Carpentier Knocks Out Levinsky in the Fourth Round -- October 12, 2020

New York Herald, 13-October-1920

On 12-October-1920, French boxer and European heavyweight champion Georges Carpentier defeated American Battling Levinsky for the world light heavyweight title in four rounds. 

Carpentier Knocks Out Levinsky in the Fourth Round 

FRENCH BOXER OUTCLASSES HIS RIVAL ALL WAY 

Floors Levinsky Twice for Count of Eight in Second. 

 END IN 1 M. 7 S. OF FOURTH 

Carpentier Impresses Great Throng With His Skill and Punching Power. 

By CHARLES P. MATHISON. Georges Carpentier. heavy weight champion of Europe, knocked out Battling Levinsky, light heavyweight champion of America, in the fourth round of a one sided contest last night in the Jersey City baseball grounds in the presence of 15,000 persons.

The "vehicular tunnel" that began its excavations was the Holland Tunnel.

The knockout blow, a short right to the jaw, was delivered after one minute and seven seconds of boxing in the fourth round. Levinsky was in a neutral corner at the time he received the blow and he fell through the ropes and lay on his back on the ledge of the ring platform, where he was counted out by Referee Harry Ertle. The Frenchman left the ring at once, and Levinsky on being assisted to his corner received the attention of his seconds, who apparently had considerable trouble in reviving the beaten man.

It was the worst looking bout that Levinsky ever put up. The cleverness and ring generalship he had exhibited in all previous bouts were missing and he fought like an awkward novice. He did not land one effective blow on the Frenchman during the entire four rounds, and did not seem to be able to get out of his own tracks, let alone avoid the attack of his opponent.

The Frenchman cut loose in two rounds, the second, in which he scored two knockdowns, and the fourth, in which he administered the coup de grace.

Carpentier was a top heavy favorite, and there was an abundance of money to back him to score a knockout in four rounds. This condition of affairs, coupled with the palpably poor contest put up by the Battler, gave tho onlookers an unpleasant impression.

By beating Levinsky, Carpentier not only acquired the light-heavyweight championship of the world, but has earned a match with Dempsey.

Nine out of ten of those at the ringside expressed the opinion that Dempsey would settle the Frenchman in jig time.

The contest between Carpentier and Levlnsky was utterly devoid of anything spectacular and as an exhibition of boxing was mediocre in the extreme.

Levinsky acted like a beaten man at the beginning of the first round, and he showed no spirit or aggressiveness.

The Frenchman was wide open at all times, yet with the exception of a few light jabs to the body or face, Levinsky failed utterly in attack. While the Battler never has been noted as a punisher, yet his defence always has been puzzling to the best men in the country.

Carpentier did not show any of the speed for which he is said to be noted, and how he managed to land on the clever Levinsky is a mystery.

Any one of the preliminary bouts excelled In the matter of science and combativeness the chief event. So far as Levinsky is concerned his exhibition was not only poor, but peculiar. Regardlng the Frenchman his performance will not insure many supporters in a contest for the world's championship.

Gov. Edwards was introduced as the "best Governor New Jersey ever had" and was called on for a speech, but contented himself with bowing to the applause.

Carpentier was first to enter the ring, followed by Descamps an 1 Joe Jeannette. ' The French champion bowed and smiled graciously. Levinsky followed a few minutes later. Both men were heavily bundled, as the air was cold and damp. Mike O'Dowd former middleweight champion, challenged the winner. The ' weights were announced as I70 1/2 for Carpentier and 173 for Levlnsky.

Fight by Rounds.

First Round -- The Frenchman opened with a left to the face, and when they clinched both tried for the body. Levinsky got in a couple of light jabs to the face. Carpentler tried for a right uppercut but missed. Levinsky backed away and Carpentier chased after him trying for a knockout punch. The Frenchman missed several rights, and Levinsky was on his feet at close. It was Carpentier's round.

Second Round -- Carpentier went after the Battler hard, and soon landed a series of rights and lefts to jaw that staggered Levinsky. A heavy right to the jaw dropped the Battler for the count of eight. Levinsky was groggy when he arose, and the Frenchman repeated the knockdown, also for a count of eight. Levinsky was in distress when he regained his feet, but the Frenchman could not drop him again. It was Carpentier's round.

Third Round -- Carpentier carried the battle to Levinsky and felt so confident he held out his chin and let the Battler hit him on the jaw. Carpentier did not land with effect and Levinsky did not do any damage, although he had plenty of openings. Carpentier had all the better of the round.

Fourth Round -- Evidently Carpentier decided that this was the time to end the bout and he plied Levinsky with a series of right handers to the jaw. The Frenchman pounded Levinsky on the jaw with a short right, and the Battler fell through the ropes in a neutral corner and was counted out. The time of the knockout was 1 minute and 7 seconds.

15,000 See the Contest.

