What if ?-Georges Carpentier vrs Harry Wills (1920)

[Caractacus]

In Paris France
and the winner gets a guarenteed shot at the HW title in Paris
(despite the winner's race,religion or ethnicity)

[Caractacus]

Interesting enough,i had read somewhere that Jack Johnson was offered a fight with Harry Wills by a NY promoter
in Jersey City in 1921.
He was offered 37 thousand dollars plus 35 percent of the gross.
Johnson had plans to announce it to the world when he got into the ring before the Dempsey vrs Carpentier fight.
However Johnson was still incarcerated inLlevenworth at the time of the offer
(he was released a week after the Dempsey vrs Carpentier fight in July 1921.

[Kalan]

That would obviously be a mismatch and a very easy win for Wills.. An interesting and competitive fight was supposed to be Wills vs Fulton... Fred won 20 straight fights over some pretty good boys after his loss to Dempsey and was going great guns... Til he met Wills and took a in 3.

But he made 25,000 for fighting the Panther, which was a fortune in those days.

[scorpio83]

I strongly agree, Harry Wills would destroy Georges Carpentier in 1920 and he would do worse on the Orchid Man than destroying Fred Fulton.

[Caractacus]

but how well could Harry Wills take a punch ?
Suppose The Orchid Man landed a big right hand on the point of his chin early,
how do you think he would have re-acted ?

[Kalan]

Pretty well... Considering Wills was a big Heavyweight who could punch like one -- and Carpentier was a small Light Heavyweight,

[klompton]

Carpentier would have been crushed by Wills.

[Caractacus]

No he would'nt have.
Wills had already been knocked out 4 times previously.
Wills was knocked earlier by
Batling Jim Johnson in 1917
Sam Langford in 1916
Sam Langford in1914
George Kid Cotten in 1912
( and Sam McVea had defeated him by points in 1914)
Paulino Uzcadun also brutally knocked him out in 1927.
also since it was well known that Harry Wills was loosing badly to Jack Sharkey and on the verge of being Ko'd
before he fouled himself out of the fight
you got to figure that maybe he was also probably loosing badly when he foulded out in his fights with
Andres Castano in 1929
and Bill Tate in 1922.
PS Viva La France !