George Carpentier vs. James Scott

Does anyone know anything about Carpentier's fight with Jeanettte ?

 

Carpentier was a lot better than some people here give him credit for.

 

He was woeful. He has a punchers chance against glass jawed fighters. Scott wasn't that.

 

What do you make of his fight with Jeanette ?

 

Had a great right.e was a top LH. he was a good boxwe and also a top middle. He sometimes was lackadazical.

 

Carpentier was a hyped one trick pony who relied solely on the right hand. If you knew that or could figure it out or could take the punch you could render him absolutely useless. He benefitted from fixed fights, friendly officiating, and his unprecedented popularity. Had he gotten into the ring with guys like Saad, Scott, Braxton, or Gregory he wouldnt have made it past the halfway point and Id wager he would be totally embarrassed along the way. If a glass jawed, faded welterweight like Willie Lewis could drop him multiple times and give him a boxing lesson in losing a gift decision, or a totally unskilled brawler who lost every big fight afterwards in Siki could smash him to bits then I think those other guys would do just fine against him. I know, some will mention his win over Smith (which was extremely controversial and Smith was never championship material) or his loss to Jeanette (who is overrated today and who still won on Carpentier's home turf) but are those fights really that impressive to say he was great? I dont think so. I wont even mention his fixed fight with Levinsky. He would find himself in deep with a guy like Scott and probably try to fall to the floor grasping his nuts and claim he was fouled like he was want to do when losing a tough fight.

 

I wonder why Tommy Loughran thought so highly of him.

 

A couple questions....

Didn't he rock Dempsey with a left hook?

What is the short story on the Levinsky bout? I remember Levinsky talking about this but can't remember the details.

 

I go with Carpentier

 

Carpentier was not as good as many argued at the time and subsequently, but now the pendulum has swung too far the other way.

He did have tangible accomplishments, and he beat some legitimately good fighters.

 

Of course Carpentier was good. :good

 

Gunboat Smith or Jeff Smith ?

Well, Jeanette was very highly rated around that time, or soon after. More so than today.

Impressive enough to say he was better than woeful.

 

He rocked Dempsey with a right hand.

The Levinsky bout was fairly openly considered a fix to set up the Dempsey fight. When you look at it logically it makes sense. Carpentier had come to America several months earlier in order to hype a potential Dempsey bout by taking part in a tour of exhibition bouts. This tour was not very successful and most didnt give Carpentier a snowball's chance in hell. In short it did more to hurt the match than to make it. Rickard needed a way to give Carpentier some legitimacy and paint him as a threat. He did this by getting Carpentier a match with Levinsky. Levinsky wasnt great at this point in his career but he was durable, slippery, smart, and a master of making it to the final bell in order to preserve his title in ND bouts. Yet, Levinsky shows up fat and out of shape sporting a double chin puts on the non performance of the year and gets knocked out in 4 rounds. Now Levinsky was only ever stopped four times in his career, once against Dempsey when he came into the fight with no training from working in the shipyards during the war (and we know Dempsey was a massive puncher who was known to get guys out early), twice at the very end of his career against huge HWs both of whom were big punchers when he was totally shot and coming a decade after Carpentier, and to Carpentier. Carpentier is the only LHW who ever stopped Levinsky (a durable master boxer) and coincidently it was the only way Carpentier could have won which would have A. given him the title, and B. established him as a legitimate contender for Dempsey. You couldnt have written it better if it were a script. When you combine all of that with the people in the know claiming it was fixed BEFORE hand and the people in the know afterwards who claimed it was fixed, and the people who began an investigation into afterwards it doesnt take a genius to figure it out, especially when you consider that Carpentier was no stranger to shady fights: Gunboat Smith, Siki, Townley, Willie Lewis, etc etc.

 

Gunboat.

I never said he was woeful. Just that he is an overrated one trick pony, predictable, fragile, and nowhere near the ATG he is painted as.

 

Fair enough.
I think he did alright, considering the fact that he was so young before the war, then out for 5 years and came back.

Do you think he was ever the best in Europe, including heavyweights ?