Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier was a boxing fight between world heavyweight champion

Jack Dempsey William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey (June 24, 1895 – May 31, 1983), nicknamed Kid Blackie and The Manassa Mauler, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1914 to 1927, and reigned as the world heavyweight champion from 1919 to 1926 ...

and world light-heavyweight champion

Georges Carpentier Georges Carpentier (; 12 January 1894 – 28 October 1975) was a French boxer, actor and World War I pilot. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908 to 1926. Nicknamed the "Orchid Man", he stood and h ...

, which was one of the fights named the "Fight of the Century". The bout took place in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

on Saturday, July 2, 1921, at

Boyle's Thirty Acres Boyle's Thirty Acres was a large wooden bowl arena in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was built specifically for the world heavyweight championship bout between Jack Dempsey of the United States and Georges Carpentier of France on July 2, 1921. ...

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark.

Pre-fight

Jack Dempsey was the world Heavyweight champion since he beat

Jess Willard Jess Myron Willard (December 29, 1881 – December 15, 1968) was an American world heavyweight boxing champion billed as the Pottawatomie Giant who knocked out Jack Johnson in April 1915 for the heavyweight title. Willard was known for size rat ...

by a fourth round knockout in 1919. The challenge by Carpentier would be his third title defense, after retaining the championship against

Billy Miske Billy Miske, alias ''The Saint Paul Thunderbolt'' (April 12, 1894 – January 1, 1924), was a professional boxer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. During his tenure as a pugilist he had multiple-bout series with a plethora of all-time greats including ...

and Bill Brennan. Both Miske and Brennan died shortly after fighting Dempsey, of causes unrelated to their fights. Carpentier was the world Light-Heavyweight champion, having beaten

Battling Levinsky Barney Lebrowitz (June 10, 1891 – February 12, 1949), better known as Battling Levinsky, was an American boxer who was the world light heavyweight champion from 1916 to 1920. Statistical boxing website BoxRec lists Levinsky as the #12 ranke ...

by a fourth round knockout in his previous bout to win the title at Westside Ballpark in Jersey City. Despite the fact the bout was held in the United States, Dempsey, the American defending champion, was cast as an anti-hero whereas Carpentier, the French challenger, was seen as a hero by fans. This was partly due to the fact that Dempsey had not fought at war and Carpentier had, for the French Army. Dempsey was seen by many as a draft-dodger. Dempsey went on trial during 1920, accused of draft evasion. At the same time, he went through a divorce from his first wife, Maxine. Dempsey Carpentier 1921 fight film poster

Dempsey Carpentier 1921 fight film poster

Tex Rickard George Lewis "Tex" Rickard (January 2, 1870 – January 6, 1929) was an American boxing promoter, founder of the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL), and builder of the third incarnation of Madison Square Garden in New York City ...

, Dempsey's promoter, built up the fight, using the public's view of both fighters as a way to promote the bout. Rickard mainly operated out of the

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylv ...

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, but at the time he was having trouble with authorities at the New York State boxing commission and

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

. In addition, New York governor

Nathan L. Miller Nathan Lewis Miller (October 10, 1868 – June 26, 1953) was an American lawyer and politician who was Governor of New York from 1921 to 1922. Early life and education Nathan Miller was born on October 10, 1868, the son of Samuel Miller, a ten ...

opposed having the fight take place in his state. Also, Rickard envisioned a larger crowd than the Madison Square Garden could fit coming to this fight, and he preferred boxing fights to be held at outside arenas so he built

in Jersey City, with a capacity for 80,000 paying customers. Rickard borrowed an amount of $250,000 (in 1921 money) to make the arena. Wireless Age, a technology magazine of the era, had held a convention at New York City from March 16 to the 19th of the same year. Julius Hopp was a concert organizer at the Madison Square Garden, and he asked Rickard for permission to broadcast the fight live on radio. Hopp then attended the convention and he was able to meet local radio enthusiasts. In addition, several radio stations had begun playing in New York City, including Westinghouse's KDKA.

John Ringling John Nicholas Ringling (May 31, 1866 – December 2, 1936) was an American entrepreneur who is the best known of the seven Ringling brothers, five of whom merged the Barnum & Bailey Circus with their own Ringling Bros World's Greatest Sho ...

