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He has known Olympic podiums, WBC Silver belts, and gala nights in Malabo. At 35, Souleymane Cissokho has little left to prove in the ring. All the more reason, perhaps, to hang up the gloves and look around him. What he sees does not please him. In a statement picked up on July 30 by several French media outlets, the bronze medalist from the Rio Games is sounding the alarm about the state of French boxing.
"Boxing has failed to evolve," he asserts. The observation is harsh, but Cissokho backs it up without mincing words: lack of professionalism in clubs, lack of media visibility, inability to train a new generation of champions capable of filling arenas and attracting broadcasters.
The figures are not cited in Cissokho's intervention, but the decline is palpable.
A sport losing momentum
The figures are not cited in Cissokho's intervention, but the decline is palpable. France, which ten years ago still fielded top-billed boxers in several categories—from welterweights to heavyweights, including super-middleweights—today struggles to place its representatives in world championship fights. Christian Mbilli, undefeated in super-middleweight and scheduled for a WBC showdown against Hamzah Sheeraz, stands out as an exception in an otherwise sparse landscape.
Cissokho knows the path better than anyone. Himself the official WBC welterweight challenger since his resounding victory in May 2025 in Equatorial Guinea—a fight where he went to the canvas twice before turning the tide—he measures the gap that separates the demands of the highest international level from the realities of the Hexagon.
Outdated clubs, training that stalls
The boxer points to a structural problem: amateur or semi-professional clubs that lack the infrastructure, the coaching, and the means to accompany a talent to a world title. "We need seriousness, rigor, a real professional structure around the boxer," he insisted. The French model, still largely based on a historic associative network, has not made the transition that modern boxing requires.
The diagnosis echoes the one already made by L'Équipe in December 2025 in a special report on ambitious French boxers. The French federation has initiated reforms, but the effects are slow to show in the ring. The contrast is striking with nations like the United Kingdom or Mexico, where every budding champion benefits from a well-oiled ecosystem, from sparring partners to nutritionists, including promoters who invest early.
A voice that matters
At 35, Cissokho is not an old-timer rambling. He still boxes, he still wins, and he is preparing for the most important fight of his career for a WBC world title. When an athlete of this caliber speaks up to say the house is on fire, the federation and the Ministry of Sports would be wrong not to listen.
French boxing has known cycles. It has had its Tiozzo, its Mormeck, its Yoka. The question remains whether Cissokho is speaking into the void, or if he is the first stone of a wake-up call. In the meantime, he boxes. And that, no one can take away from him.