Best modern day heavies that Carnera & Willard have best chance against

Kevin McBride, Tex Cobb, and Scott Ledoux

 

Josh Cobb, Bronco Billy Wright, George Arias

 

Here we go again

 

They beat guys like Pianeta,Charr, Wach, Stiverne,Arreola,Browne,Molina.

 

No way. The best Stiverne and Browne beat them, probably knockout. A prime Arreola is competitive as well.

 

IYO.

 

Of course

 

Although I would not favor them over Joshua, it would be less of an upset than say "Douglas-Tyson" was viewed at the time. I would give them a perfectly good chance over the rest of the out of shape garbage masquerading as legitimate heavyweight contenders today.

 

Carnera and Willard are from that school of thought where the next heavyweight champ was "discovered" in some remote backwoods whose gifts were so prodigious compared to the rest of humanity they only needed a few sessions with a trainer to be polished up and presented to the public, a title shot looming from day one.

Putting these guys in with modern elite pros would be a travesty... unless you still subscribe to the above school of thought.

 

What gifts?
Their size?

Willard was pretty big for his day (Even though there were other SHWs), but Carnera was one of countless, perhaps hundreds of SHWs from his era. If he were only successful due to his size, what about the careers of every single other SHW of the era. Why weren’t they given the “circus treatment?”

 

They should probably be favored over everyone who isn’t Wilder, Joshua or Fury.