BoxRec

Just heard on Radio 5 live that the legendary boxing commentator has passed away.
This is very sad news indeed; he was a great broadcaster.

yeah i've just heard.

sad day. :(

RIP

Great man

Legend...

Another sad day for the boxing world..

RIP Harry.

This is a sad day, Harry you were a legend who'll sorely be missed.

R.I.P to a true great

RIP

gonna be missed

RIP

'Oh my God...he's won the title back at 32!' Spine tingling.

RIP Harry. Now both he and Reg Gutteridge have gone, that truly is the end of a certain broadcasting era.

Yes indeed Ian.

RIP Harry, a boxing legend.

"Get in there Frank!"

RIP.

i was confused as I thought he'd already died but it was Reg Gutteridge.
Nevertheless, RIP, a very enjoyable commentator to listen to. (Unlike that w*nker Alan Green that renders any football match on 5-live unlistenable..for instance).

Thoughts go out to his friends and family.

R.I.P

Just loved Harry Carpenter's voice, such an authority on the sport, calm and cool when need be, and quick with the hyperbole when and where it was deserved.

Great, great man......RIP

Fantastic boxing man.

RIP

He had a good run. 84 years old. I`m sure he experienced some terrific times in his life, due to his involvement with boxing.

RIP

An icon of a past era.
The polite, bashful Carpenter diminutive in his stature was a giant amongst sports broadcasters.

I never understood why the cut glass pronounciation of Harry allied with his affability and encyclopaedic knowledge of the sport isnt as heralded as Reg Gutteridge. Gutteridge could at times be very disrespectful to fighters alwasy referring to them as belonging to "stables" etc.

Harry in my opinion is the greatest boxing commentator of all time.

He could carry a commentary on his own. Listen to his Starling-Honeyghan commentary and he just paints an incredible tapestry of the picture unfolding . He is also so well liked and respected that a ringside Mike Tyson at the absolute height of his fame and powers sits with Harry for a couple of rounds impromptu.

Would he do that with showtime or HBO??

The work Harry did in 1986-early 87 with Tyson on the greatest HW's series with a very very young Tyson was just incredible.

May god put light on his grave.

Short, succinct, accurate comments from a man who knew and loved his subject.

"He's given it to Joe Bugner.........How in the world can you take away a mans three titles like that?"

"Ugh... and I've just been struck on the head by a bottle"

"He's up at about three, Clay, he still doesn't know where he is, they're working furiously on him in the corner"

"He's the champion of the world... Champagne Charlie is me name"

He's been missed on the big stage since the use of screaming over reacting celebrity commentators have been steadily replacing the old style oxbridge set of broadcasters.

Never a better commentator.

God bless Harry.

Legend.

"If he (Wharton) gets this one it will go down with the loaves and the fishes.."

- Carpenter during the final round of Henry Wharton v Fidel Castro Smith

R.I.P.

mugabi wrote:An icon of a past era.
The polite, bashful Carpenter diminutive in his stature was a giant amongst sports broadcasters.

I never understood why the cut glass pronounciation of Harry allied with his affability and encyclopaedic knowledge of the sport isnt as heralded as Reg Gutteridge. Gutteridge could at times be very disrespectful to fighters alwasy referring to them as belonging to "stables" etc.

Harry in my opinion is the greatest boxing commentator of all time.

He could carry a commentary on his own. Listen to his Starling-Honeyghan commentary and he just paints an incredible tapestry of the picture unfolding . He is also so well liked and respected that a ringside Mike Tyson at the absolute height of his fame and powers sits with Harry for a couple of rounds impromptu.

Would he do that with showtime or HBO??

The work Harry did in 1986-early 87 with Tyson on the greatest HW's series with a very very young Tyson was just incredible.

May god put light on his grave.

Great post. Sums it up perfectly for me.

Harry Carpenter was one of the last of an all but disappeared breed of commentators, along with the likes of Richie Benaud, Peter O'Sullivan, Brian Johnston, Dan Maskell, and Peter Aliss, who could convey drama and tension and excitement through superb diction, timbre and conjuring the perfect turn of phrase for the moment. They didn't have to spend the whole match screeching like a Brazilian football commentator to hold the attention. And because they were so understated, when they did get excited, it actually had impact.

"Get in there, Frank" seems so tame by today's standards, but it still sends a tingle down my spine to think about, because Carpenter was doing what we were all doing: losing our cool and imploring Bruno on. But it wouldn't have had that effect, wouldn't have generated such empathy, if he hadn't been such an understated, reserved commentator.

Carpenter, like Benaud, seemed to intrinsically understand two things: first, that one should engage one's brain before saying anything, because saying nothing is better than saying something inane, and second, that this was TV, not radio. Viewers didn't need you to say, "There's a left jab, and then a right, and it's countered with a left hook, and now he goes to the body," because we could see all that. They mostly added to the visuals, rather than describing them, and were quite comfortable in silence -- a commentary paradigm, which, as I said, is now sadly disappearing, as viewers are constantly insulted by being told what they are seeing in the most vapid way imaginable. ("Yeah, so, he makes some room, whips in an early ball, the big man's taken a gamble on the near post and nods it in.")

And not only was Carpenter a brilliant boxing commentator who became the "voice" of his sport, but he actually transcended the sport, becoming a star and gaining respect from the sport among the general public.

Beyond that, without knowing him, he seemed like a lovely man.

I would say that he'll be missed, and I'm sure for his family he will; but for me, he was missed as soon as he retired from boxing commentary.

Rest in peace.

The best in the business IMO. Great the he retired at the right time, even when he returned when the BBC returned covering early Harrison fights and Lewis out in South Africa he showed he still had it.

Showed Silence was golden sometimes and let the action do the talking.