Bob Foster vs Primo Carnera

No, its a film of a fight,containing ,imo a very theatrical ko .We cannot see the punch land because Carnera's arm blocks the view,some have said it was his forearm that lands on Sharkey,some his wrist.
It also looks to me as though Sharkey is deliberately bending at the waist to invite the uppercut.
We know Sharkey broke training camp twice and went home to check on his family,we know that several members of the Purple Gang were in his training camp.We know that his manager had an unsavoury reputation,and of course we know that Carnera had fights fixed for him ,his first manager said he personally fixed 31 of them.We know Carnera was owned by the Mob.We also know that after the Mob discarded him he was beaten by average fighters some of whom stopped him.

I will always believe Sharkey took a dive.

 

Did Carnera ever replicate that kind of ko against a decent fighter?

 

That is a quite plausible scenario.

 

Sometimes a big man lands a good punch McVey. Nothing else to it.

 

I think its a dive akin to Liston v Ali 2.
That's just my opinion.

 

I'd credit the Schaaf win- But most of the damage to him was done by Baer, and Carnera simply made it worse.
Off the top of my head, and going back through his record, I don't see any immediate answers, so the answer is simply, "No".

 

Then you own two factually incorrect opinions.

 

Awful mismatch against Bob. To be absolutely sure, I reviewed 202 pound Ernie Terrell- 182 pound Bob Foster and 182 pound Doug Jones vs 173 pound Bob Foster.

I'd love for someone here to try making a case for the LHW great, but he's not Fitz, John Henry Johnson, Archie Moore, Ezz, Harold Johnson or Michael Spinks. (I don't count the juicers of the post Championship Distance era.)

Jones never took a backwards step against BF in steamrolling him (including with an opening round knockdown). Terrell jabbed him effectively through the opening rounds as Bob landed bombs which barely had any effect on Ernie. Carnera's jab wasn't as fast, hard or sharp as Ernie's but it was certainly long enough and sufficient for screwing up the great LHW Champion.

Primo's chin wasn't as bad as all those knockdowns against the hardest punching HW Champion in history might suggest. Max Baer's first knockdown was rated by Gene Tunney was among the three hardest punches up to the knockout shot Louis nailed on Braddock. (The other one was the monster hook Jack Dempsey began his slaughter on Willard with. BTW, Louis himself and referee Arthur Donovan agreed that the hardest shot of the Bomber's career was the right uppercut Uzcudun somehow got up from to actually resume action momentarily.) But that first KD Carnera sustained from the Larruper also sprained Primo's right ankle so severely that he had to be hospitalized for a few days after. Primo was on his feet gesturing and talking to the referee at the end.

Louis couldn't keep Carnera down, and it took the best left hook of Jack Sharkey's career to land Primo in their first bout (the first career KD the Italian Goliath ever sustained).

Bob, for all his power at 175, has nothing to threaten Carnera with. Primo may have had George Foreman level physical strength. BF didn't share Loughran's mobility, skills, and never had anything resembling the experience Tommy brought to bear against Carnera in their title bout.

No chance BF lasts anywhere near the final bell. The only question is how long Primo takes to stop Bob (in what is likely a RSC rather than full ten count). That's the real question here, not who wins, but how long Primo takes to stop BF, and whether or not it's by KO, RSC or RET.

Carnera's stamina and conditioning have never been questioned. His pushing punches would shove Bob all over the ring. Primo's best close quarters punch was his right uppercut. BF wouldn't be able to take it for long.

 

Much as I respect Foster, he never beat a significant opponent, north of 175 lbs.

You could believe every single conspiracy theory about Carnera, and still see that Foster was out of his depth against him.

 

We don't seem to have footage of any stoppages he produced aside from Schaaf, Sharkey II and Impelletiere.

Ernie Schaaf got out of a hospital bed to take on Primo with an influenza swollen brain, and it showed. (Max Baer didn't soften up Schaaf the way Lavorante was softened up by Moore and young Clay for John Riggins. Schaaf was just fine for his SD loss to Unknown Winston, sixth round rematch knockout win over Winston, then sixth round knockout win over Stanley Poreda.)

Regardless, extreme slow motion replay shows that Primo's final jab really snapped Ernie's head back, Schaaf might've avoided it if he'd not been sick, and he was clearly diminished badly throughout those 13 rounds, but still, that was no pushing or flicking jab Carnera unloaded to end it. Primo really stepped into it, ripping off the canvas with his right foot, his left foot planted flat, and fully extending his jab stiff and hard.

On paper, Neusel was a decent stoppage. The German quit because of a deep elbow inflicted gash according to reports, but he was also getting bludgeoned prior to that in Carnera's return from Louis at MSG.


Sharkey 2 looks legit to me. Jack was diminished by then, no longer on his toes or energetic as he was for their first bout. Still, I focus on his technique for the final right uppercut. His right foot pivots towards Sharkey, and Primo drives up with all his weight. He'd previously had success scoring on Jack with that uppercut.

Loughran was only stopped in Sharkey I and Hamas I. Uzcudun was only stopped after hardest punch Louis ever threw. Primo's two successful defenses were quality wins over challengers who had defeated Max Baer, and it was unreasonable to expect Tommy or Paulino to be knocked out by Carnera.

Interestingly, although he didn't hurt Larry Gains, he did knock him down legitimately, Gains unloaded a right cross, and Primo decked him with a counter right. 0.25 slow motion reveals it was no shove, but a clean punch which sent Gains down on his haunches as his gloves touched down behind him. This was during a 29-0-1 streak for Larry, the best of his career. Gains laughed about how easily he handled Carnera, but he was no doubt embarrassed that he was sent to the floor during their ten rounder in London.

 

Jack always claimed this, but in the tenth round of his Championship Distance rematch loss to Loughran which got Tommy to Carnera, Sharkey was decked by a clean and flush right in the tenth. While Loughran's ability to unload a few punches with power was never questioned, still, he was 183 to Sharkey's 202. Bob Foster never could've done that to the Gob. (Tommy's hands simply couldn't hold up under consistent power punching efforts. If he'd conditioned his hands with lumberjack work the way Tunney did, he'd have become HW Champion. He was able to rock Primo, but couldn't do it consistently.)

 

This is the first I've ever heard that Sharkey claimed he took a dive. I'd like to see your sources.

 

He could hurt Carnera but I don't know if he could put him down and out. Way too much of a size and strength differential.

 

No specific sources. It was generally known in New Hampshire when he lived in Epping. My father had friends who lived in Epping and knew him. (He was called, "The Squire of Epping.")

Personally, if he did claim this, I think he was simply embarrassed to lose to the subject of Paul Gallico's article, "Pity the Poor Giant." (He also said of his draw with Mickey Walker that, "Inactivity beat me.")

I wasn't a boxing fan yet, but was well aware of the insistence he could have been an ATG. He just needed to remain active and stay in shape during his prime years, and keep his mind together during competition, not be such a hothead.

 

Nobody put Carnera down and out. Max Baer and Joe Louis tried and failed. I credit this to Primo's conditioning. He was always in shape.