Joe "Juggernaut" Joyce vs Saint Primo "Sugar" Carnera

In his era, Carnera would be a favorite over all of them in my book.

 

I agree.

Joyce was legit, he was just so old when he stepped up, that he had a very short prime.

 

Always loses to Zhang though.

 

Fighting Zhang was a major career mistake.

He should have sat on his ranking, taken the safer road, and set up an big money all British fight with Fury or Joshua.

 

I mean yeah but the reason he "fell of a cliff" is because he had/even no defense whatsoever and took a lot of damage, even in fights he won, and the accumulative damage was going to catch up sooner rather than later. Zhang was the final straw.

That being said, he wouldn't have to worry about it here, because despite his size, Carnera is a relative featherfist.

 

Or even Wilder tbh. With Wilder's decline, he may've even had a shot at an upset. But with that defense, it's a tough ask.

 

Also, to be fair Zhang was only a mistake in hindsight. He was relatively unknown and not even in the top ten at the time of their first fight.

 

I can very much see him beat Parker in his own era. The earlier version of Parker could be boring as a drying pain, and the more active, mauling Carnera would likely take rounds without fading away late. He liked the boxing type he could jab with and switch to inside blitzes with grappling added in to sap strength. Not pretty, but effective. If Parker comes in heavy, then I don't see it ending well either, though granted any version is putting up a fight. Should Carnera be under the more amateur-like modern scrutiny without the A-side privilege, he definitely drops a decision.

Parker, the greener Dubois, Takam, Jennings (etc.) is a fine resume, but I don't find it a quality versus quantity issue. Carnera beat Sharkey, Levinsky, Loughran, greener Lasky, Uzcudun, Shaaf, Campolo, Gross. A lot of them twice. You absolutely can point asterisks in some of those wins, but in general if you adjust for the spotiness of depression era records, Primo was quite active, and collected quite a few scalps on his way. Joe with his late start, modern match-making, and Zhang hiccup cannot really compare, other than having the strong Parker win.