The Best of the Rest: 175lbs Tier II Tournie - Round 1 -14: Jose Torres KO9 Georges Carpentier

What i've done is i've lifted top tiers out of my top fifty at the poundage, fiddled it a little bit to minimise guys with no footage and used the remaining 32 names plus some subs to develop a seeded tournament to uncover "the best of the rest" at the poundage, with you, the denizens of the world's greatest boxing history forum, casting the deciding vote.

Pick your man! Write however many details you like or don't in a post below. But maybe try to post, to keep things moving a little bit. You have three days.

And let's be nice. No reason for disagreeing over total fantasies after all!

15 rounds, 1950s rules and ref. Ten points must. Weigh in is 18 hours before the fight.

I'll only vote if it's tied, then I'll decide the result.

Round of Thirty-Two Fight 14: Jose "Chegui" Torres vs Georges "The Orchid Man" Carpentier

Jose Torres (41-3-1)
When people talk about “old-school” fighters they are talking about guys like Puerto Rican Jose Torres.

Check out his 1966 fight of the year with the timeless Eddie Cotton for a fine example. It’s not that Torres does anything we don’t see today but rather the way that he does it. There is no flashy shoulder-roll or sizzling footwork, he just slips jabs with good reaction time, arbitrary head movement, technically sure positioning and well-drilled balance. The over-riding definition of old-school is economy – it is born of necessity as fighters trained and learned to box fifteen rounds, a whole 25% more than their modern counterparts. His moves at every range are dotted by a certain care that often cannot be seen in the modern ring. Nothing is wasted. His opponent, Cotton, is complicit in this and together they turn in one of the great light-heavyweight fights.

Torres delivered a similar performance against Willie Pastrano, from whom he took the title. Pastrano, probably, is past his best but this is Jose’s best effort on film, a fight in which he demonstrates all that is good about him. Moving forwards steadily in that now famous peekaboo style, gloves high, dipping and cutting the ring off on the fleet-footed Pastrano before the champion even knew where he was headed, a vicious body-attack the tip of his spear. It was a one-sided beating that resulted in the first stoppage of Pastrano’s career for any reason other than cuts. The reason on this occasion was an accumulation of punches that forced the referee’s hand between the ninth and tenth round.

In addition to his wonderful defeat of Cotton, Torres managed defences against former top contender Chic Calderwood, who he blasted out in two with a booming right to the ear, and the always game Wayne Thornton who he outclassed over fifteen. Against this must be tempered Jose’s loss of the title to former middleweight Dick Tiger, a fighter totally incapable of filling out into a light-heavyweight, not once but twice. It is also true that he lifted the title against a fighter that probably should never have been in possession of it, Pastrano gifted a decision over Harold Johnson.

Georges Carpentier (89-15-6)
Carpentier was a hard hitter for a man of his size. His punch was a "natural" gift and with it he was able to knockout much larger men. In addition to being a hard puncher, he was game and could hold a shot. He was a collector of titles during his career - the Light Heavyweight Championship of the World, the White Heavyweight Championship of the World (during the teens), the Middleweight Championship of the World (as recognized by Europe), the Heavyweight Championship of Europe, the Heavyweight Championship of France, the Light Heavyweight Championship of Europe, the Middleweight Championship of Europe, the Welterweight Championship of Europe and the Welterweight Championship of France...on and on.

He is most famous for his Heavyweight title bout with Jack Dempsey; Carpentier defeated such men as Ed "Gunboat" Smith, Battling Levinsky, "Bombardier" Billy Wells, Jeff Smith, Harry Lewis, Young Joseph, Willie Lewis, George Gunther, Ted "Kid" Lewis and George Cook

 

Torres off to an early lead! Will Robert decide the entire matter?

 

After some rough going in the early minutes, Jose Torres took control of the ring and slipped and countered his way to a ninth round stoppage of an overmatched French dude. Carpentier had some joy timing Torres early and seemed to have him in trouble in the second, but Torres marshalled his way to safety and took over in the fourth with a series of rights, including to the body. By the eighth, the Frenchman was reduced to covering up and pouncing with telegraphed counters that found their way only to air or to Jose's gloves; in the ninth, after landing three consecutive bodyshots, Torres transferred his attack to his man's jaw landing two uppercuts that stretched Carpentier. He was no nearer rising at "10" than he had been at "1".

 

So handsome.