How would you rate Primo Carnera's title reign?

same here on that last point. but watching the sharkey fight and the way sharkey was able to handle his tall, uncoordinated ass until the "knockout", i doubt it was legit. and i doubt many of his top tier wins were legit as well, fair or not, because of it and his reputation. watching him, he had a good jab and great "step on the opponents foot". that's it. otherwise i've seen more skill in brawls behind the hockey arena back home

 

the only reason i think the ko is legit vs sharkey is that a few seconds before, sharkey lands a hard right with bad intentions. if he was throwing a fight i don't think he'd go at carnera like that. but who knows for sure. i'll give primo the benefit of the doubt. he will always be one of the worst heavyweight champs ever.

 

i don't know, to me sharkey seemed able to slip carnera's punches without missing a step and then suddley "forget" how. that left hook of sharkey was brilliant to and he landed it almost at will for stretches. to go from that, and being a big tough mother, to getting knocked out by carnera is far fetched to me

 

"Once upon a time ,there was this giant".

 

His title reign wasn´t any more corrupt than ony one others IMO. As was his title winning effort. It was a quite even fight and then Carnera delivered probably the best punch of his career - IMO comparable to the one with which Marciano knocked out Walcott. Uzcudun was a long time contender/fringe contender in the division that fought everyone - Schmeling, Louis, Loughran, Walker, Baer (who he beat!) - a very credible opponent for a title match. A tough brawler with a decent punch and a good chin, perhaps comparable to Chuvalo or Bonavena. Loughran is next. Loughran beat him before and beat quite a few hws around that time. Also a credible opponent. Carnera perhaps turned in his best performance outside of the Sharkey fight and beat him, guess he learned to use his size much better than the first time.
Winning the title against a borderline hw atg.
Beating a credible longtime contender as his first defence.
Beating a lhw atg and very credible contender for the second defence.
Losing the title to a borderline hw atg.
I think that´s a decent reign, better than Willard´s for example. And he held longer on that title than anybody else in the post-Tunney/pre-Louis era! Who would have thought that, eh?

 

His title reign was prety good for as long as it lasted, in terms of level of activity and quality of opposition.

Loughran was a highly ranked contender and Paulino Uzcdun was a name fighter.

Whatever the outcome of the Max Baer fight, he still took the fight.

 

Uzcudun was 34,and never a puncher.

Loughran and Carnera only fought once,,Loughran conceded 84lbs to Carnera yet was never in danger of being stopped ,so where was Carnera's big punch?
Loughran was on the slide, and lost his next four fights after his title challenge.

 

Did I remember that wrong? I thought they fought twice. Hm.

Anyway, yeah Uzcudun was 34, so? He would go on to give Schmeling a tough time. He was still a good and credible contender.
And Loughran, well, that he wasn´t in danger of getting knocked out is no wonder, Carnera wasn´t a big puncher and Loughran was quite slippery. But in the year before he faced Carnera he went 6-1 all against hws with wins over Levinsky, Hamas and Sharkey and a sole loss to Risko, by SD. That´s quite a decent run and certainly qulaified him for a title shot. After wards he lost to Neusel, again Risko, Carattoli and drew with Godoy to end this year. ´34 wasn´t a good one for sure but going into the title fight he certainly was as qualified as anybody else.

 

Carnera fought more than his fair share of "set ups", and was a manufactured fighter and had wiseguys as managers, and probably benefited from some "funny stuff", but the idea that he fought almost an entire career of "outright fixes" in some unparalleled sophisticated conspiracy is pure fiction.

He was more like a modern groomed heavyweight prospect than what the boxing world before him was used to.
Carnera was rated as a pretty good champion by many people at the time.
His reign was okay, but obviously too short to rank high. I'd give him a "C" though.