Georges "The Orchid Man" Carpentier

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Total Matches: 109 bouts
Record: 88(57)-14-6 (1 ND)
Height: 5′ 11½
Weight class(s): Flyweight - Heavyweight
Born: 1894-01-12 in Lens, Pas-de-Calais, France
Death: 1975-10-28
Nationality: French
Stance: Orthodox



Perhaps this should be in the European forum.


Ok so I was watching some Jack Dempsey fights today and his mega fight the original "fight of the century" with Carpentier (first million dollar gate from which dempsey got paid $300,000 Carpentier $200,000, the purchasing power today would be in the millions about 3 2/3 and 2 1/2 million us dollars respectively ) was huge deal. they built a boxing ring for this event and over 90,000 boxing fans were in attendance.

Carpentier "campaigned in every weightclass from flyweight to heavyweight" is considered to be "the best European fighter ever."

He started out in [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savate"]Savate[/ame] then later was introduced to boxing by his manager Francois Descamps, and began his career at Flyweight the young age of 14, in November 2, 1908 according to boxrec.

Carpentier won the French Welterweight title in june 15 1911, by tko in the 16 round over Robert Eustache.

ko'd Young Joseph for the European welterweight title in october 23rd, 1911.

In February 2nd, 1912 he he defeated Jimmy Sullivan for the European middleweight title.

Carpentier then won the European light heavyweight title in February 19th, 1913 when he scored a second-round knockout of Bandsman Dick Rice.

he became the European heavyweight champion with a 4th round stoppage over Bombardier Billy Wells in December 8th, 1913

After beating Ed Gunboat Smith by disqualification in July of 1914 (Carpentier was hit while he was down) he was supposedly the #1 contender for Jack Johnsons Heavyweight World title.

10 days after his victory over smith he fought once more then he joined the French Air Force in that same year and served as a observation pilot. Was decorated twice and popularized as an national hero. He never fought Jack Johnson.

His military enlistment would extend five years and his return fight was on july 19, 1919 for the European heavy weight title.

later he battled jack dempsey 2 years later in on july 2nd 1921 at Boyle's Thirty Acres, in Jersey City, New Jersey. he was seen as the more popular fighter of the two at that time because of his war record and that Dempsey was considered by many to be a "draft dodger". he was ko'd in 4 rounds by the Mannassa Mauler he was outweighed by 16 lbs and by the end of the fight was battered and blooded and reportedly suffered a broken thumb.

Before his fight with dempsey in '21 he ko'd Battling Levinsky for the light heavyweight world title October 12th 1920 in 4 rounds. defended it against Ted Kid Lewis in the 1st round, but lost the title to Battling Siki by ko in the 4th.

The Orchid Man, was also a referee for some boxing matches during and after his career including the world title bout between Jack Johnson and Frank Moran in June 1914, he last bout he refereed was in 1949.

Georges "The Orchid Man" Carpentier was Inducted in the International Hall Of Fame in 1991

Most of what I wrote can be found at the bio section of the Boxrec website

The Ring website has "the best of all time A-Z" has it Ezzard Charles then the five others that were considered (Tony Canzoneri, Cassius Clay, Marcel Cerdan, Julio Cesar Chavez and Billy Conn) no offense to another french great Marcel Cerdan, even though Cerdan had more body-hair than Georges Carpentier, he should at least be considered the better of the two right?:yep

I wonder how the Classic forum feels about Carpentier?

I wonder how many of you would consider him to be a top 20 p4p canidate?

 

not that many of you didnt know about Carpentier already, but I knew nothing about him except he fought dempsey until the other day.

hearing he moved from flyweight to heavyweight was the thing that caught my attention.

it is possible that I just got carried away with it all....


I got a question, why do you think so few weights are listed through most of carpentier's career on boxrec they will list the titles he took but not the amount they weighed ?

I read that his career might have been started at a higher wieght bantam I think.

I also wonder how much weight he was giving up to some of his opponents.

anyway here are some vids

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2mXqc1uLKk[/ame]

he sure hits hard and is fast, but he seems to be wild at times and he pays for it here.

exiting fight.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI03W2_El68[/ame]

he just has so much power

 

ok................

you being serious man, why is that?

 

hot damn! thanks burt.wned

*fixed*

I liked that picture too.

 

so burt what do you say about Mr Carpentier?

do you agree with klompton that he was "overhyped and overrated"?

the vids I posted didnt make him out to be the most reserved, textbook type of fighter, but he had speed, power and fought in almost every weightclass their was at the time.

 

thank you Great A, I will.

I simply wanted to find out more about him after watching his fight with dempsey, he carried so much power all while moving up in weight.

klompton, I was reading some of your old posts, it is interesting what you say of georges being filmed to the extent he was even on youtube (some posted by non other than great A)
when you take into account that they both fought in about the same era harry greb and carpentier, one has fights to be viewed and one does not.

Your old posts are very helpful klompton and gives alot of context to the dates and numbers I posted.:thumbsup

why is it that you have so much information on Carpentier?

 

well thats disappointing klompton, maybe he should have stuck with Savate instead of switching arts