Georges Carpentier against Marcel Cerdan, both at middleweight primes...Old era versus new...Your opinions please....
nice find:good for my money i take cerdan. reports put him as a superb fighter in his prime, who we unfortunately did not get to see at his very best as he was past peak against zale. from all reports, if that's past peak he was a monster at his best.
Neither man were in their primes at MW. Cerdan was at his peak as a WW during the war years, while Carpentier's best weight was around 168 (fighting LHWs and HWs). Besides which, I'd say Marcel Thil was the best French MW. Having said that, I'd take Cerdan over Carpentier at 160, as Carpentier was weight drained at MW and appeared to have been vulnerable to pressure (as his losses to Frank Klaus and Billy Papke suggest).
Hey just found the Carpentier-Klaus fight on the tube, haven't seen it there before: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57tzc7bFaBE&feature=digest[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFjslEUjgI&feature=digest[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNSMTQ5YSmI&feature=digest[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adWoqOClovA&feature=digest[/ame]
Bodhi, thanks for tis clip of Carpentier vs Klaus fight in 1912.Klaus won on a foul in the 19th round...Carpentier was only 18 years old at the time...Those oldtimers sure had much more stamina than todays boxers...That's for sure....
Yeah, RareBoxing's putting up some gems over on youtube that i had no idea were even film, nevermind survive on film.
On the Tunney fight--I remember reading that Carpentier claimed he was fouled and, off the film, he appears to have been correct. Kind of an obvious foul with that left hook. They weren't wearing cups back then. Thanks for posting these great videos. This is the clearest I have seen Tunney or Carpentier on film.
