Benny Leonard calls Primo Carnera's defense "Marvelous"

High praise indeed coming from the master himself.

What I have noticed generally, is that the fighters of the period give Carnera a much better write up than the journalists.

 

The obvious reply is how did a crude swinger like Baer ,who telegraphed his overhand right manage to knock Carnera down 11 times? It's a puzzle isn't it?
Now where are all the anti Italian ,anti Carnera reports you've been prattling on about in your posts?
I hope that if you are unsuccessful in discovering them you have the good grace to admit it.

 

"Carnera had nothing." Joe Louis. "His fights were dubious ."Jack Sharkey.
"He didn't know how to throw a knockout punch ."Larry Gains." The biggest problem was avoiding his huge feet."Tommy Loughran.

 

Compared to Baer, Leonard was right! How many champions have been cruder and less refined than Maxie?lol

 

Interesting to note that Leonard is emphasizing Carnera's use of his superior size and reach, as the basis of his good defense. No specific comments to support his reasoning, other than Carnera's size, are quoted here.

Seems also cruelly ironic that Baer would easily overcome Carnera's defense, from the first round onward, smashing the poor man all over the place.

 

Carnera showed the ability to outbox Baer during time periods in their bout. Carnera main issues were threefold:

1. He was open for right hands being so huge and keeping that left so low.

2. Baer had a killer right hand which he was kissing up on all fight.

3). Carnera hurt his ankle early on in this fight which must have limited his ability to box effectively.

I for one am impressed with Carneras overall skills. Certainly he is not an Elite ATG but he absolutely was much better technically than given credit for.

 

The fighters, who are critical of him, seem to criticise aspects of his game, while praising others.

Pretty much all of them seem to give him a better write up than the contemporary media.

 

It was a training camp Leonard witnessed. Training. We're talking about training.
Not an actual fight but training. Training. Come on man, it was training.

 

Hang on a minute Frank...

...are you saying that "training" has something to do with this, somewhere?

 

Leonard is basically saying exactly the same thing as me and reznick.

Carnera had good technique for optimising his size to his advantage.

 

What do you think went wrong for Carnera, against Baer?