Georges Carpentier

Georges Carpentier was a French boxer who reigned as the world's light heavyweight champion in 1920-22. He is best remembered for his fight for the world's heavyweight crown with champ Jack Dempsey, one of the highlights of the Roaring Twenties. Born on January 12, 1894, in Liévin, Pas-de-Calais, France, he first fought professionally as a welterweight and then worked his way up the weight classes, picking up championship belts along the way. Though he failed to topple "The Manassa Mauler" from his perch at the top of the world sports hierarchy, he did win a watered-down, bastardized version of that prize. Turning pro at the age of 14, Carpentier first won the European welterweight championship in 1911. He became European middleweight champion in 1912 and won the European light heavyweight and heavyweight titles in 1913. The following year, he fought Gunboat Smith, the "White Heavyweight Champion of the World" (African American Jack Johnson still held claim to the world's heavyweight