The battle was viewed by about l5,000 boxing enthusiasts, and they were as representative a crowd as ever settled down about an arena. Many of the most noted sportsmen in the world were there. Big business and the professions were well represented. There was no confusion anywhere, for the arrangements were admirable.

Seated around the big ring could be seen Gov. Edwards of New Jersey, rested from his labors of starting the excavation of the vehicular tunnel; Jules J. Jusserand, French Ambassador; Harry Payne Whitney and Walter C. Teagle. Mixed in with them were T. Coleman Du Pont, Sherwood Aldrich, W. A. Brady, Charles B. Cochran, F. H. Bedford. Col. J. G. Ewlng, R. Thornton Wilson, Henry L. Doherty, L. Gordon Hammersley, Eugene Grace, D. W. Griffith, Frank H. Hitchcock, Herbert L. Pratt, Mesinon Kendal, Frederick Lewisohn, Col. Jacob Ruppert, Forbes Morgan, Allan Ryan, Sr., Alan Ryan, Jr. ; H. A. C. Smith, George M. Sweenty, Charles M. Schwab, Robert Hilliard, Tom Andrews and a host of others.

As they began to clear the ring for the Frenchman and Levinsky, the cameramen stepped up and began to make a lot of pictures and presently the band started to play "How Dry I am," with everybody singing out loud, and someone in a top hat leading. The tune was going good when Carpentier hopped under the ropes and landed in the ring.

There was a lot of cheering and everybody ten started commenting on the colorful beauty of the dressing gown he had wrapped about him. The tan sweater that hung from his shoulders wasn't big enough to hide its broad bands of gray and black and the wide flapping sleeves that made it look something like a kimono. The band switched from "How Dry I Am" to the "Marseillaise," and the crowd stood up with the Frenchman.

Levinsky got his roar of applause and the band switched again, playing "The Star Spangled Banner."

Talks With O'Dowd.

Carpentier did less moving around than the fans. There was a drumming of' feet of men who wanted to keep warm, but he sat quietly in his corner while the gloves were being laced on him. He held a long talk with Mike O'Dowd laughed now and then and pulled his loose gray cap over his eyes to keep out the glare of the lights.

About this time there was a lot. of talk flying around among the crowd. Everywhere one looked there was an argument. Usually some one was trying to impress some one else with the idea that Georges didn't have a show, and he was usually being told that he didn't know what he was talking about. The Frenchman was the favorite generally, but the Levinsky followers couldn't be stopped. They talked right on up to the moment their idol went down for the first crash.

The throng that packed the. ringside began to collect at the gate as early as 4 o'clock in the afternoon. There was a long queue there an hour later and by 7 o'clock traffic around the neighborhood was almost at a standstill. There were mounted cops on duty to keep automobiles and trucks moving and they earned their pay. They patrolled up and down and tried to keep warm, but they were at a disadvantage in the saddle, but the ticket holders and those who didn't but intended to get tickets could warm up by drumming their heels against the fence.

Once in a while some one would amuse himself by telling the man next to him that Carpentier was in "that big red machine," and the crowd would "go" starrted on a wave of clapping only to find out that the man tn the car was some high New Jersey State or other official on hand early to see everything.

Carpentier's Sensational Career.

Carpentier has a sensational ring record. Born at Lens, in northern France, in 1894, his parents were poor people of the mining region, and when Georges was a child of 11 he was put to work as a pit boy, receiving 10 cents a day for his labor. He was about 13 when Prof. Descamps, an athletic trainer and one of the first Frenchmen to take up boxing, discovered him. Under the coaching of Descamps young Georges was a great success. Beginning as a flyweight, he won the championship of his country in each division as he grew older and heavier, so that he has held every title from flyweight to heavyweight.

One of the men Carpentier beat was Charles Ledoux, who now holds the bantamweight championship of France and is matched to meet Jack Sharkey at the Garden on Friday night. Growing heavier, Carpentier climbed into the welterweight class and while in that division he encountered his first American opponent. This was the Dixie Kid, a negro of championship calibre. The Kid knocked out the youthful Carpentier in five rounds, but this did not discourage him in the least, as he did not expect to beat so formidable a fighter.

It was not until he grew into the middleweight class that Carpentier began to attract worldwide attention. His first important match was with Jim Sullivan, the champion of England, whom he knocked out in two rounds at Monte Carlo, winning the championship of Europe. In that same year he met Willie Lewis, an American, whom Carpentier had admired greatly and had taken as his model. Lewis was near the end of his rope then, but Carpentier had so much respect for his old tutor that the bout went the limit, the decision going to Carpentier on points.

Then came Carpentier's fights with Billy Papke and Frank Klaus. Papke stopped him in seventeen rounds and Klaus in nineteen. Technically Georges lost to Klaus on a foul, Manager Descamps jumping into the ring when he saw that the youngster was overmatched.

