Primo Carnera: From Mob-Fixed Fights to Heavyweight Champion and Wrestler

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Primo Carnera arrived in the United States from Italy in 1930, standing 6 feet 5 inches and weighing over 275 pounds, with an 85-inch reach. He would remain the heaviest heavyweight champion until 2005. His contract was quietly bought by the gangster Owney Madden, who brought in Abe Attell, linked to the 1919 Black Sox fix, to train him. His early bouts were blatantly staged: Big Boy Peterson seemed to punch himself in the jaw on the canvas at Madison Square Garden, Elzear Rioux fell six times in 47 seconds, and Bombo Chevalier said his handlers blinded him with a caustic sponge. Time magazine mocked him, and the National Boxing Association suspended him for a period.

Real fights followed: a win over Paulino Uzcudun before more than 75,000 in Spain and a loss to Larry Gaines in London. In February 1933 his knockout of Ernie Schaaf ended with Schaaf dying four days later; the autopsy noted meningitis and a recent bout of influenza. In June 1933 his uppercut knocked out Jack Sharkey for the world title, and he outpointed Tommy Loughran while 84 pounds heavier. Max Baer, wearing a Star of David, knocked him down 11 times in 1934, and Joe Louis stopped him in 1935. He retired at 88 wins and 14 losses, then went undefeated in his first 120 wrestling matches from 1946, acted in films, and died in 1967 at 60 in his hometown.

• Nino Benvenuti later said Carnera had one of the best jabs he had seen in a fighter that size.
• He gave the fascist salute while defending his title in Rome with Mussolini in attendance.
• He fought Baer on a fractured ankle and kept rising until the referee stopped it in the 11th round.
• He sued over the 1956 Bogart film The Harder They Fall, based on his fixed career, and lost.
• He had a tug of war with a giant gorilla in Mighty Joe Young and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2019.