Jack Sharkey vs. Primo Carnera I (longest available version now on youtube)

"Several spcrts writers that met Carnera came away with the idea he wasn't the sharpest knife in the box."

How many of these sports writers were fluent in four languages and died multi-millionaires?

"threats to his children"

I have read that he visited his children. I have never read that there were any threats. What is the source for that? Threatening children would be a really insane way to try to fix a fight. The public would be outraged. The authorities would leave no stone unturned. The perpetrators would not have to worry about lawyer fees as they would all be killed resisting arrest, and nobody would be very concerned about it.

There is a biography of Sharkey I have ordered written by James Curl with input from the Sharkey family. Thomas Hauser in a review quotes Curl quoting the elderly Sharkey just before his death:

"I'd never have done anything like that. I was raised Catholic. I was raised to be honest. I was on top of the world. Why would I purposely lose?"

 

Terry Leigh Lye and Thomas Myler two boxing writers state in their books that Sharkey abruptly cut camp and raced home in his car to check on the health and safety of his children. Carnera died in poverty , he wasnt fluent in 4 languages his English was passable with malapropisms, his native tongue was Italian and, like most latins he had a pretty good working vocabulary of Spanish.Sharkey as co manager of Schaaf along with Johnny Buckley whose own reputation was less than sterling, knew Schaaf was in no condition to fight Carnera but they didnt pull him out, neither did they make any attempt to postpone the fight.He was raised a Catholic! Oh that means he would never do anything wrong then!lol

 

How unusual was visiting his children for Sharkey? Did he never leave camp to visit his family in other fights such as against Schmeling or Walker? Has anyone checked?

What evidence do these writers have about the reason for Sharkey going home? Is it possible one of his children was sick and he went home for that reason? If you are going to claim someone was making threats on a child's life, give direct evidence of it. It is beyond a crazy idea. What if Sharkey just went to the FBI? Which is the logical response.

"Carnera died in poverty"

The internet claims he died worth $6 million dollars. I know the story about how poor he supposedly was when he left the US at the end of his career in the 1930's, but what I know happened is that he immediately made 10 movies in Italy. He was an extensive landowner. Max Schmeling in his autobiography mentions visiting Carnera at his home in 1944 and finding him living comfortably. The war might have caused him some financial problems but he soon entered lucrative movie and wrestling careers after the war.

"He wasn't fluent in 4 languages"

He spoke Italian, French, Spanish, and English. He might have had trouble with English in the early thirties, but ended up speaking it well enough, an achievement for a man introduced to it as an adult. The people who say he was fluent spoke with him and remarked about how surprisingly articulate he was. Did your writer sources actually ever speak with him? It isn't surprising he spoke French well. He lived in Paris as a teenager years before becoming a boxer.

I just found a source on the internet which states that adjusted for inflation, or in 2021 dollars, Carnera's net worth at death was $47.3 million dollars. Not surprising, considering not only his boxing career, but lucrative acting and wrestling careers.

 

Why dont you contact the authors and ask them for their sources?Carnera came out of boxing broke.

"The Carnera victory to become heavyweight champion was a tremendous upset, one of the biggest in boxing of the decade. Many speculated that Sharkey had been paid to take a dive. Though Jack denied this to his dying day, his own wife admitted her suspicions.

Because Carnera is regarded by most historians as a flash-in-the-pan fluke in the heavyweight championship, the fact that Carnera made two successful defenses of his title often goes overlooked. On October 22, 1933, in a victorious return to his native Italy, Carnera fought a rematch with ranked contender Paolino Uzcudun of Spain, winning by fifteen round decision before dictator Benito Mussolini himself. He then traveled to Miami, Florida to take on former light heavyweight champion and future hall of famer Tommy Loughran on March 1, 1934. This match produced the greatest weight disparity in world title fight history. The Italian goliath outweighed his challenger by eighty-four pounds. In his final title bout appearance, the aging Loughran gave a good showing and won several rounds with his smooth boxing style, but was nevertheless outgunned, outmuscled, and outsized by the champion. Carnera repeatedly stepped on his challenger's feet, breaking a toe. Injured and against a much bigger, younger foe, Loughran ultimately fell victim to Carnera's reach and stamina. Carnera took the fifteen round decision.