The bout with Klaus marked Carpentier's finish as a middleweight. Making weight had weakened him and brought about his defeat, so he decided not to make that mistake again. His next move was to make a match with Bombardier Wells for the heavyweight championship of Europe, English boxing followers thought he had lost his senses when this match waa announced. Wells is a six footer, a fine boxer, great hitter, champion of England and a prospective opponent for Jack Johnson for the world's title.

Early in the bout it looked as though the English fans were right. Wells knocked his impetuous opponent down for counts of nine and had him on the verge of slumberland. But Carpentier stuck it out gamely. He beat a tattoo on the slender Englishman's body, causing him to writhe in pain, and then, when the tall Englishman's guard came down, Georges crossed a right to the jaw, knocking him cold in the fourth round.

That victory made Georges a sensation in boxing circles the world over and in France a public Idol. He followed up his victory over Wells by outpointing Jeff Smith, the American middleweight, in twenty rounds, and when Wells demanded another chance Georges consented without hesitation. This time Carpentier walked up and smacked the nervous Wells on the chin before the latter knew the fight was on.

In the following year Carpentier took part in a battle which he lost, but which gained him more prestige in America than any of his victories. His opponent on that occasion was Joe Jeannette, the American negro heavyweight. No American white hope cared to have anything to do with the Hoboken negro, but Georges took him on and not only went the limit of fifteen rounds, but scored a knockdown over the husky negro.

Whipped Gunboat Smith.

Then came Carpentier's battle with Gunboat Smith, one of the leading white hopes. Carpentier was altogether too fast and clever for the hard hitting Smith. In the fifth round Georges shot his famous straight right to the jaw and Smith was knocked cold. The bell saved him from being counted out and he was dragged to his corner and revived. In the next round Carpentier went to his knees, either from a blow or a slip -- opinions differed as to how it happened. Smith was too groggy to observe that Carpentier was down. He struck the Frenchman and was disqualified.

The war cut short Carpentier's ring career just when he was beginning to reach his best form. After serving, with distinction in the great conflict, during which he was twice wounded and thrice K decorated for bravery, Carpentier returned to the ring broke, all his earnings having been invested |n the coal mines of Lens, which had been destroyed by the Germans.

His first match was with Dick Smith, a third rater, whom he stopped in eight rounds. Carpentier was away off form after his Jong absence from the ring and his showing was not impressive on this occasion. But when he met Joe Beckett, champion of England, a few weeks later, Carpentier won the most spectacular victory of his entire career. Before the thick necked. slow moving English champion knew what it was all about Georges stabbed him twice with a left, followed with his deadly right, straight and true from the shoulder, and England's champion went down and out, the whole proceeding taking but a few seconds.

Ted Lewis, former welter weight champion, got Into the ring in a preliminary bout with Marcel Thomas, a French welterweight, whose chief second was Francois Deschamps, manager of Carpentier.

Lewis took the bout with the object of reinstating himself with the public, due to the terrific drubbing he received from Mike O'Dowd in the same ring a few weeks ago.

Lewis started out with vigor in an effort to stop the Frenchman, who stayed twelve rounds with Britten a short time ago. Thomas is easy to hit, and Lewis got his left and right on the jaw with great frequency. Lewis dropped Thomas twice in the second round, but the Frenchman woke up after the third round and made It very interesting for Lewis. Thomas staggered Lewis in the fifth and sixth, but Lewis outboxed and outhit his man and earned the decision.

Babe Asher of Bay City, Mich., the A. E. F. bantam champion, won the opening event from Kewpie Collinder of if Minneapolis. It was a spirited six round bout, in which Asher used a left to the body with good effect. The contest aroused much enthusiasm among the crowd that now nearly filled the arena.

Frankie Burns, the veteran bantam of Jersey City, conqueror of champions, gave Patsey Johnson of Trenton, N. J. a severe drubbing in the second bout of the night. Burns, who still boxes with great skill and vigor, hammered Johnson in the body with a heavy left and also jabbed his man in the nose and mouth. Burns varied these tactics with a right to the jaw and had the Trentonian groggy towards the close. Johnson was too rugged to be stopped and was on his feet, though shaky, at the close.

Fifteen Fight Fans

Hurt; in Hospital

AN accident which probably will prove serious for James Corbin, 30 years of age, of 247 Halliday street, Jersey City, occurred during the big bout when the roof of a building at 283 and 285 West Side avenue, where some hundred or more men and boys collected to watch the contest, caved in. The roof of this building overlooks the ball grounds where the fight was staged, and men and boys gathered there early to kept places of advantage.

The building is occupied by the West Side Scrap Iron Company, and when the roof crashed the occupants were thrown into a heap of scrap iron. Besides Corbin fifteen others were removed to the Jersey City Hospital, but only Corbin was detained there. Corbin, it is said, was suffering from a fracture of the skull.

New York Evening World, 13-October-1920

Cine-Journal, 09-March-1912