What? That I think he would win easily or that he was on roids? I think he would win in clear fashion..but its obviously not going a walk in the park against someone like Carpentier. Did I think he took roids? No...I either made a funny because there actually was a thread with a drawn out discussion about Johnson's physique or I look like an idiot because there never was a thread about that. Its the only 50-50 I can see here.
Johnson leading early on. Carpentier scores a flash knockdown in the sixth. Johnson takes a couple of rounds to reestablish control & ends with a UD victory over a game Carpentier.
He is overrated today because he lost to or won in questionable fashion over the best fighters he faced. His fight with Levinsky for the title was almost certainly a fix with the aging Levinsky cashing in his chips on the only real mega-payday that was out there for him. Several reports for the Gunboat Smith fight state he was not fouled and that Smith should not have been DQd. His victory over the well past his prime and former middleweight Willie Lewis was a total robbery. Lewis dropped him at least 3 times and had him wobbled several other times in that fight. He continually tried to win fights that he lost or was losing on a foul or claimed that poor performances resulting in losses came from injuries. Oh, and lets not forget that he his fight with Siki was supposed to be fixed and his fight with Townely almost assuredly was as well. I could go on and on but when one starts delving into the particulars of his career it becomes apparent that Carpentier was a media darling, not a great fighter.
You may well be right about him,I know early in his career if he looked like being overwhelmed Dechamps would pull him out,and that the Siki fight was a fix that went wrong. How do you account fro the high opinion Tunney and Loughran had for him though? He certainly cleaned up on the slow British heavies he fought.
I think that being one of the biggest "names" on Tunney and Loughran's records and being well past his prime it was a feather in their cap and looked glossy so they talked up their victories over him. Tunney had a pretty easy time with Carpentier (if you watch the complete fight) and supposedly Loughran did as well (no film exists), Gibbons battered him from pillar to post, etc etc. Even early on he was getting bashed by guys like Lewis, Klaus, and Papke. I guess you could argue that we missed his prime due to the war but Im just not convinced he was that great. He had a hell of a right hand but his whole style was based on landing that punch and smart fighter would figure that out in a round or two and whip him all night after that. He would paw with the left, shoot a long right hand and either KO his opponent, or miss and clinch. Same thing all night long. Very one dimensional, and very predictable and he never changed that pattern from the earliest footage we have of him in 1912 until the end of his career. I just dont see him coping with legit all time greats in their primes.