dagosd2000 wrote:It must have been just before he died. I looked in the records. Primo Carnera died in 1967. I saw him in the ring. The wrestling ring. Wrestling was as big as the fights. I think boxing fans want to forget that wrestling exists,but it's always been just as popular as boxing. But wrestling is fake. Sure ,it's an act. But how many of the great fights were faked? There are a lot of fight fans that don't want to believe that. Now don't figure me wrong on this,but let's say I argue on here that the Dempsey/Willard fight was not on the level. If I said anything negative about the Manassa Maulers 's integrity,why I could be considered a subversive. Now if I said anything about Doc Kearns's scruples,would I get much of an argument?
Back to Primo. I saw him on television in San Diego promoting a wrestling match against someone I can't remember. The interviewer asked Carnera if it were true that he was controlled by "The Mob" and that many of his fights were fixed. Well Primo,speaking broken English,got upset with this guy.
"Why you ask me question like that? No. How many times I say no."
I guess it was a legitimate question. I mean you're asking "The Ambling Alp",not the "Manassa Mauler". You're asking a person who many referred to as a "circus freak". Not a fighter who married a movie star and was friends with them. A Heavyweight Champion who opened one of the most popular restaurants in New York City. A fighter who won the championship by knocking down his opponent 7 times in the first round, breaking his jaw,fracturing his ribs and cheek bone,and for good measure knocked out a couple of teeth. Primo Carnera will never get into any Boxing Hall of Fame. Every time there's an induction into a Boxing Hall of Fame,Dempsey gets in on the first ballot.
But I think I've said enough. I've always tried to stay pretty positive on here. We know where Dempsey stands. A national treasure. National treasures don't get involved in crooked fights any more than Cy Young award pitchers use performance enhancing drugs. Oh,Oh,I did it again.
But in Primo's defense,I heard that someone has written a book proving that Carnera's fights were not fixed. There have been volumes written on how it was impossible for Dempsey to accomplish what he did in Toledo by anything else but throwing clean punches. The photographs and re enactments have refuted any hanky panky. Forget Kearns. Betting 10 grand at ten to one. He was sore at Jack for letting him go. So he made up that story. To think that this character managed Archie Moore? We need to start believing that Primo Carnera was not as what we perceived him as,a crooked fighter. Was he a bad fighter? Well if you perceive him as a crooked fighter,the chances are you're going to think of him as a bad fighter. There weren't any crooked fights. If you're a popular fighter or a popular ex fighter and were involed in a crooked fight ,don't tell us.
I saw the wrestling match with Carnera. Primo was the bad guy. He was probably used to that. But he never admitted to nothin'. If he knew anything,he took it to his grave.
In the mid-60's, right before Primo Carnera was diagnosed with cancer, he lived and worked in Glendale, Calif. The former Heavyweight Champ and his wife, had a small two bedroom home, on a nice tree lined street, just a few blocks from the "Broadway Liquor Store & Market".
I lived in Burbank, which was right next to Glendale, and when I was about ten, I learned from an old man next door that Primo Carnera, a "giant" who had held the heavyweight title, worked in a Glendale store. This was about the time I was starting to become obsessed with boxing, so I had to meet this former champ, especially one of the biggest to ever hold the title.
I got on my bike, and rode to the store the old man believed employed Carnera, and, sure enough, Da Preem was standing behind a cash register, and was checking the groceries of an elderly lady from the neighborhood. My friend and I walked in, went directly to the candy bars and grabbed something to buy.
After bagging the old women's groceries, Carnera wrapped his massive arms around the brown grocery bags and lifted them to his chest. He then followed the little women outside, and placed them in the trunk of her old Buick.
As Carnera walked back into the store, he had a slow gate, a bit of a limp, something that appeared more from exhaustion than injury, but who knows? It was a hot day, and when he stepped back inside the cool store, sweat was pouring down his gaunt face. He looked kinda like a charactor from a horror movie. The bone structure around Carnera's eyes jutted outward from the loss of weight, I had no idea he was so sick. He just looked tired, to me. You could see warmth in his dark eyes.
After paying for the candy bars, we asked him about his career. He smiled, shook his head, and said nothing. He shook our hands with his GIANT paw, then said, "You good boys, run on now."
We left in amazment, we had a story to tell our friends. And of couse, they had to see it to believe it, so, we would show them the store, and go into to buy a candy bar, or a Coke. After a couple days, Carnera would visit with us a little, until some old woman would need assistance.
This is just a simple memory of something that relaly blew me away when I was a kid. A few years later, he'd return to Italy to spend his final days at home.
People have a very distorted and inaccurate view of Primo Carnera. He was far more than he's credited for.
-Rick Farris
-Rick Farris
