Best five wins thread. Lineal / Ring Magazine heavyweight champions.

A bit of preliminary analysis for Max Baer.

No doubt most people will have Schmeling at #1, and Carnera at #2, but who are the obvious contenders for the remaining places?

In his pre title run, the second Schaff fight, and the second Levinsky fight, were both important in establishing him as a top contender. He beat a lot of name fighters in 31 and 32, but those are probably the most important apart from obviously the Schmeling win.

In his post title run, you have some good wins as well.

The second Farr fight is a good win for the era.

I think Tony Galento was ranked #1 when Baer beat him, so a very good win on paper, even if Galento was probably slipping.

Then you have a very dominant win over the highly rated Pat Comiskey.

Plenty to play with there!

 

It is almost impossible to prove a dive, but some standards of evidence are more compelling then others.

 

The evidence provided in the cases of Rioux,Clark,Chevalier is pretty compelling as far as I and the commissions were concerned.
PS There is a moron responding to my posts, asking me questions , even though he knows I do not respond to his posts.
I wonder how seriously stupid you would have to be to continue to do that?

 

It makes sense in the context of Carnera's career. He was basically a circus performer who they spotted and thought they could build him up into an attraction. So it's plausible they'd pay off some local fighters to make him look good and garner some attention. Even so, according to See, some of his early fights were on the level. He also wasn't looked after that well and had no proper training early on, though later on he worked with Abe Attell, who helped him improve his jab.

But over time he did actually learn to fight and I think after a certain point, his handlers just stopped giving a damn. Moreover, there will always be some fighters who can't or won't be bought off, especially at world level. Like Sharkey himself said, he had nothing to gain by tanking the Carnera fight (Sharkey also said Carnera improved between their fights). So just throw him in with Sharkey, Gains, Levinsky etc, take the money, and see what happens. And as it happened, he wasn't that bad.

 

Baer

Schmeling
Carnera
Schaaf
Farr
Levinsky

 

Baer;
Schmeling
Carnera
Schaaf
Farr
Galento
(copied Jason Thomas' homework)

Don't get the King Lvinsky love, he was pretty average, Griffiths was my near miss.I don't rate Max as high as many either but the Schmeling win was super.

 

He was ranked in the top ten for a long time.

That in itself makes him a very successful contender.

What I do question, is that everybody seemed to get their title shot by beating him!

 

Baer

Schmeling
Carnera
Farr
Schaaf
Levinsky

 

At the end of his rope, but still ranked #1.

That makes it a tricky one to judge.

 

Maxie Baer:

1. Max Schmeling
2. Primo Carnera
3. Earnie Schaff
4. Tommy Farr
5. Tony Galento

I'd like to hear some details about Campbell, Griffiths, Santa and Kennedy.

 

I will see what I can dig up tomorrow.

 

Schaaf is a good win for Baer disputed though it was.Schaaf v Carnera was criminal.
Campbell was hit in the back of the head by Baer as he turned to go to his corner.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...FF53A9F864C155C2A9B6FF53A9F864C15&FORM=WRVORC

 

Galento was coming off a win over Lou Nova (albeit a pretty notorious one). He also only turned 30 that year, even though he looked nearer to 50!

 

yeah, Griffith was in the mix with Heeney, Uzcuden, Levinsky, Stribling, Poreda, Schaaf, Godfrey, Risko, just benind the 5 champions( plus Loughran?) from Tunney to Louis, maybe better than some.