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By James Slater:
Born in Sequals, Italy on October 26th, 1906, the man known
as “The Ambling Alp,” Primo Carnera, remains one of the best
known and most fascinating off all heavyweight kings. And
not always due to reasons that could be called flattering.
With many of his fights now pretty much accepted as having
been set-ups, due to the huge influence the American mob had
over the naïve and unsuspecting Carnera, the huge Italian’s
place in history is that of a curiosity, more so than as a
great and legendary champion.
This is not to suggest that Primo was
without courage though, for he very definitely had guts. His
merits and accomplishments as a boxer, however, are fully
deserving of the questionable way in which they are looked
upon by historians. Quite simply, no-one can be sure which
of Primo’s fights were on the level and which were not.
Due to his freakish height and overall size, Primo was
instantly seen to be a potential money spinner by the less
than scrupulous characters that were orbiting around the
boxing world in The United States at the time of his 1930
arrival - namely the Mob. Whether he could fight or not,
they knew Primo would make them vast amounts of cash. With
his gigantic size and perceived strength, Carnera was a
dead-cert to fill the arenas. He was snapped up on this
premise almost as soon as he stepped off the boat. Primo
never had a chance. With the man who had first discovered
him in Paris, Leon See, in the official role of manager, the
giant was entirely in the hands of selfish and uncaring
individuals. With no concern whatsoever for his health,
Carnera was eventually thrown into brutal beating after
brutal beating. After all his value had been used up, that
is. Firstly though, they wanted “The Ambling Alp” to win as
many fights as possible and then fight for the world title.
Sure enough, the big crowds came to see the gigantic boxer
from overseas (Primo stood six feet, five and one quarter
inches tall), and sure enough the team behind him saw to it
that he came through his first twenty-odd fights in the U.S
without a loss. Some of the bouts were outright farces,
while others looked to be legitimate. For example, Primo’s
fight with one Elzear Riouz was subject to an investigation
afterwards, the action had looked so suspicious. Indeed,
Riouz’z licence was revoked and he was also fined. Another
fight that looked decidedly bogus was Carnera’s match with
Leon Chevalier. The crowd were extremely unhappy when the
action was halted in round six, with Chevalier seemingly in
no worse shape than was Carnera, who’s purse was withheld
afterwards. There were more bouts that had a definite
sinister feel to them, including Primo’s tussle with George
Godfrey, where a near riot broke out after the controversial
stoppage in the fifth.
There were too, however, performances by Carnera that looked
to have been legit. His fourth round KO over Bearcat Wright,
for instance, impressed many. Where all Carnera’s early
fights fixed then? Probably not. But more than a fair share
of them certainly were. What is also certain is the fact
that his handlers were wasting no time in reaping the
rewards their fighter could earn them. Twenty-six times in
the year 1930 alone Primo boxed. With this breakneck pace,
the money was rolling in. Not that the man fighting saw much
of it.
There were early setbacks in the form of points defeats, to
guys like Jim Maloney and Jack Sharkey (who Primo would meet
again, soon after his fifteen round points loss) but mostly,
aside from the negative press that followed some of his more
obviously less than genuine encounters, the plan was working
out fine. Carnera was soon a household name in America. It
wasn’t too long, however, before tragedy struck.
After a short time spent back fighting in countries in
Europe, including his native Italy, Carnera was deemed ready
to make his move on the world title. Upon totting up yet
more early KO wins, some visually impressive, others not,
Primo was matched with a fighter named Ernie Shaaf. This is
where the tragedy came in to the Carnera story. Ernie
shockingly passed away four days after his fight with Primo,
more than likely due to injuries he had sustained in a
previous contest. Nonetheless, Primo was devastated and for
a time wanted to hang up his gloves. He fought on though,
probably given little or no choice by his handlers, and
challenged for the heavyweight title. With now genuine
respect accorded his punching power due to the Shaaf
incident ( an event the uncaring mobsters managing Primo
probably thanked their lucky stars for, garnering more press
as it did for their fighter) Carnera signed to box current
ruler, Jack Sharkey. The same man who had handily out
pointed him almost two years before. This time it was
different.
Sharkey had been good friends with Shaaf, even working his
corner at times, and had been greatly upset at his friends
tragic death. His second fight with the man who Ernie had
fought his last against was a strange affair as a result.
Controlling the action for the first five rounds, Sharkey
was suddenly taken out in the sixth with a huge right
uppercut, left hand combination to the head. Jack crashed
face first to the canvas and Primo was the new champion. In
the years that followed, given the definite shady side to
his career up until then, some questioned the validity of
Carnera’s win over Sharkey. The way Jack fell caused doubts
in certain people’s minds as to whether or not he had been
genuinely KO’d. For his part, Sharkey later said to have
been affected by his friend’s death going into the fight,
and even went so far as to claim that he had seen a vision
of the deceased Schaaf just before the KO. So, was the
Carnera-Sharkey fight fixed? We will never know for sure,
but the events that unfolded the night the two boxed for the
title in 1933 do not sit right with a good many boxing
people, that much is sure.
Whatever, Primo was now the champ and he was back in the
ring defending the title in pretty quick time. A fifteen
round points win over the Spaniard, Paolino Uzcudan in Rome,
Italy was his first successful defence. While his points win
over the eighty-four pounds lighter man, in Tommy Laughran,
in a fight staged at Madison Square Garden the following
year was his last. Then Carnera ran into Max Baer. Fighting
one of the hardest hitters the heavyweight division has ever
produced, Primo was ruthlessly and brutally beaten up.
Eleven times he was sent crashing to the canvas, in as many
rounds. And while Carnera’s courage was evident to all in
this fight, so too were his many shortcomings in the art of
pugilism. He was utterly bewildered and Max never let him
off the hook, intent instead on inflicting hurt on the
clumsy Italian. The fight was a huge hit with the audience,
many of whom were laughing out loud at the bizarre action.
Never before had a defending heavyweight champion been made
to look so foolish. Carnera would never contend for the
title again.
His fighting days, however, were not over yet. Used only as
fodder by handlers that treat him in a way that went beyond
mere cruelty, Primo was thrown in with the new star of the
division - the murderous punching Joe Louis. In June of ‘35
Carnera was subjected to a most hideous beating over six
painful rounds. Again and again Joe’s lethal fists smacked
into his defenceless head and jaw. Three times he hit the
mat before the referee put a stop to the carnage in the
sixth. Primo was very lucky not to have been seriously and
permanently injured. Still he was to fight on. After four
meaningless wins, Primo was battered to defeat on two
occasions by the big punching Leroy Haynes, losing in three
rounds the first time and in nine gruesome rounds the
second. Finally, after these two humiliating and hurtful
experiences, Primo escaped to his native land, by way of
France and Hungary, for good. He was out from the clutches
of his evil handlers at last.
After a handful of bouts in his home country, mostly losses,
Primo found some happiness in the sport of wrestling. A
sport where, with his huge size and strength, he was quite
successful. He then retired to run an off licence in the
town of his birth, Sequals. Before his death, in 1967, there
was yet more heartache for the huge boxer. In his final
film, Humphrey Bogart starred in a boxing movie that was
clearly based on Carnera and the time he spent fighting in
America. Though the character’s names were different, the
similarities were so apparent a blind man could see them.
With his permission not even asked for, let alone granted,
Primo sued the filmmakers. Unsuccessfully. It really is
somewhat ironic that a film that evokes such sympathy for a
lead character, that is so obviously based on Carnera, also
both insulted and failed to benefit the used and abused man
who inspired its very story line. |
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