How would you rate Primo Carnera's title reign?

That should also include writers who created then promoted the "phoney champion angle" that pretty much became the established opinion on carnera's legacy for 50 odd years.

 

If you buy into Carnera's fights being legit ,then you could make a case there too.
I should point out however, that there were plenty of writers questioning Carnera's "results" whilst he was an active fighter, being built up for a title challenge .
The general opinion of Primo is not some retroactive reversal, there were were allways doubters concerning the merits of his wins.

 

Not many writers were questioning the results primo scored against rated contenders, the fighters who carnera made his name upon.
Many small town opponents were already beaten as soon as they saw primo. Such was the hype about carnera's size many of these barnstormer victims decided it wasn’t worth the money to put on much of a show. quite frankly, who could blame them? these were ludicrous mismatches at best

 

Many of Carnera's fights took place in small towns ,Billy Duffy later said this was to keep the prying eyes of the knowledgeable writers away.
At worst they were pre -arranged dives.

 

I read the book Cinderalla Man. In the book, the author claims that the Carnera title victory was fixed.

 

I dont think one should rank Carnera base on the so called "dives" of his early run.

He should get rank base on what he did in the top ten, as champion and post champion, which he did pretty well consider who was around at the time, Louis, Sharkey, Baer, ete.

He was not a poor fighter, but a good one. Not great, but he prove his worth as a contender and champion imo.

Great jab, decent foot work, a great chin, and he knew how to use his size. You pretty much had to be on the top of your game to get by him. I dont think the Sharkey fight was a dive.

 

I dont think so, in the early rounds, Sharkey try to take off Carnera's head pretty much. He was giving Primo a good going over.

Carnera just landed that uppercut from hell and Sharley went limp. and not in the good way . Also took a while for Sharkey to come too.

I also dont see the point of even thowing the heavyweight title fight, because you get more money AS champion than being a former champion(Unless your name happens to be Jack Dempsey)

Sharkey lost a lot of money loseing to Primo for futher purses. I dont think the mob really had the type of money to toss at a defended heavyweight champion to take a dive, when Sharkey could have made that type of money in 3 or 4 easy fights.

 

If it was then you can set fire to my house!

 

How unsophisticate was Carnera?

He was fascinated by poetry and opera, spoke more than a couple of languages, went on to own a number of buisneses, might be one of the happier stories of a heavyweight champion post boxing.

 

Where do you live?:fire

 

Carnera came from peasant stock,from a little village in Sequals which is in north east Italy ,even today Sequals population is just over 2000.

Primo had only rudimentary schooling which ended early because he had to work .
Carnera bought a liqour/deli store after he retired from wrestling ,that hardly qualifies him as a tycoon.

He could speak a little Spanish ,and learned English of a sort, after his career in movies blossomed.

Most Italians/Spaniards can speak some of the others language,because of the similarity.

I wouldn't call Carnera's life particularly happy ,it's true he made money from wrestling,but having a kidney removed ,and living with diabetes are not fortuitous circumstances.

Primo became a heavy drinker when he owned the store ,this exacerbated his diabetes .
and prompted cirrhosis .

Carnera had his left leg shattered in a car accident,this left him wheelchair bound.

Eventually he went back to his village in a wheel chair ostensibly to die.
A mere skeleton of the muscular giant he had been.

Pictures of him arriving home are painful to view.

This content is protected