Better All-Around Fighter: Primo Carnera or Riddick Bowe?

Carnera is underrated and Bowe is overrated, but Bowe is better.

 

Far more credible people have said worse about Klitschko.
Plus, you believe him about Sharkey? Unlike his readers, we have the footage on demand.

 

I read that the boxing commission investigated the claims of illegitimacy of Carnera's bouts and found nothing. Is that true?

Could it be that those fans had the same discomfort of trying to understand why a seemingly clumsy giant was succeeding much like the way Bert Sugar felt about Klitschko?

 

I'm surprised anyone else voted Carnera.
Given the tank job that's been his reputation since he was a fighter.

Thank god for footage.

https://streamable.com/g9am8
Interesting how his feather fist twists the 200lb guys head around, with the follow up punch snapping his head back as he momentarily loses consciousness.

 

I'm not a fan of Galico. He was not "boxing people". Just a sensationalist.

 

This is about right. And I don't really like Bowe.

 

with the super heavyweight giants you can dissect which of the two has the better individual jab, which has the stronger punch, the better chin...and then you can throw it all out of the window. Because with this class of fighter it all comes down to who is harder to beat rather than who is actually good. It won't matter.

Being hard to beat doesn't mean just being big. It means being effective despite what you look like.

Without the success and acceptance of modern white giants like the Klitschko brothers, Valuev and Tyson Fury, Primo would not be getting this renaissance. But I for one am glad he is. Being hard to beat goes a very long way. And it always has.

There is a lot of artistic license and libertys taken with Carneras story to discredit him. Perhaps that started with the affair he had with Damon Runyons wife. Damon was credited with coining the "Ambling Alp" slogan.

In truth, Primo was no more mobbed up than ANY world champion. Every champion had mismatch learning fights only Carreras are scrutinised as set ups. George Foreman fought the matches just like them in 1972 but it no more proves that Foreman was a hoax any more than Carnera was in my eyes.

Primo had to develop actual point scoring boxing skill and use his reach to neutralise the work rate, skill and speed of smaller men added to the extra danger from the increased accuracy of the smaller gloves that used to give smaller guys a fighting chance against bigger men. Primo could box, and he had to.

Put Kovalev into a ring with Tyson Fury wearing Old fashioned 6oz gloves and Fury might get carried out on a stretcher before he even gets going.

 

https://streamable.com/96ryh
https://streamable.com/39ucv
https://streamable.com/7s8ir
https://streamable.com/tb36o

"Feather Fisted"

lol. Seriously though.
Let me know when you guys are ready to ditch the Bert Sugar esque 1900's Boxiana talk in favor of footage. I'll be here.

Writers and critics have always had difficulty accepting SHWs.
Been like that from Willard to Fury.
From Fleischer to Kellerman.

 

No not really, several of his opponents had their licences withdrawn after their fights with him.His own manager said he fixed a lot of his fights.

 

But what's the difference between a fix and matching a 270lb guy with a 172lb guy?

 

Did Foreman have pre- arranged fights.Because Carnera did.
Carnera's management was Owney Madden Public Enemy Number 1 nick named The Killer, Broadway Bill Duffy, and Big Frenchy Demange of the Detroit Purple Gang.That's three prominent gangsters Madden did 20 years in Sing Sing where they don't send you for stealing a bottle of milk. Madden was responsible for several murders including that of Mad Dog Vincent Coll.

"As Carnera's manager, Madden arranged fixed fights which led eventually to Carnera's winning the NBA World Heavyweight Championship, in 1933. Carnera held onto the title for nearly a year, until reporters' suspicions about fixed fights led Madden to desert the Italian strongman, setting up Carnera's famous defeat at the hands of Baer on June 14, 1934."


Max Baer was also under the "guidance of this trio his manager of record being Ancil Hoffman. This revisionism is painful.

 

Several of Carnera's bouts were pre- arranged, ie the result had been decided and agreed upon by all parties before hand .Any of Foreman's fit that category?

 

Despite his tremendous ko record, 71 kos in 88 wins for a near 70 ko % Carnera does not feature in any credible list of all time ko artists.Why do you suppose that is?
Carnera was never made the Ring's Fighter Of The Year and in 1933 ,when he won the title from Sharkey, the Ring declined to give an award,[though traditionally anyone winning the heavyweight title usually receives it.]Why do you suppose that is?

 

What you're saying is the Sharkey KO when his head explodes upwards and his legs collapse in a yoga like stance is fake?

And the Baer fight was a fix?
Carnera kept fighting with a fractured ankle after getting pummeled in a fixed fight?

 

Because he was a bumbling foreign SHW and rolled with the wrong crew.