heading for the Portuguese archipelago, but it lands on the wrong island: rather than Santa Maria, São Miguel and its heights are in sight. Around 3 a.m. on October 28, 1949, Commander Jean de La Noüe could not avoid Pico Redondo and its 1,150 meters of altitude. The debris from the aircraft was spotted the next morning. Rumor has it that there are survivors, but at 5:30 p.m. the announcement hits all the French radio stations: none of the 48 members on board survived. Marcel Cerdan is no more.
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His disappearance causes a real shock wave. His family also seems cursed: the four Cerdan brothers all died young and accidentally. “His life has been so sad that it is almost too good to be true”, summed up Sacha Guitry. “He was life. He will forever have a special place in our hearts, ”wrote on his side The Team. That same evening, Edith Piaf finds the strength to go on stage to perform “L’Hymne à l’amour”, a song written for her lover and which still resonates in our ears. If he ended his sporting career with a defeat, Marcel Cerdan nevertheless left with universal recognition: in everyone’s mind, he is in the Pantheon of French sport.