The Baer Fight
Somewhere around this point, the champion appeared in a movie titled The Prizefighter and the Lady. The popular film starred Carnera alongside several other big name boxing figures, including Jack Dempsey, James J. Jeffries, Jess Willard, and the current number one contender, Max Baer of California. The hard-hitting and charismatic Baer's recent knockout of Max Schmeling turned a lot of heads and made a match between he and the champion a highly anticipated showdown. On June 14, 1934, at Madison Square Garden, the pair finally did battle in a most unusual and chaotic affair. The champion went down in the opening round under a barrage of punches from the wild-swinging challenger. Sensing a first round knockout imminent, Baer pressed forward for the first time, putting together a ruthless series of punches that sent Carnera down twice more. Carnera showed tremendous heart in surviving the round, but was clearly unaware of his surroundings when the bell rang and he wandered into the wrong corner. Exhausted by his futile efforts to put the giant away, Baer tried desperately to finish the still groggy champion off in the second, but to no avail. The pair ended up clinching and wrestling for the next several rounds, with both men frequently tripping and falling to the canvas. During one of these tumbles, Baer got laughs from the crowd by looking over at Carnera and joking, "Last one up's a sissy!" Eventually Carnera, having steadied himself, began to use his size and reach against the challenger. The Italian was never known as a quality boxer, but, against the crude and exhausted challenger, he had had enough skills to gain a lead on the score cards as the fight entered the tenth round. Toward the end of that round a roundhouse right from Baer turned the tide once again, sending Carnera fumbling across the ring. A follow-up fusillade of blows sent the champion down. The brave but battered Carnera made it to his feet just in time to hear the bell clang to signal the conclusion of the round. The minute rest did little to revive Carnera's senses. He came out for the eleventh, but proved to be little more than a gigantic target, going down twice more before the referee stopped the contest. Including the wrestling falls in the middle of the fight, Carnera hit the deck eleven times in eleven rounds. Carnera had lost the championship.

Joe Louis & Later Years
Taking five months off to regroup following the embarrassing fiasco with Baer, Carnera returned to the ring for a tour of South America in late 1934. He fought three opponents of mediocre to poor quality, winning all four bouts. Only Victorio Campolo of Argentina lasted the twelve-round distance. Then he returned to America to knock out an unheralded giant by the name of Ray Impellittiere with a devastating left hook in the ninth round.

On June 25, 1935, Carnera took on his first top ranked opponent since Baer when he faced up-and-coming Joe Louis from Detroit. At this point the undefeated but inexperienced Louis was regarded as an untested prospect and thus many became interested in the results of a match between the ex-champion and the raw novice. But, because of the political turmoil created from Italy's recent invasion of Ethiopia, the fight took on a meaning that spread beyond the realm of sports. Ethnic tensions within New York City grew so dangerous in fact that many powerful people in the city pushed for the fight's cancellation. Despite--or possibly because of--the controversy, 62,000 paying customers showed up at Yankee Stadium to watch Louis annihilate his gargantuan foe. After the first round, Carnera's face dripped with blood, some of his lower teeth having been pierced through his upper lip. The remaining rounds only prolonged the inevitable, as Carnera proved easy target practice. A right hand in the sixth round sent the ex-champion "down slowly, like a great chimney that had been dynamited," wrote journalist John Kiernan. Exhibiting the same heart as he had against Baer, Carnera rose dazedly to his feet, only to collapse once again under another Louis attack. He bravely stood up yet again, just in time to be battered to the floor a third time. Carnera had the honor of being on his feet yet again before referee Arthur Donovan stopped the fight.

The decimation at the hands of Joe Louis was Carnera's final performance as a major contender in the heavyweight ranks. He managed a few more wins against moderate level opponents on American soil before suffering two consecutive losses to the much smaller Leroy Haynes in 1936 and returning to Europe. The change of locale did nothing to change Carnera's faltering career. Returning to his native Italy to live in peace, Carnera's financial problems prompted his return to the ring after the end of World War II. Though he won his first two comeback bouts, three subsequent losses prompted the permanent completion of his boxing career. Still in need of cash, he resorted to a semi-successful professional wrestling career in America and later starred as the villain in several low budget movies. When there was no more money to be made, he once again returned to Italy, where he died of cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism on June 29, 1967, at the age of sixty." Box Rec

 

I've seen Carnera on screen in middle age talking his English was far from fluent.

 

You don't think it unusual to break camp when training for a title defence and travel across States to check on your kids?Yeah okay, it happens all the time.

 

I advise googling "Villa Carnera" photos and you see for yourself his home in Sequals. It is a gated estate with an extensive garden and even nude statues. The house is large and there are also adjacent buildings. There are also photos showing several rooms. A pretty impressive home for someone broke and poverty stricken.

Does it occur that these sports writers did not do any extensive research and knew nothing much about his financial status at any point.

As for his English, he has filmed interviews in English at least as far back as 1933. I guess "fluent" like everything else is subject to interpretation, but he communicated well enough, despite an accent, for me to understand his basic points.

"I think Mr. Loughran was the logical contender because he beat Baer and Sharkey. He beat everybody." "He is a very clever boxer. A skillful boxer. A wonderful boxer." "I will fight anyone, anywhere."

Let's just say he spoke in 1933 his 4th language better than I speak any 4th language, so I am not going to throw stones.

 

It is about a three hour drive from New York to Boston. Sharkey's camp was listed as in Orangeburg, a bit north of NYC. I don't know what every fighter does, but Sharkey could have done roadwork, and a workout, and then been driven to Boston to spend a few hours with his family before being driven back and still been back at camp at a reasonable hour. He could have napped in the car if someone else did the driving. I don't see this as being so illogical no boxer would possibly ever do it if for any reason if he wanted to visit his family.

Certainly I need a bit more than this to accept that "the mob" was threatening to murder his children.