Primo Carnera was as legitimate a champion as any there has ever been.

Sharkey to the day he died said it was a legitimate fight. He was 90 something years old during an interview for the book 'In This Corner" and he still said that the allegations it being a fix were absolute bull****.

 

I don't know how anybody could discredit a fighter going out of his way to try and convince you that he did, indeed, lose fairly.

That's pretty unusual in the boxing world. Jeffries did it with Johnson, but then changed his story just a few years later.

But Sharkey? He stuck with it for decades.

 

Yeah, for all the bad breaks Sharkey had I never saw him even mention any of them besides Dempsey robbing him via devastating testcile shot.

 

BIG DEE HERE= As many fights as Carnera had you can`t fix them all. He fought to many fighters of high quality that couldn`t be fixed. For a fighter that learned on the job with absolutely no help from any quality trainers he got to be a damn good boxer with a pole like jab. His uppercut was very hard
when he had the chance to land it. A good trainer would have showed him how to use it properly during a fight. Carnera`s KO of Sharkey was on the level as far as I am concerned. I have studied the film for over 40 yrs and have never found anything fishy about it as the right uppercut catches Sharkey flush on the chin as he rebounds off the ropes and ducks right into it
KOing him.

 

I have always thought Carnera's KO of Sharkey was legitimate. I mean, the punch darn near took the man's head off! You can't fake that no matter how hard you try. One of the most brutal punches I've ever seen in my life... still makes me cringe to this day and anybody who says it was a fix clearly can't be a boxing fan.

 

Sharkey had one of those nights of his, while he had no problems with Primo in their first match, he was off as could be in their second bout, something not uncommon for the hot and cold champ. He said he just couldn't get around Primo's jab in their second go and it set him up later for the ko punch.

 

No doubt that Carnera's KO of Sharkey was on the level. The uppercut that finished the fight was probably the best punch that Carnera ever landed.

 

Well, sharkey also said Carnera has improved considerably since their first fight the second time around. He obviously had some respect for him and you don´t have respect for a guy who built his career on fixed fights.

 

Lasky fought Carnera in 1932 ,he was not rated ,and had beaten no one of note.The Schaaf fight can be thrown out because Schaaf was clearly a sick man.The following fights of Carnera are viewed with extreme suspicion .
Big Boy Peterson
Stan Poreda [the ref was suspended,after giving the verict to Carnera]
Bud Gorman [known to do business]
George Godfrey,[known to do business]
Chuck Wiggins [known to do business]
Roy Ace Clark [ he was threatened from the corner ,while the fight was in progress]
Leon Bombo Chevalier,[This was a known fix]
Elizear Rioux
Young Stribling x2 [ both dsq's were "questionable"]
Neil Clisby
Seal Harris[ this was in Brazil Harris was Carnera's travelling sparring partner].

I have an open mind on the Sharkey fight ,though it is interesting Carnera could never duplicate this power again.
I beleive the Mckorkindale ,Cook,Charles ,Uzcudon ,Levinsky winning fights were legit .

 

Carnera had over a 100 bouts in his career. Even if every single one of the mentioned fights WERE fixed, he had dozens upon dozens of other ones that were legitimate in the larger scheme of things.

Also, fighters like Stribling were known to be involved in shady dealings with or without Carnera, so I fail to see how that reflects badly on just Carnera.

 

Carnera won the Heavyweight title in 1933 ,it was traditional for the Winner of the Heavy Title to be awarded the Fighter of the year award,That year the Ring chose NOT to give an award. Similarly Carnera does not figure on ANY list of All Time Great KO PUnchers ,DESPITE his 72 kos in 89 wins.
There are questions that can never be resolved , all the principals are long dead.You beleive what you choose to beleive.Some facts are a matter of record Carnera was managed by the mob ,After being destroyed by Baer he was thrown to the wolves re- divided among lesser mobsters and fighting on his own merits sustained several bad beatings ,looking anything but a class fighter, his only win of note was over Neusel and there are italics over the result "Retired " on Box Rec.Carnera was still comparatively young but without being steered by the mob he went into a steep decline,these are facts.What else is true ? WHO CAN SAY?

 

Sharkey would never throw the fight, whould he ?

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McVey is completely correct.

Sharkey kept the story of the fix because he would be more discredited as the only man to admit to throwing the heavyweight title than to actually lose it in the ring. A friend of mine who runs another boxing web site was the last person to interview Sharkey, twenty years after the "In this Corner" interview ... he went to visit him in the retirement home where he lived a few years before he died and Sharkey said Carnera on his best day could never beat him ...

There is no secret Primo was mobbed up and mob created. I don't knock the guy . I respect his guts, his conditioning, the fact that he ultimately made the best of what he had and that may have been enough to take a few fights based on the match up but to deny his career was based on fixes and handpicked opponents is a joke.

The man had 66 recorded KO's ... other than Sharkey 2, where was this tremendous punch ? Why was he universially recognized by Ray Arcel, Freddy Brown and Angelo Dundee as a joke? Why at the age of only 29, was he a sub 500 fighter once dropped by the mob ?