I'd need to see more (and better) video of Langford before I pick him to pull this one off. Pardon the apostasy. Please pardon the heresy.
I'm thinking this too. Firstly, Carnera wasn't as bad as he gets made out to be. He was a decent fighter and actually has some respectable wins. He won his title from a Hall of Famer, successfully defended it against a Hall of Famer and lost it to a Hall of Famer. Of course Sam is in a different stratosphere in terms of greatness, but still, conceding 90lbs in weight, 11" in reach and 10" in height to a heavyweight champion is a tall order, even for the greatest of fighters. I don't see Carnera winning by KO. Can Sam KO him? Did he hit harder than Baer and Louis? Neither could keep Carnera on the canvas and both were a couple of sizes bigger than Langford. The best big heavies Sam fought usually lasted the distance with him. I'll go for Langford on points but Carnera is not a massive underdog here.
Yeah, Carnera could certainly win it. But I'd pick Langford at his best to get the KO before 15 rounds are over.
I don't think Carnera is the bum many make him out to be. I see a lot in him, especially heart and conditioning. But, well, Sam was a great one. Granted a small great one, but still, I would pick Sam to chop him down.
Yeah, all things being equal... But here we are talking about someone who is consistently ranked among the best all time p4p who, though by no means a heavyweight, managed to be successful and effective at heavyweight...taking on a consensus bottom-5 all time HW champ. If this were a matter of Langford vs. Lewis then yes, size would enter the equation and you could say "Langford while better p4p would lose due to Lewis' size". Lewis is a different flavor of super heavy than Carnera, though.
I would pick Langford fairly conformtably. He had enough when past his best to still beat big guys like Bill Tate who was 6'6" and 240, and George Godfrey who was 6'3" and 220 lbs (and not coincidentally beat the ****ed out of Carnera in Golota-esque fashion).
To my knowledge, in no individual fight did this occur. But Wills failed to beat him in his first two tries, in which Langford also posted a knockout win. So the green Wills managed a very close fight in their first and a stoppage loss in their second fight. This bodes reasonably well for Langford against the bigger but considerably less good Carnera, I think.
Honestly I can't even picture this fight. Is this the shortest and tallest matchup involving HOF HW fighters?
:think Tommy Burns vs. Nikolai Valuev would technically be the shortest vs. tallest champ, but yeah, the latter has been HOF eligible since 2015's ballot and not been inducted twice in a row now, and unlikely to ever be. :!:
...presumably Wladimir Klitschko is getting in there somewhere in the early 2020's, however, so at that point him versus Burns will be the one that fulfills your criteria. :good