I like him based on how he ducked no one and he was loved in Italy and his generousity towards children when he had his ice-cream shop. He gets ripped on far too much.
Carnera was good. He was an okay champion, and a decent and intelligent man. He gets ripped because Paul Gallico and Budd Schulberg made sensationalist fictional portraits of him, grossly embellished some negatives surrounding him, and that image of him has been adopted wholesale by generations of American writers and "boxing historians".
HE, Primo was a brave soul in an out of the ring. The beating he took from the young Max Baer, in which he was dropped ELEVEN TIMES and took all that punishment with great bravery...A nice gentle giant was Primo...
Let's not kid ourselves though..if Baer had fought Primo as he did Schmeling..with that mean streak, he'd have broken more than Primo's ankle.
Baer broke his ankle, try to do even a light sparring with a broken ankle..then punched Primo several times when Primo was floored..he was beyond cunning. Say that Primo would close the distance and outpoint Baer that would lost his focus in the later rounds.
