Carnera 6 losses before Max Baer fight

I claim no expertise here , but from what I have gleaned for books and news cuttings over the years,the only controversial losses Primo had prior to the Baer fight were against Stanley Poreda when the local referee,Joe Mangold gave Poreda the verdict,for which he was duly suspended by the NJ commission for a year,and the two Stribling fights which are widely believed to have been fixed.
The Maloney fight was I have read, a case of the opponent, Jim Maloney refusing to go into the tank and winning the fight without argument.The Larry Gains fight in London was a clear decision win for Gains who battered Carnera around the ring. Likewise the first Jack Sharkey fight was an easy win for Sharkey and Carnera could have been dsq'd after taking a count from a left hook when he subsequently went down without taking a punch twice .

 

I don't know what happened in the Franz Diener DQ, but Carnera was overmatched against the experienced Diener.

Suspicion has always hung around the Stribling fights, and the e Poreda fight might have been a hometown decision as McVea says.

The point could be made that Maloney, Sharkey and Gains were all people very proven at world level, who Carnera fought before he had quite reached that level.

 

What about the actual sharkey fight for the title? Was it a fix, a thrown fight? I read years ago, a interview with sharkey when asked if he had thrown the fight he said no, no way ever. He claimed he it was a genuine punch that caught him and he was out. One of those fights I suppose, even if it was on the level, where because of Carnera s murky past, there's always going to be doubt s that it was a genuine ko.

 

I've looked into this in quite some detail myself.

DQ in round 1 Vs Franz Diener, nothing can be gleaned from that loss.

The Stribling loss is questionable not just for the fix but the manner of the fix. Seems Carnera was too much for Stribling even in a fixed fight. So again nothing can be gleaned from that loss.

The points loss to Maloney is a bit worrying given the size discrepancy, i don't know of any reason to doubt the validity of that loss but he did avenge it shortly after so anything that could be gleaned from that loss was answered.

The loss to Sharkey is important because up until then Carnera was basically seen as being unbeatable and the Maloney loss was brushed over after the rematch. But there's no getting away from this one as Carnera was handily battered. This is the most important of his losses to date, but it was avenged later on it must be said, although some doubt the validity of the rematch.

The Gains loss was another important one as he started well, couldn't get his rythm going and was completely out boxed for the remainder of the fight as Gains landed at will with in and out attacks. This is a damaging losses for his reputation.

The Poreda loss was very questionable indeed and the ref was suspended for it.

So going into the Baer fight what we know is he relied an awful lot his physical presence. No one could beat him punch for punch. No one could knock him out. He could knock anyone out. He has 3 genuine losses on his ledger, Maloney, Sharkey and Gains. 2 of those were avenged by this point. He had proved against Loughran his boxing ability had improved beyond what it was against Gains. He was about longer considered unbeatable and his skills in the ring were rightly questioned due to 3 of his losses, but they had improved considerably. He was a slight favourite but Baer was on the form of his life and the myth around Carnera has long since been dispelled. A year later and he was being knocked around by prospect Joe Louis and the myth was completely shattered.

He had the record and the opportunity to go down as a great fighter. Beating Baer would have solidified his legacy and justified his hype. As it is he suffered two irreparable losses in devastating fashion, coupled with his earlier poor displays of boxing and he goes from a physical freak who can box at a world class level to a physical freak who was over hyped.

 

Back in the early 70's I had a contact via the back pages of one of the monthly boxing magazines. Forget his name certainly but he had all sorts of boxing collectibles that at the time I was able to buy in retrospect cheap. One was the entire Carnera-Sharkey 1 bout on 16 mm film. It was the entire bout including the minute in-between rounds.

Another item I bought was the original signed contract for a bare knuckle hwt championship fight between Sullivan and Charlie Mitchell.

 

I've never examined Carnera record closely as there is so much cloudiness concerning which were real vs fake bouts.

I've watched his bout with Sharkey (fight 2) since the 70's. I was always under the impression that the ko was legit. Carnera caught Sharkey as he sprang from the ropes with a right uppercut. It appeared that Carnera hit Sharkey sideways with his wrist rather than the gloved fist.

 

The knockout of Sharkey was legit.

I have watched it literally dozens of times in slow motion, and I just can't see it any other way.

Sharkey bounces off the ropes, and Carnera catches him with an uppercut.

This is an unusual thing to happen in a boxing match, and it explains why many ringside witnesses were confused by what they saw, and also why Sharkey didn’t see the punch coming.

It is also something that would be nearly impossible to stage.

The other think that I have picked up from studying the fight, is that the tide had turned long before the finishing uppercut was thrown.

Carnera had taken control of the fight; he was landing a lot of sharkey, and had already had him down.