Why people hate Carnera...

So how do you rate him as an all time heavyweight puncher ? Top ten ? Top twenty ?

 

Probably a lot

 

Agreed but I think perhaps some of his potential wasn’t completely fulfilled.

 

Not even top 100, or top 200.

He was a big technically sound fighter, whose power was unimpressive for his size, but well above par for the 175lb+ category.

As I said in another thread, there is no such thing as a feather fisted 250lb fighter.

So what does that amount to?

Obviously he was absolutely devastating against against C level opposition.

Against A level opposition he was hit and miss as a puncher, but if they got hit enough, then they were going down!

 

I believe the bad press was also influenced by Carnera's connection to Mussolini's fascist regime. A significant amount of NY journalists covering the sport in the 1930s were Jewish.

 

I think this is an indictment of his era more than a testament to his greatness.

 

If you believe he really won by KO .. that's the whole point .. tough to tell .. my take is that he developed into a decent fighter and did better based on the stylistic match up .. he looked like a big arm puncher to me but I can't decide on the Sharkey KO and the jab that ended poor Schaaf was pretty nasty so who knows .. ?

 

He really won by KO.

The camera doesn't lie.

 

It is difficult to obtain 'hardcore proof' that a fight was fixed, when those who were engaged in the ventures were profiting financially from them - or, as is likely the case with Carnera, were completely unaware of these goings on.

Moreover, where's your hardcore proof that the press was very dishonest [about Carnera]?


There's more than enough known about Carnera's management, anecdotal evidence about intimidation/interference, as well as the reports of the fights themselves and post-fight investigations - providing solid grounds for suspicion.

As for Carnera being a victim of anti-Italian sentiment in the US... ...it's a possibility. That type of thing never really goes away entirely - But Carnera came along at the tail-end of a period of hysteria, during which such discrimination had been rife. The peak of this level of intolerance had significantly subsided by the time Carnera's professional boxing career began and I don't consider this a go-to factor in why he was lambasted so, during his rise and fall.

I also can't see that this type of sentiment was impacting other great Italian boxers of the time (although, I'd gladly be corrected on this point, if other examples can be found). Of course, the high-profile nature of the heavyweight division, perhaps had an influence on this type of prejudice - but there's no proof of this, either.

I have read a lot of old newspaper reports of the time, about Carnera, which vary in style and tone, and the one starkly consistent aspect of these articles is the view that he was extremely limited, as a boxer.

Thus, it is just as reasonable to consider Carnera's place in history, as being based on the reality that he was owned and controlled by known mobsters, convicted killers, racketeers and was, in all likelihood, involved in string of fixed fights.

 

You know you're a tough guy to meet half way when you endlessly make definitive statements about highly debatable issues .. it is disputed for two reasons .. the first is Carnera's lack of power and the second is because of the lack of a conclusive camera angle ... no amount of your statements change this ... I'm willing to give him the benefit myself but say so with the asterisk above ..

 

I think you have to go a little easy of Jake there and it was a fixed fight not fights, they pretty much had Jake corralled if he wanted to get anywhere. Pep its thought took a planned out to Lulu Perez though to this day its not known why and no one thinks he shouldn't be in the hall. There never has been anything to back up Maxie throwing the title to Jim, at times Baer just wasn't much into it, he tried late to catch him but he didn't come close.

 

I don't think that it was a freak one punch knockout.

Carnera was stuffing Sharkey before that fateful uppercut landed.

 

@Rumsfeld
I think Primo really does need a video.

 

Why, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a bank teller who closes more than Carnera did.