IS CARNERA CHAMPION CLASS?

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1931, Page 10

IS CARNERA CHAMPION CLASS?

AMERICAN CRITICS SAY “NO.” Now that. the. Camera boom is on and many are looking to the giant to win the title, it is interesting to read what an American critic has to say about the mammoth. No boxer or “glove fighter” has ever had so much publicity in so short a time as tho Italian giant Primo Carnera. And never has there been so much utter nonsense written about the prowess of a man who has. yet to show that he oven approaches championship class. One wonders what would have happened to the Italian had he met Jamss J. Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, Jack Dempsey or Gene Tunney at their best. What would have happened to him in the same ring with Charlie Mitchell or John L. Sullivan in their prime? Tommy Burns who was never more than five feet seven inches high in his championship days would have accounted for him readily. The only time Burns was ever beaten by a heavy-weight was .when the police stopped the fight in which he was engaged with Jack Johnson at Sydney, Australia, December 26, 1908. Burns beat several men over six feet tall; in fact, Marvin Hart, his first victim in the heavy-weight class, was si feet four inches. Tommy’s dictum regarding big men was this: “By the use of a superior fighting brain you spend a round or two bringing them down to your height. Then the serious work begins.” Burns was never knocked out in his life! Camera is fortunate in coming along at a time when the world is without a really first-class heavy-weight. If we grant that for a man of his size he is nippier than most, his performances thus far tell us nothing. Stribling, with his long record of boxing, was able to put the giant on the floor. It is by no means certain, if Camera faces one of the third-raters now in the running for the heavy-weight championship, that he will survive the test.

When one thinks of the large sums of money obtained by heavy-weights nowadays for providing nothing, one sighs for the days when men stepped into the ring knowing that the prize could he won only by winning the fight. Nowadays a loser may get more than the winner, since fixed sums are guaranteed both before they enter the arena.

In the very old days in England, English puglisists fought for a guinea even when they were champions. The famous Paddington Jones, who was five feet eight inches- and weighed just, over ten stone, took on all comers and on one occasion he walked from London to Colchester to meet the champion of the Eastern Counties—a burly man of over six feet in height. Jones beat the giant, and a collection was made on his behalf among the spectators. The Paddington man then walked back to London and within a few days fought a six-foot soldier in Hyde Park. Jones won the fight in quick time and looked around for more customers.

Jim Carney of England, who is still alive and looking wonderfully well at the age of 72, mot Jack McAuliffe for the world’s light-weight championship. They fought a draw of 72 rounds with the “raw ’uns” (rounds were then of no fixed duration, a round being ended when either man was off his feet). Carney got £209 for the fight, but paid his own fare both ways.

It is calculated that by the time Carnera fights for the championship of the world (if ever) he will be well over £40,000 wealthier.