Fight:97886
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Primo Carnera 276 lbs beat Leon Chevalier 216 lbs by TKO in round 6 of 10
- Date: 1930-04-14
- Location: Oaks Ballpark, Emeryville, California, USA
- Referee: Toby Irwin
- One of Chevalier's seconds, Bob Perry, threw in the towel, although it appeared to all that the boxer was in no worse condition than Carnera. "A bitter demonstration followed. Half a dozen fans attacked Perry, striking and kicking him. In the melee he suffered a cut under the eye. Fellow countrymen of Carnera's stood on chairs and shouted 'fake' and urged the huge Italian be made to fight over again." (AP) The boxing commission started an immediate investigation. Mrs. Chevalier told them her husband had been approached earlier to agree to a "fake fight," but that he had directed all business to his manager, Tim McGrath. McGrath declared he had no knowledge that Perry was going to throw in the towel, and that the towel should not have been thrown in. Carnera's purse was withheld.
Wire Service Report April 15, 1930:[1]
The following is courtesy of the April 2010 Boxing Bulletin Web page: [2]
- "Those sitting in Chevalier�s corner claim that Perry, the second, wanted to throw the towel in as early as the second round when Chevalier was out-boxing the giant but was deterred by a fan who threatened to shoot him if he stopped the fight. But in the sixth, when the self appointed guardian of the second was yelling for the Negro to win the fight, Perry fired the towel over the ropes. When the irate fan realized what had happened he started a two fisted attack on Perry and gave him a beating." � Bob Shand, Oakland Tribune
- Chevalier had taken a "9" count after being shoved to the canvas in the sixth round, but had gone on the attack after rising and was looking more comfortable than Carnera when Perry made his move. The fighter�s manager Tim McGrath was working as chief second and told the press that Perry, who had been hired just that day, had no authority to act in such a manner. After the bout, it was reported that earlier in the day Perry and Bob Laga, also hired that day to work as a second for Chevalier, had been a guest of Carnera�s west coast manager Frank Churchill, at the Whitecomb hotel in San Francisco. Strangely, Churchill seated himself in Chevalier�s corner for the bout, explaining afterward that he could not find a chair by Carnera�s corner.
- Chevalier was cleared by the commission of any wrong doing and declared "an innocent victim of the entire situation."