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I'd say Carnera, because Corbett isn't treated like a circus act who couldn't fight.

 

Corbett. People act like literally anyone off the street could come in and splatter him. Carnera gets his dues.

 

Corbett.

People judge Carnera quite badly, but atleast they have plenty of footage and a complete record to do so with.

Some on here would have you believe Corbett wouldn't win a sparring round in any amateur boxing club today.

So I'd say it's clear Corbett is the most underrated, after all the guy was once the goat of boxing.

 

My thoughts exactly. It’s funny, in his book he talks about the degrading quality of boxing whilst Benny Leonard is champion. Stating “feinting is all but extinct” maybe what Johnson was doing posturing for all those rounds had something more to it in there eyes. But I don’t know.

 

Actually I’d say Corbett gets just as much of that treatment. They treat Ketchel, Corbett etc as dancing bears, treated like a sloppy joke with no coordination. In that era you had to stand in resin to stop yourself from tripping over between rounds for a start, secondly it must have some merit because men like Gans to men who saw him lasted as a phenom, Tunney called Corbett something special and it’s plain to see Tunney was next to Louis as far as technically ability. Shame.

 

I wouldn’t go as far as to call it primitive, chances are we just don’t understand. What is different and this is going to sound like a broken record, isn’t always bad. But I think you’re set on your opinion on the matter and I don’t have an argument as to why you could be wrong. For one or more reasons it probably lost favour but I couldn’t tell you exactly why and anyone that could is most likely long gone. TKO6 Corbett Usyk.

 

Both are overated imo.

 

I’d say Corbett only because his name doesn’t come up much. That said I rate carnera higher

 

Corbett is one of the most tricky champions to rate. I think Choynski was a lot better when he fought Corbett than people give him credit, but he had only had a few pro fights. A number of his early fights were against Sullivan's old forces, who certainly aren't the easiest to rate. He beat Sullivan, but he was certainly shot, and hard to ratecin his own right. Then there's his stalemate with Peter Jackson, and losing efforts to Fitz's and Jeffries. There's also his loss and win to Sharkey and McCoy, both with accusations of fixes.

Really not a lot to get a firm rating of him at all.

His resume is lacking, but I don't think we ought to quickly dismiss him. He was obviously viewed as something very special, especially the praise from other top fighters.

I'd have to agree that Carnera has the greater wins, but I can't consider him the better boxer.

Corbett was historically overrated, but I think those people are nearly all long in the grave

Both get severly underrated by some, IMO, but I think overall Corbett gets underrated worse.

 

Corbett is rightly rated low because his footage looks horrible and he's the size of a super middleweight. Even if you want to argue his skills are "underrated" he doesn't have the size to make them work against true heavyweights.

 

I wouldn't say either are underrated tbh. Carnera's way more overrated though so I guess I'd go for Corbett.

 

He was a similar size to many later heavyweight champions

 

As to who’s more underrated - for many, it probably pivots a lot on how you rate Carnera - quite the polarising figure.

With expanded reading I rate Corbett more highly than I used to. One thing I came to realise is that he had more pop to his punch than generally given credit for - like a lot of movers/dancers, more often than not, he simply wasn’t set to punch hard.

Properly executed, taking full advantage of the effect - feinting is a very valuable skill. There are excellent treatments on You Tube of ATGs like Louis, Liston and Monzon masterfully employing feints.

They are advertised just enough (subtle) for the opponent to react as desired but sometimes don’t jump out at the viewing audience unless they’re specifically highlighted.

Some of the feints of the old timers seem a bit overdone - like boys in a schoolyard framing to throw punches but ultimately not throwing anything. There’s no advantage in a feint if you don’t take advantage of putting your opponent in a vulnerable position.

It’s a hard question which makes it a very good question. Maybe Corbett generally gets his due now while Da Preem is perhaps a little bit short ended - so I’ll get off De Fence and say Primo.

 

Corbett was stuck in an era transitioning from barbaric bareknuckle brawling to actual real boxing (marquess of queensberry), and Corbett was one of the pioneers of technique and skill. Corbett was extremely innovative for his time. He revolutionized the concept of lateral movement in gloved boxing. I have no doubt if you place him in a modern era with proper nutrition, weight lifting, world class trainers, amateur boxing...corbett would thrive. Corbett forgot more about boxing than Carnera ever knew.

I think Primo Carnera is extremely overrated because a lot of fight fans today actually think he was a legitimate good heavyweight champion. I regard him as untalented and uncoordinated, with little punching power, and little ability to take a punch. Now with that said, Regardless of how much dishonest help he got early in his career, he seems to have developed into at least a respectable contender on his own merits. Once Mob support was withdrawn and he was on his own, his career didn’t fall apart completely. I'm a huge Joe Louis fan and Louis said Carnera "had nothing," and Louis usually told the truth about opponents and I trust his assessment. So that is kind of where my opinion lies.

Corbett was legitimately a great fighter, who fought the best of his era and more than held his own. Corbett lost to Fitzsimmons and Jeffries, but from everything I've read he won most of the rounds in valiant efforts, and he was an older man when he fought Jeffries. I applaud Corbett for not cowardly hiding behind the color line and gamely fighting a prime Peter Jackson. 61 rounds no matter how he fought is wicked impressive.

I think Corbett looks fluid and impressive in the video footage on available given were talking 120 years ago, then again my grandmother would look impressive boxing Peter Courtney. I like the way he moves and takes angles vs Fitzsimmons.