Primo Carnera TKO 9 Ray Impelletiere 1935

Carnera improved a lot after the Gains fight, and the first Sharkey fight.

As did his results.

I would expect both Gains and Sharkey to do rather well against the Fury of the Cunningham fight!

That was frankly one of the stupidest fight plans, from a super heavyweight, from an era!

 

He is undefeated, because he only fought one man with a pulse, and he won that fight.

He never lost to anyone by the name of Jim Maloney, Stanley Poreda, Larry Gains, or Leroy Haynes, because he was not fighting men ranked in the top ten!

The guy won the lineal heavyweight title, then got himself so fat that he almost collapsed under his own mass and became a black hole!

Is that a man who you expect to be consistent against world level competition?

 

Wlad K is one of the two best SHWs of all time.

It took 10 years of undeniable dominance for the world to come around to him.
"T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. He's slower than molasses. Primo Carnera can beat him from his grave." - Bert Sugar

Basically, without the hindsight of Wlads reign, Sugar thought he looked awful H2H.
As wonky as his opinions can be, has he ever had such a low opinion of a fighter who would go on to become that successful? Let's be real, he wasn't the only person harboring that sentiment. What does that tell us? Well, it tells us what we all know true to our hearts. SHWs don't look as good as they actually are. Technique takes a back seat to power, strength and mechanics. Traits that are harder to pass on "the eye test." Without letting results speak for themselves, appreciation of SHWs abilities require a keener, more nuanced understanding of the sport.

Form and technique for a SHW is a steep uphill battle.
To be exceptional at it, means that you won't look too oafish in the ring.

Lennox Lewis, till today, is suffering from this stigma.
He never looked as cool or sharp as Tyson, because he is a full fledged SHW.
And he was never given the same appreciation, the same adulation, the same reverence.
He knocked people out brutally too. He beat Tyson and Holyfield. He dominated the era.
But, he was a SHW.

Now take Carnera, a 2X defending lineal HW champion, roll him up in all those SHW stigmas, toss him in the 30's era, with the crappy cameras, and the arguments made against fighters of the era, and it's no wonder you get all the gaslighting for bringing up his good points.

AJ looks to be the sharpest of all the SHWs in terms of form and coordination. But the dregs are starting to show. If he wants to keep the form in tact, while committing to a high volume punch fight, he gases alarmingly quick. The Parker fight showed me a fighter finding that balance between form and effectiveness, and it's starting to look more human. Wait until AJ gets into a dog fight with a live challenger, and I bet much of that form will break away, and you will see what we saw in Lewis vs. Vitali.

Veneer cracks under pressure. Lewis vs. Vitali were two SHWs not giving two ****s about how good they looked. Rather they were concerned with how effective they were.

 

Look at Chisora's resume (better than it looks, I agree), and then imagine that this was one of Carnera's opponents!

A record of near misses doesn't cut it in a 1930s contender, or even get recognized in most cases!

 

I agree 100%

 

Nor could Bowe. Or Vitali.

 

In what ways did he improve? What specific technical improvements do you see in carnera post-Gains?

 

In before page 100

 

I may have missed it but I don't think I saw anyone picking him over Wlad and Fury.

 

Not much of an issue then.

 

Imagine if I tried to sell Carnera, based on him beating somebody who "nearly", beat two men who were ranked ion the top ten!

I would be laughed out of here!