In David Maragolick's outstanding book Beyond Glory, the story of the two Louis - Schmeling fights , He mentions that Schmeling had opportunities to fight Carnera but avoided it because he was a short puncher and felt Carnera's size would not be a good stylistic match up for him ..... anyone know more about this ?
Difficult to say. I can't identify any point in time, where Schmeling would have been under any particular pressure to fight Carnera, or vice versa. Plausible that it simply didn't happen. The case for them to fight each other, would be that they were both European fighters, trying to assault the American market.
I read this book years ago it didn’t really register with me. Might be true I always thought coming from two fascist nations at the time their governments wouldn’t want the bout to occur. Or at least not press for it. I know had Schmeling gotten the decision over Sharkey in their rematch he was considering a rematch with Larry Gains for the title whom had defeated him when he was just 19 years old. Which is wild considering the govt he represented at the time. I also know he was being lined up to fight Tommy Farr in what would have been billed as a title fight as many believe Max not Joe rightfully deserved the Braddock bout.
Exactly, Carnera lost to Sharkey in 1931 and he lost to Gains and Poreda in 1932, and he hadn't done particularly well with Stribling in his two fights in Europe. The fights that put him over the top as far as contender status were his wins against Lasky, Levinsky and Schaaf, and they all occurred after Max had lost the title to Sharkey. So Primo didn't really earn his shot until then. As far as after Schmeling lost the title, it may be true that he wasn't hot for the match. Fighting a guy as big as Primo was no joke. If he had defeated Baer, he would have been the No. 1 contender while Primo was champion, but he lost so the fight never happened.
I'm not sure if Schmeling avoided "Carnera" but besides Louis obviously his resume does not have any of the best HWs of that era and he barely got through Sharkey. Farr, Braddock, Henry Lewis, Carnera all missing and those are the 4 that would have given him the most trouble besides Louis and Max Baer. I truly don't think Schmeling avoided anyone and this happened organically. In the early 30s he had a 21st century sort of career where someone was usually a disputed champion/number 1 contender and fought whoever the powers that be put in that spot. He fought Stribling cause Stribling won the NBA belt he fought Walker cause Walker did good against Sharkey. His resume just sorta happened. Something about Carnera in particular is that while he was elite for an extended period he was only champ or a top contender for like 2-3. So the window to fight Carnera was brief and during that window Schmeling found himself reeling from the Baer loss. Schmeling would have fought Carnera if he beat Max Baer. He didn't so he didn't. By the time Schmeling got back up top Carnera was gone. Its really that simple.
I don' ,but stylistically I think Primo was made for him,he was always vulnerable to right hands over his jab.
