Surprise etched on his face much like a politician who’d lost a catastrophic bye election.
His entourage, trooping into the stadium exuding confidence, were left bereft and consoling their wrestler who hours earlier was being cheered on by a good section of the crowd.
This was the dramatic scenes greeting ModouLo’s camp after he’d bitten the dust to Balla Gaye II in an intriguing combat.
Balla Gaye, son to erstwhile arena champion Doubless, was coming into the duel on the back of a win over Gris Bordeaux –an unconvincing one at that.
He struggled through that encounter lasting the entire allocate thirty minutes – a break away from his tradition of first round wins wrapping up mainly in under five minutes.
Wrestling in Senegal is a multi-million sport courting million views across not only the Senegambian region but a good section of the world.
Pay-per-view is the new norm installed to maintain a buck-demanding sport which has previously scared off sponsors.
Gone are also the days when athletes did their pre-match rituals in Dakar. Europe is now the place where most wrestlers carried out their preparations.
France was Balla Gaye’s venue to be precise Insept – a furnished Olympic gym run by a Senegalese – accompanied by bosom AmaBalde, another sensation to watch.
Modou Lo opted for Spain taking along with him about four other wrestlers, most of them from within the second tier but with promising careers to walk up to the top tier.
Balla Gaye prevailed over his opponent in their meeting nine years ago and being the arena’s two most followed stars, the hype was over the top including the prizes allocated to them.
Modou is a trickster in his own league and a gifted boxer –the fan favourite type much like his adversary but who has a shorter winning timing as against Lo’s prolong tradition of fights.
Both slimmed up with the Parcelles-born assuming a thinner frame to increase his mobility and reflexes.
Balla Gaye worked on strength which he has exuded throughout his career shedding up the chubby weights on his protruding stomach.
They squared up at the ready having completed their ritual rhythmic dance rendition, doused in ritual waters armed to the teeth with knots.
The hand-swinging followed when the referee whistled for game start as a blond haired Balla Gaye predictably surged forward, landing a right hander leaving Modou Lo down on his knees but rose up to fight back unleashing successive blows as they grappled.
Gaye, an erstwhile king of arena, kept issuing body shots. A pressured Modou Lo responded but soon tucked underneath his opponent who pulled him down MMA style then lifted him by the buttocks and sending him into the sands routed.
