Senegalese wrestling: Balla Gaye 2 against Boy Niang and young peril
Balla Gaye 2 and Boy Niang face each other on January 1, 2023 at Senegal's national arena.
© Photos: Cheikh M. Seck / RFI - Montage RFI
Text by: Ndiasse Sambe Follow
4 mins
Against Boy Niang, Balla Gaye 2, one of the greatest current champions of Senegalese wrestling, ex-king of the arenas, will face, for the first time, a younger opponent, full of talent and ambitions.
A high-risk fight, this January 1, for the one who had put an end to the reign of the giant Yékini.
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Ten years ago, on an April afternoon, the struggle with Senegalese strikes experienced an earthquake.
Yékini, undisputed king of the arenas, with 15 years of invincibility, was struck down by Balla Gaye 2. At 26, the wrestler from Guèdiawaye, talented, attractive, fiery, with overflowing ambition, became, for the occasion, the most young king of the arenas.
Ten years later, Balla Gaye 2 is no longer king, but it has kept its power of seduction with crowds and promoters.
The essential promoter Gaston Mbengue offered him, for this fight, a fee of 100 million CFA francs (150,000 euros).
Today, after retiring former players (Yékini, Tyson, Balla Bèye 2), taming the ambitions of wrestlers of his generation like Modou Lô, here is Balla Gaye 2 facing a young wolf, Boy Niang,
It is true that the age difference is minimal (36 for Balla Gaye, 33 for Boy Niang), but BG2 can no doubt see in Boy Niang everything that carried him towards his challenge against Baboye, Tyson or Yékini: the hunger, ambition, glory at hand.
Moustapha Guèye:
"Bala Gaye has everything to lose"
The weight of the years has often been fatal to the champions of the Senegalese arena.
Moustapha Guèye, Tiger of Fass, remembers well his face-to-face with Mohamed Tyson, a new phenomenon, when he, former king of the arenas, had his years of glory behind him.
“
I was 11 years older than Tyson, and I had everything to lose.
Tyson, he had the wind in his sails.
He had beaten great wrestlers and beating me was a resounding performance for him.
It is true that Tyson's victory over Tapha Gueye was to propel the wrestler from Boul Falé as the new king of the arenas, before, a few years later, a young man named Balla Gaye 2 also came to play the youth card.
Moustapha Guèye, also a victim of the wrestler from Guédiawaye, warns him: "
It's true that Balla Gaye is of the same generation as Boy Niang, but he must remember the feeling, the momentum he had when he was meeting older wrestlers.
Once again, he is the one who has everything to lose in this fight.
If he wins, people will say it's logical, if he is defeated, Boy Niang will take a good part of his aura
”.
The unmissable Pikine-Guédiawaye derby
But beyond the desire to put an ambitious young man in his place, Balla Gaye will have another motivation: that of avenging his younger brother, Sa Thiès, beaten two years ago by Boy Niang.
Even if he denies fighting with any feeling of revenge, Balla Gaye knows that all Guédiawaye will be behind him to wash away the affront made by a Pikinois.
Because that is still what it will be about.
A Guédiawaye-Pikine fight, two neighboring suburbs, two bastions of Senegalese wrestling, which claim the prize for the best school.
Each of the wrestlers had casualties in the ranks of the other.
Boy Niang has six victories against fighters from Guédiawaye, including a good match against Gouye-Gui.
Balla Gaye 2, too, can boast of having six Pikinois on its hunting list, even if it is struggling to pin the most prestigious of them: Eumeu Sène.
This one made him bite the dust twice.
In July, will take place the act 3 between the latter and BG2…
In the meantime, the son of Double Less, who remains on a defeat against Bombardier, a year ago, and a narrow victory against Gris Bordeaux, in August 2022, will have every reason to be wary of Boy Niang, who also plays big .
The young wrestler succeeded in integrating the restricted circle of wrestling VIPs, a category reserved for the best wrestlers, the most
bankable
, who can inflate their fees to enter the arena.
But "
after losing to two VIPs, Tapha Tine and Lac de Guiers 2, Boy Niang no longer has a choice, in the event of defeat, he will have to leave the ranks of the VIPs
", warns Abdoulaye Dembélé, journalist, specialist in the fight.
No doubt that, this January 1 at the National Arena, Balla Gaye 2 will be happy to eject it.
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