Carnera-Sharkey 2 was on the level

Well Sharkey went to his grave insisting the fight was on the level,I think some of Carneras fights were fake ,probably the Chevalier, Godfrey ,and the twoStribling bouts ,but he was good enough to hold his own with a lot of fighters,whatever the truth he had plenty of courage.

 

I agree. I saw it about an year ago and it was legit

 

It was legit.

I would add that Carneras wins over Schaff, Levinsky and Lasky were legit as well. These are the key wins that established him as a challenger for Sharkeys title.

 

I think the Godfrey fight was on the level, It was a mistake low blow turn into a DQ.

 

I also agree. I have this fight and seeing Sharkey's head snap off that uppercut, I'll tell you, there are easier ways to throw a fight.

 

Here are two articles published just after the bout. There are others, but the general, albight grudging, opinion among the sports editors was that Primo was definitely improving. I don't recall that any of the articles blatantly claimed Sharkey took a dive.

Regards,
Cat
www.maxbaer.org


06.30.1933 – p13
Charleston Gazette – WV
CARNERA CLAIMS SECRET RIGHT
Uppercut Critics Said He Didn't Have Is Champion's Ace

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN BOWL, New York AP — A secret right uppercut, practiced in utmost privacy—the punch everybody said he didn't have—was the blow that tonight brought the heavyweight championship of the world to Primo Carnera. "Every day I practice it for months," the Man Mountain crowed in his guttural broken English as he sat in his dressing room after his sensational victory over Jack Sharkey. "Nobody thought Primo had uppercut. I show 'em. heh?"



06.30.1933 – p1
Billings Gazette – MT
CARNERA KAYOES CHAMPION SHARKEY
Edward J. Neil

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN BOWL, New York AP — With one sweep of a paw that must have felt like a cobblestone wrapped in a leather sack, huge Primo Carnera, once a freak in a circus sideshow, knocked out Jack Sharkey in six rounds Thursday night to win the heavyweight championship of the world after being belted all over the premises for the greater part of five rounds.

It was a stunning ending to a savage fight that tore through the battle pit of the Garden's big arena on Long Island, an ending as amazing to the scant crowd of 40,000 as was the knockout Max Baer scored over Max
Schmeling in the first of the season's heavyweight extravaganzas.

Sneering at Camera's 260 pounds, his awesome height and tremendous reach, Sharkey forced the issue from the start. He wove forward, hands close to his body, feinting the mammoth Italian into pawing lefts the champion bobbed under, came up inside with two fists flailing to the body, or crossed with rights that started the man mountain trembling as if the earth were quaking under him.

After the first round, in which Carnera might have had a slight edge due to his punching in close, Sharkey made a show until the sixth of the man he gave a terrific beating only two years ago in Ebbets field. Even in the sixth, with the round, almost ended, there was no hint of impending disaster for the champion, Sharkey bobbed as he had been doing from the start, found his opening, then flung a long, crashing right to Carnera's temple.

The massive Italian pulled back, his lips drawn back from his white mouthpiece in a kind of a foolish grin. He mumbled something like
"good, good." as Sharkey tore back. Then he lifted his tremendous right fist to the champion's jaw as they came to grips. The punch was a short uppercut inside as they were on the ropes. Sharkey crumbled to the floor by the ropes, stretched flat on his face, as the crowd came to its feet with one long, amazed roar.

As referee Arthur Donovan picked up the count Sharkey never stirred. He was just beginning to move, his face curled into the canvas, hands to his head, as the final ten was tolled, two minutes 57 seconds after the start of the sixth. Then his seconds leaped in and dragged the beaten champion to his corner, still apparently in a daze. If Sharkey lives up to his prefight statements the picture of him slumped in his chair, water from the bottle of his frantic seconds cascading over his hair, his closed eyes, will be the last the faithful will get out of the man who has flared so spectacularly through the heavyweights for the past eight years.

Right up to the last punch Thursday night he was fighting one of the greatest battles of his career. Bobbing, feinting, his lips in a thin snarl, eyes flashing between narrowed lids, the Boston sailor ripped into battle in flashes. He moved the giant Italian around, found his openings, then lashed his punches—long rights to the head—left hooks to the body, straight to the mark.

Three times in the second round, Sharkey's right cracked on Carnera's chin, hurting him obviously. The third was close as Carnera, grabbing the champion in his great arms, heaved him about the ring. So rough did the Italian become in the fourth that he was twice warned by Referee Donovan, once for holding and hitting, again for backhandng, but Sharkey's expression never changed. He stalked his man carefully, making him miss, giving him his only chances in the clinches where Carnera's tremendous power held all the advantage.

A swarming attack in the fifth broke through Carnera's arms and for
a moment it seemed as if the Italian's course was run. He reeled as Sharkey based him savagely, relentlessly thudding left hooks to the body using every ounce of power he had his right to the head. Near the end of the round the right landed full and clean again. Carnera's legs spread wide, his eyes stared a second, then his hands started down. But before Sharkey could set him for another clean smash, the huge natural guard of Carnera's arms was up again, he held tight, and the bell rang.

Sharkey had all the better of the sixth and had Carnera in even graver anger when the final blow crushed him down. The Associated Press score card gave Sharkey four of the first five rounds, crediting Carnera only with the first.

 

Nothing to add except I also think the fight was legit. As a matter of fact, I have never seen a film of Carnera which does not look honest.

 

Sharkey's style of falling is very suspicious. His body follows the punch and he rolls his head back prior to connection.

It's the most bizarre looking KO uppercut on film. To Ted Spoon, Sharkey sold that punch very well and that is the bottom line.

Many of the headlines are split and where's there's smoke there's fire.

 

Well than I suppose Jack Sharkey sold that punch better, than Bruce Seldon did vs Mike Tyson. And I still have a hard time in beliving that fight. Getting knockout with blows that miss him.

 

I haven't spoken to anybody who viewed Carnera/Sharkey II in it's entirety that believed it was a fix. For myself, I look at Carnera's positioning when he delivered the final blow, the way he pivoted his right toe directly at Sharkey as he drove upwards with all his weight, as the Bostonian was trying to get away. Derisive cries of "Fix!, Fix!," were heard after Ernie Schaaf went down against Primo, and we all know just how fake that outcome proved to be. No such accusations were reported as emanating from the crowd which witnessed Carnera/Sharkey II. Eyewitnesses were not describing his finishing uppercut as "dubious" at the time, but seem to have been satisfied that it carried legitimate knockout power behind it.

 

Sharkey was the better fighter.

He is a vastly under rated fighter generaly.

Did Carnera knock him out legitimately?

Hell yes.

 

I'll bet the main, and only, reason this was ever questioned is the fact Primo was Italian. :good

Anytime an Italian wins something fishy must have went on... that's common knowledge.

 

Sharkey is one of the more under rated heavyweight champions.

He is every bit as inconsistent as the average poster thinks.

When he was on he was a handfull for anybody.

The Sharkey that fought Dempsey would have been a handfull for him at any stage in his career. In the first Schmeling fight Sharkey totaly befudled Max. That should have been his finest hour.

Against Carnera he just came in at 70% against a hungry and inteligent fighter who was fighting at 110%.