Best fighter you’d favour Primo Carnera over?

Ideally this takes place pre-war 1933-34 but Baer beating Schmeling might've killed it off.

 

With or without the mob in his and his opponent's corner?

 

Thing is the best guys its usually size related. Marciano, Walcott, Sharkey, Loughran, Jack Johnson, Langford, Miske etc. Johansson and Patterson maybe? HW champs and contenders who are 6 ft 2+ I'd usually favor over him the list of top guys that big I'd pick him to beat is small. Jeffries, Carl Morris, Willard, Coffey, Valuev I'd pick Carnera. I'm going to go on a limb and say Tyson Fury? I hope his fans don't see that. Abe Simon? Valdes? George Godfrey? Phil Scott. Jose Roman. Mike Weaver. Coetzee. Damiani for sure. Lou Savarese.

Torn between thinking Carnera is criminally underrated and actually picking him to favor any elite fighter close to his size. One thing to say someone has a good chance and actually favor them.

Schmeling v Carnera is probably the biggest fight from that era that didn't happen. I wouldn't favor Carnera but I wish it happened. This should have been an European title fight as these were the best 2 Euros of the period but the IBU kept stripping the best European fighters for fighting in the US(I think this was it) and it kept going back to Pierre Charles. In a logical world Schmeling v Uzcudin(who'd both been stripped) would have been for the IBU belt and at one point Schmeling would get around to fighting Carnera.

The real reason they didn't fight is Carneras title run happened when Schmeling had his losing streak and by the time of his resurgence Carnera was on the way out. Not any German/Italy stuff I don't think they were both in the US.

 

Simon is an easy pick, Buddy Baer beat the brakes off of him. But Fury, Valdes, Weaver, Damiani? You gotta know these guys aren't THAT bad, lol.

 

Boxing wasn’t that important. Bigger concerns were afoot to the point no one would have cared.