Honestly I was rewatching Carnera vs. Louis and was surprised that Primo managed to use his jab quite competently in spite of being outclassed by the Bomber. Which would you nominate as Carnera’s most technical performance?
He was better than advertised vs Louis and yes I’m in the camp that believes he was better than the media portrayed him in the era. However I will say he was not a strong puncher and he didn’t use his size well, his balance was poor. But he is more nimble on his feet than the term “ambling alp” would apply. Plus his jab was above average.
I give Primo 10 out of 10 for the courage he displayed in his fights vs Baer and Louis. But yeah, I’m among those who don’t necessarily buy his KO of Sharkey. IF it was legit, it would seem to make sense to nominate that fight as his greatest performance. Otherwise, there were Primo’s performances in The Prizefighter And The Lady and Mighty Joe Young. Difficult to choose between the two - such was the consistent standard of Da Preem’s acting.
Being famous, living in L.A. in the 1940s and '50s and getting occasional parts in movies, Carnera must've tallied quite a score of Hollywood dames. He had to be a lot happier wrestling than boxing. I wonder why he never got his teeth fixed.
The Schaaf fight where he constantly snaps Schaafs head back with a thudding jab is his best performance. He actually looked quite good in that fight. Followed by his rematch against Sharkey which was legit.
Jabbing, mauling and driving a dazed Loughran all over the ring never fails to impress. How many others did that to Tommy?
Yes, I’ve never seen why people think it was a dive, he clearly ducked into the punch, there was no delay from taking the punch to going down and if you pause on his face after taking the punch, he looks like he’s taking a punch. Also, the punch literally moved him from a ducking position to upright Ashe smoothly went down, no pausing before realising he ‘knew to take the dive’ or anything like that, it was clean punch he ducked into, got lifted upright and smoothly went down, I don’t know why people think it was dive.
The clear answer is Carnera almost shutting out Loughran like Pedro eluded to. Clean or not the Sharkey KO looks like a fluke. The Loughran win was decisive. Loughran had beaten Max Baer and Braddock and was a peer of Tunney and Greb. The Sharkey that stopped Loughran and Scott was considerably more lethal than the typical Jack Sharkey. Not unlike Holyfield in the Moorer rematch.
His greatest opus is knocking out Jack Sharkey, to win the undisputed title, if you share my opinion that the fight was on the level. If you disagree with me, then you must conclude that it was his shutout win over Tommy Loughran, who was then the current #2 contender.
It's a weird looking KO no doubt, but so was Schaaf - until he died the next day. I wouldn't rule out that Carnera's massive girth gave him deceptive power w/in those "arm punches."
