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

He had enormous strength. You can see it in the way fighters bounce off of him when he paws at them. Obviously primos strength was not 100% boxing specific in the way George Foreman could translate his physical strength into punching. But his strength itself was an enormous obstacle. His opponents would be drained from a clinch. Picked up and placed somewhere else. Shrugged across the ring. That’s pretty brutish.

The power Carnera showed flattening Campolo, a man his own size, was a better example of translating power into his punches. And it’s on film to see.

 

This is fascinating! After refusing to rate Williams' power because according to you, he rarely put it to use against top contenders, you credit Carnera's "power" because he knocked out a washed fat journeyman at the end of his career.

As for them being the same size, just one month earlier, Campola was 224.5 to Carnera's 266.5. Same size my arse!

Keep this up Chok! You're always good for a laugh.

 

It just got better

 

A month earlier before 1st Carnera fight, Campolo was listed at 223 lbs - his opponent was listed at 198 lbs. It's Carnera who weigehd 266 lbs in that fight, not Campolo.

In their second fight (and Campolo's last fight) Victorio was listed at 264 lbs.

 

Well, 72 of his 89 wins were by knockout.

 

My apologies! Seems you're correct. Only had 3 hours of sleep so I'm a little slow today. But that is even more to my point, Campolo was 224.5 to Carnera's 266.5,. Hardly the same size.

 

You have a LOT to learn about Carnera (and more specifically his resume) my friend.

 

I think that Carnera wasn't a great puncher, but he definitely was very powerful man. I also think that while he's far from excellent boxer, I wouldn't call him terrible either. He's better than a lot of fighters that fight today and padd the best fighters records.

That said, he's nowhere near Bowe in terms of talent and ability to fight - I say this as someone who finds Bowe highly overrated.

 

I think his boxing acumen took him further than his power did.

 

I just watched nearly all of his fights swag, there could be nothing more to learn.

 

That's not going to tell you, many of his KO wins were against men making their debut, men with no wins to their name, and wrestlers, in some cases all 3! That's not even to mention the staggering amount of fights fixed in his favor.

 

Well, those are good points. However, in some cases it depends on which fights you think were fixes. For instances, Carnera's victories over Sharkey and Schaaf were two of his best imo. I question neither one.

 

I think Sharkey took a dive. And Schaaf had taken a serious life-threatening (and later ending) beating from Baer, returned to the ring far to soon (should've retired for good honestly), and paid the ultimate price.

 

we were discussing physical strength here. Not boxing specific strength. I was sure to clarify this and even used Foreman as the example of physical strength that did transfer to punch. Unlike Primo who has brutish physical strength that was a real obstacle in clinches and pushing etc.

And whilst I always rated Cleveland’s power against a certain level of opponent. We never did got to see Williams spark an elite fighter like we saw primo flatten Sharkey whilst he was the undisputed champion of the World.

so as much as you would like me to express Primo hitting harder than Williams... The truth is Carnera knocked out better fighters than Cleveland regardless of Williams hitting harder or not.

Besides, I rather wish you didn’t mention Williams. We all know you cheapen your credibility mentioning Williams all the time. It’s an obscure distraction of yours that does you no favours.

maybe I should have just said giant? proportionately, Campolo was a giant sized man. He weighed less than Carnera but height and reach wise he was a comparatively giant sized man wouldnt you say?

And please keep up your own brand of comedy. It has been a comfort to me in this lockdown.

 

The "Sharkey dive" doesn't make any sense if one watches the film. However, you may be right about Schaaf. I was reading that he also took a frightful beating at the fists of Tony Galento shortly before the second Baer fight. Tony probably busted his balls.