........ and people still debate whether Primo Carnera was built up on set-ups ! [url]http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=2188&cat=boxer[/url]
Yeah, do get back to us when Carnera has a win over a undefeated fighter of Mike Tyson's caliber. You're obviously reaching for straws in some knee jerk reaction to the Primo discussion around here. I personally could give two shits either way, but reacting like this is kind of ridiculous. Also, Carnera's last three fights were three losses against Luigi Musina. :happy :happy :happy
Wtf ? I'm merely pointing out that some (actually many) modern fighters - contenders and champions - have been built up with records that included set-ups and fixes. My whole position on the Primo discussion - which I haven't followed - would be "Yes, Primo probably did fight a ton of crappy dive-artists" and " ..... but that doesn't make him unique". A balanced view, I reckon. A bit like your own claim "dont give two shits either way". I'm a bit mystified that something so ordinary as a fighter being partially manufactured on set-ups is still debated or portrayed as something unusual. It should be discussed, but not in isolation. In a wider discusssion about the seedy underside of the sport that is widespread, perhaps even the norm. Let's forget Carnera. Because despite what you think, that comment I made was just a throwaway comment and this thread isn't all about exonerating Primo Carnera. Admittedly, I should have known it would come across that way. What I actually think it's worthy of noting is not that a fighter like Douglas could be matched with Jesse Clark, but that he was matched with him THREE TIMES. I mean, someone might want to give the benefit of the doubt in the first instsnce. But three times proves beyond any reasonable doubts that the recorrd is padded with at least two fixed outcomes. This is the dark underside of MODERN professional boxing that is rarely discussed (unless people are going back to the days of black and white, the mafia, and fighters like Carnera and sharkey). That's what I'm getting at. Of course, most of us accept that some mis-matching has to take place to develop a fighter, but there's a point where the matching is absolutely scandalous and should clearly be seen as a record being fixed. It would be hard to defend the Douglas-Clark trilogy against anti-boxing lobby or persons who think that kind of fix, mis-match or set-up should be criminalized. How should we view a guy like Jesse Clark ? A "professional boxer" ? A stunt-man ? A dive-artist ? Does a fighter like that occupy a legitimate role in the sport ? I singled out the Douglas-Clark debacles to see if i could open up the discussion. There may be even more disgraceful examples. There are possibly hundreds and thousands of similar cases.