, who was Rickard's Madison Square Garden partner, opposed live transmission of the bout, but he relented once a compromise was reached to have radio equipment located outside the arena instead of inside it.

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile ...

also protested, refusing to connect a ringside telephone line to a transmitter. The transmitter used was said to be the largest one ever built up to that time. It was built by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...

and set up at the Lackawanna train terminal in

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...

, from where the bout was transmitted by a temporary station, WJY, operated by the Radio Corporation of America, to theaters, halls and auditoriums in 61 other cities across the United States. The fight became the first world title fight to be carried over on radio, ushering in an era of boxing radiocasts that lasted until televised boxing came along. The afternoon of July 2, 1921, the first fight to take place before the main event was one between boxers

Frankie Burns Frankie Burns (June 24, 1889 – April 10, 1961) was a top rated American bantamweight boxer from New Jersey who contended four times for the World Bantamweight Championship between 1912 and 1917, twice meeting Johnny Coulon. Founder of ''Ring Ma ...

and Packey O'Gatty. Burns won that fight on points in eight rounds. The last preliminary bout before the main event featured Gene Tunney defeating Soldier Jones in seven rounds. Tunney would eventually beat both Dempsey and Carpentier in later years.

The fight

1921 White and Welker ringside at WJY fight broadcast

Dempsey outweighed Carpentier by 20 pounds, weighing 188 to the French challenger's 168. According to Dempsey's autobiography, promoter Tex Rickard feared that Dempsey would annihilate Carpentier inside of one round so Rickard specifically asked the champion not to score an early knockout. Harry Ertle was the referee. Both men wore white boxing trunks, although Carpentier's trunks had a vertical blue stripe running up each leg. Predictably, Dempsey was the aggressive pursuer throughout the fight, while Carpentier relied on boxing skill and counter-punching. In round two, a solid right to the jaw had Dempsey groggy. But Dempsey recuperated and began dominating the bout in round three. Less than a minute into the fourth round, Dempsey's relentless pressure resulted in Carpentier being floored with a stinging left-right combination from the champion. It looked like Carpentier would not beat the count, but he rose to his feet suddenly at referee Harry Ertle's count of nine. However, the fight ended shortly thereafter, at one minute and 16 seconds of round four, when Dempsey knocked out Carpentier with another combination that included a hard right hook to the body.

Aftermath

The Jack Dempsey versus Georges Carpentier bout was the first ever boxing fight to produce $1,000,000 in revenue, or a "million dollar gate" at a then record of $1,789,238. It was also the first heavyweight championship fight where women attended in great numbers. This can be attributed to the favorable pre-fight press Carpentier had received in many New York City newspapers that portrayed him as a dashing, handsome and stylish French war hero. Dempsey kept the Heavyweight title until he lost it in 1926 to

Gene Tunney James Joseph Tunney (May 25, 1897 – November 7, 1978) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1915 to 1928. He held the world heavyweight title from 1926 to 1928, and the American light heavyweight title twice between 1922 and 1 ...

on points after ten rounds. In 1927, he attempted to regain it from Tunney in what became known as

The Long Count Fight The Long Count Fight, or the Battle of the Long Count, was a professional boxing 10-round rematch between world heavyweight champion Gene Tunney and former champion Jack Dempsey, which Tunney won in a unanimous decision. It took place on Sept ...

, but again lost by ten rounds decision. He retired after that fight and operated a restaurant in New York City, dying in 1983 at age 87. Carpentier fought twelve more times, going 7-4-1 during that span. One of those bouts was a fifteenth round knockout defeat at the hands of Tunney. He became an actor in France, participating in eight feature films. Carpentier died in 1975. Both fighters are members of the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...

References

External links

lobby poster to the fight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dempsey, Carpentier

Carpentier Carpentier is a Norman- Picard surname, variant form of French Charpentier and is similar to the English Carpenter, that is borrowed from Norman. In Basse Normandie, the most common form is Lecarpentier. The words ''carpentier, charpentier, c ...

1921 in New Jersey 1921 in American sports July 1921 sports events Boxing matches