BOXING.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1921, Page 3

BOXING.

THE GREAT FIGHT.

DEMPSEY'S TERRIBLE BIX>WS. IMPERVIOUS TO RETALIATION. COLLEGE BOY AGAINST GIANT. Details of the fight between Carpentier ana Dempsey for the world’s heavy-weight boxing championship at Jersey City on July 2, show that except , for a brief period in the second round, Carpentier only had an outside chance. Dempsey won with his terrific punches. He found out in the first round that he could take the much-vaunted right-handed punches of the Frenchnnan, and waded in, fighting in his typical style. It was Dempsey's fight, and he pounded the Frenchman, absolutely disregarding his defence. Dempsey's punches were wearing down the challenger in the first round, in the middle of the second round Carpentier got a staggering rigtt flush to Dempsey's jaw. It rocaed the champion against the ropes, and the crowd yelled like maniacs, when Carpentier followed up his advantage with rights and lefts to Dempsey's jaw. The Frenchman probably lost the fight in this period, as he was unable to deliver a hard enough punch to, knock Dempsey out.

In the ttird round Carpentier continued a running fight, He tried several fancy steps, and got away, when Dempsey backed him against the ropes for the third time. Deunpsey showed speed, and cracked Carpentier with a terrible left as he tried to get away Carpentier was missing with the right. He would take a desperate chance to win with one blow, but Dempsey would turn away, and the Frenchman's blow would slide off the champion's head. Carpentier landed two rights on Dempsey's jaw, and the champion laughed. Dempsey retaliated with another cruel body punch, and the Frenchman looked at the French section of the press box and smiled feebly. He was bleeding at the nose, and \hl3 mouth was opened, blood running from cut lips. It was strikingly apparent that tff could not last much longer. HOW THE END CAME. When the fourth round started Kearns yelled from Dempsey's corner, "Go after him now 1' Dempsey was wide open, and sneering at the Frenchman. He delivered the knock-out punch a few moments later. Carpentier fought back gamely, but was outclassed, and much of the time he was going away from the champion, who once half-knocked and half-pushed him through the ropes.

The finish was absolutely -in sight at the beginning of the fourth round. A continual bombardment was weakening Carpentier, and after 55 seconds' fighting the Frenchman sagged noticeably at the knees, and he crumpled up when a vicious right to the face and a left to the chin landed. Carpentier was not unconscious, • - was sorely distressed. As he lay curled up on iris side tho referee began to count, while Dempsey grinned sardonically, leaned -against the ropes, watching the rise and fall of the referee’s hands. Gamely, yet weakly, Carpentier rose at the count of

"Nine" Dempsey leaped at him like a flash, and another crushing left to the body and right to the chin hurled Carpentier to the floor. At t7?e count of "Eight” Carpentier tried to rise, but failed. Carpentier finished flat on his face, with his legs and arms outstretched. Ho took an unmerciful beating. He had a • .it under the eye, and his head was battered viciously until his face was swollen and bleeding. At the end the crowd cheered the conqueror, and then the vanquished Frenchman's supporters clung round his comer until he revived, and staggered from the rlhg.

Carpentier told his friends in the dreslng room that he regarded Dempsey as the most formidable hitter of all time. M. Deschamps. Carpentier’s manager, said it was another case of.tho Stanley Ketchell match against Jack Johnson. CARPENTIER’S GREATEST PERFORMANCE. New York sporting writers are unanimous that Dempsey was groggy from Carpentier's onslaught in tte second round, but the writers agree that when the Frenchman failed then to land a knock-out he lost his chances of winning, because his superhuman efforts left him practically as exhausted as Dempsey was at the end of the second round. The third round found Carpentier unable to recuperate ranldly enough to* overcome tte powerful rain of blows which Dempsey showered on the head, face, and body, and Carpentier was swaying and sagging badly at the end of this round.

A surgeon found a compound fracture of Carpentier’s right thumb and sprain of the hand sufficient to make the hand useless. This occurred during the onslaught, in the second round, when Calrpentler simasl|ed Dempsey with his right in the same way as he hit Beckett, making many ringsiders think that the Frenchman was on the verge of winning. Newspaper critics think that the second round produced the greatest fighting in the Frenchman's career, and tte best he ever will be capable of, but even that would be insuffleitent to knock out Dempsey, who had it all his own way thereafter.

Mr. Deschamps says that Carpentier’s thumb was injured during training operations a week previously, but he did not mention it because it looked like framing an excuse for defeat.

A correspondent of the London Times at ; New York says: "My imagination was haunted [ by the spectacle, of the doughty Gallic boxer, < springing into’ the ring smiling, a unodel for any sculptor, and his appearance in less than 20 minutes, stunned, paralysed, and disfigured I as a result of terrific punishment. The con- . trust in the fight was equally poignant. Dempsey. with a scowling, bristling face, was a magnificent spectacle of physical strength, literally towering over his slender and graceful opponent. It impressed the spectators as a college boy confronting a giant. HARDEST BLOW INEFFECTIVE. "In the second round Carpentier broke his thumb and sprained his wrist with hi/; famous right to the jaw, which knocked out Beckett, and would Lave felled almost any man. But it had no effect on the champion. Then the gorilla disdainfully said afterwards that he did not remember the blow. Captain ; Chandler, former amateur champion, agrees i that the punch was delivered with every , ounce of strength flush on the jaw. He doubts j whether any living man could exchange punches with Dempsey." In a considered statement the day after the fight, Carpentier said: "If my hand had | not been injured I might have won. I have j never been tit by a man such as Dempsey, I whose blows are terrific beyond comprehension. Even now 1 am still weak from those terrible blows. I believe I could outbox Dempsey, except at in-fighting, where he held my arms and smashed with one hand. At the beginning I was filled with confidence, and .was cool, while Jack was worried. I therefore decided to reverse my plan of keeping away, which L had previously determined upon,, and rush him, the same as I did with Beckett; but Dempsey held my Lands and hit me so hard on th? ribs and the back of the head that I knew I yas wrong ever to think of mixing it. so 1 agreed with Deschamps’ advice, after th# first round, to play a waiting game. "In the second round his upper-cut broke the skin over my cheek-bone, and hurt mo badly. It maddened me into my great effort, which nearly won. Dempsey was slow in blocking, and for the first time I had tte thrill of seeing him back away. Then I delivered the hardest blow, but was horrified when I felt my hand was broken. I knew it was all over. I oUtboxed him later, but what was the use? He took all I gave for the sake of hitting me. It was the blow over my heart that sent me down and out. I was nearly unconscious, and did not tear the cou’:; of 10. I am heart-broken that I was beat-