On this day 98 years ago Dempsey fought Carpentier it was the first million dollar gate

Carpintier at least had some credible wins at heavyweight.

Foster had nothing outside of his light heavyweight credentials!

 

But there was precedent for the Middleweight champion to get a shot.

 

Only a Dempsey hater would argue the history. Carp was world famous and multi title holder including the lt hwt championship. The public wanted the fight and they got it. Carp was a well known KO puncher. Deadly.

 

A win over Billy Wells EIGHT years before? A lucky and debatable foul against Smith?

Wow. The bar is pretty low for Jack.

 

World famous athlete...a superstar, multi title holder and lt hwt champion of the world. The public wanted to see the fight and in the end this typically dictates the bout occurring. Absolutely no issue with Dempsey fighting a world famous lt hwt champion in 1921. None whatsoever.

 

Carpintier was not the only fighter who was inactive during the war.

In the second world war rankings were frozen, so it is reasonable to assume that the same would have applied to the first world war.

Now even if we disregard Carpintiers pre war accomplishments completely, he won the European Heavyweight tile at the end of 1919 by beating Joe Beckett, and then picked up the Light Heavyweight title a year later.

It is only fair to note that Levinsky was a name fighter at heavyweight, and nobody else had KOd him in over a hundred fights, apart from Dempsey himself.

That is not setting the bar low for a credible challenger, it is just the way that it is in any era.

 

Very true. I forgot that Carp was hwt champion of Europe! Really can not argue against his title shot vs Dempsey unless one is trying to be disingenuous.

 

To be honest with you, Audley Harrison almost certainly punched harder than Maxie Rosenbloom, but which win would mean more in the grand scheme of things?

 

Depends on light heavyweights.

 

Regarding if a lt hwt can punch as hard as a hwt....Who cares? What is your point? How hard any fighter can punch has no bearing as to his fighting for the hwt championship.

In general it depends on the lt hwt in question and what hwt he is being compared to.

 

I don't know, I'd guess that somewhere around 160-170 lbs because it is "natural" male weight. So probably anyone below middleweight would have clearly lesser power than HWs (outside of some possible outliers).

Langford and Fitzsimmons punched hard enough to be considered elite puncher by heavyweight standard.