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

Louis said," Carnera had nothing they were looking at his size not his talent." How do you feel about that?

 

You have kind of said it yourself here.

Bowe was a superheavyweight who liked to fight on the inside or at mid-range.

This is something that is always treated as a fundamental weakness in a superheavyweight before the 1980s.

Carnera fought like that early in his career, before Abe Attell taught him to use his reach better.

Carnera controlled the range well keeping smaller opponents on the end of his jab, moving so that they had to come to him, and timing them at mid-range or on the inside when they moved in.

These are exactly the tactics that are routinely praised with modern superheavyweights.

Manny Steward would not have been able to improve him significantly.

 

The opening statement is so fatuously illogical it is downright absurd!

I'm a huge fan of Lennox Lewis , a fan of his talent, not his size!
You've lost the plot big time!

 

Why am I a popularist? Liston was not the beneficiary of fights fixed in his favour Carnera definitely was ,there is absolutely no denying this! Williams is one of the biggest punchers of all time Carnera was dropped by men who were never considered punchers including Sharkey whose ko % was 24%! Carnera lacked top end power, and a top end chin ,those are the facts , and will remain so,despite any amount of revisionist spin you try and put on things.

 

Louis gave contradictory testimonies about Carnera.

If you make a big issue of this statement, they it is only fair to look at where he praised him as well.

 

Tell you what, you produce the positive ones and I'll produce the negative ones. How's that?

 

Time to ante up!

 

Let’s start by looking at the lists of his best opponents that Louis produced over the years.

All the ones that I have seen had Carnera somewhere.

 

In 1951 he gave this top 10:

1. Billy Conn
2. Max Baer
3. Jimmy Braddock
4. Max Schmeling
5. Tommy Farr
6. Ezzard Charles
7. Primo Carnera
8. Jersey Joe Walcott
9. Bob Pastor
10. Arturo Godoy

In 1964 he gave this top 5 :

1. Billy Conn
2. Max Baer
3. Max Schmeling
4. Jersey Joe Walcott
5. Primo Carnera

We would have to consider these lists as endorsing Carnera to some extent.

 

Looks like it misses to me. To be frank, it looks such a poorly delivered punch, I don't think Sharkey could confirm whether or not it landed.

 

Larry Gaines is fighting him with smaller gloves right in front of your eyes.
Not a peep about that? Lol

 

Zoom in or slow it down, or play it frame by frame, because it lands. Big time.
Look how Sharkeys falls on top of his collapsed legs. You don't fake that.
That hook catches him badly too.

 

Play it frame by frame.
Do you have the MacBook where you can pinch to zoom?
Go ahead and do that on the gif of the uppercut punch.