[scribbs]

By Ted Spoon on April 29, 2013

This writer doesn't know much about wine, but a decent one promises an intricate mix of flavors while the aftertaste sends winos into contemplative bliss.

Evaluating fighters requires a similar process; swirling legacies around our palate to see if we can pick up on those favorable notes contemporaries spoke of. Sometimes the aftertaste spoils what was otherwise a tremendous career, but it's more a feeling than an objective review, and so we continue to sample.

One of these debated classics grew from the vineyards of Lens, but Georges Carpentier did not have the build of a man who could speak at length about merlot; how to knock a man senseless was a different matter, and his sculpt-worthy physique helped the notion come easily.

At seventy years of age Georges was still in admirable trim (verily, he was the antithesis of letting yourself go) but to see his Olympian body suffer bruising didn't quite sit right, like witnessing yobs vandalize a cathedral.

It was in many ways the ideal build, impressive but not stacked; this cultured muscle promised speed as well as strength. A pair of skinny pins is what usually stops a boxer from boasting good symmetry but Carpentier had the whole Manny Pacquiao thing going on with bulging calves.

As a teenage flyweight there was more bone than muscle.

Read rest here - http://www.boxing.com/georges_carpentier_a_curious_vintage.html