A Fighting Frenchman

Yesterday I watched La Môme (a.k.a. La Vie en Rose), a sad film about the sad life of Édith Piaf. Watching the film, I was reminded that Piaf had an affair with boxer Marcel Cerdan, a French pied-noir.

Cerdan won several boxing titles as a welterweight and middleweight, including the world middleweight championship. Cerdan's career came to a tragic end in October 1949, when he was killed in a plane crash while enroute to meet Piaf in New York, where she was then performing.

Having been reminded of Cerdan, it occurred to me that he may have been the last Frenchman who (a) fought and (b) won.