Carpentier Knocks Out Beckett

Date: October 1, 1923 • Location: Bayswater, United Kingdom

Georges Carpentier knocked out former British heavyweight champion Joe Beckett a mere twenty seconds into the first round of their boxing match at Olympia in London.

Georges Carpentier was a French boxer, actor and World War I pilot. A precocious pugilist, Carpentier fought in numerous categories. He fought mainly as a light heavyweight and heavyweight in a career lasting from 1908 to 1926. A French professional champion on several occasions, he became the European heavyweight champion before the First World War. A sergeant aviator during the Great War, he was wounded before returning to civilian life. He then discovered rugby union, playing as a winger.