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Tale-of-the Tape-Primo Carnera vrs Jess Willard (1930)

Posted: 03 Mar 2016, 15:18
by Caractacus
check out this article from 1930 when Primo Carnera arrived in New York and was training at Stillman's Gym.
Notice his listed measurements here are much larger in the Tale of the Tape then they were when he fought Max Baer three years later.
Is his size exaggerated here for publicity purposes ?


http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 8344&hl=en

Re: Tale-of-the Tape-Primo Carnera vrs Jess Willard (1930)

Posted: 04 Mar 2016, 13:59
by HomicideHenry
Mind you, throughout his career, Carnera was listed much larger than he was in reality. Often pitted against men much lighter, much shorter, than the standard of the time, he was billed to as much as 6'10" and 320 pounds. I know as a professional wrestler he was often billed as 6'8", though in that world there were more behemoths such as himself than in boxing and whenever he had a chance encounter with someone like Gene Kinski or Killer Kowalski he was billed as being 6'6". I know when reading Classy Freddie Blassie's autobiography he claimed that Carnera, new to the business, was so paranoid that people were going to take advantage of him (just as they did in boxing) that the giant Italian in his broken English sobbed and begged Blassie not to double cross him and break his leg or some other underhanded tactic, and Blassie assured him that nothing like that would happen.

Whether that is a true story or not, is anyone's guess.

Re: Tale-of-the Tape-Primo Carnera vrs Jess Willard (1930)

Posted: 28 Nov 2018, 17:57
by Caractacus
Caractacus wrote: 03 Mar 2016, 15:18 check out this article from 1930 when Primo Carnera arrived in New York and was training at Stillman's Gym.
Notice his listed measurements here are much larger in the Tale of the Tape then they were when he fought Max Baer three years later.
Is his size exaggerated here for publicity purposes ?


http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 8344&hl=en
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