The Baer Fight

Somewhere around this point, the champion appeared in a movie titled The Prizefighter and the Lady. The popular film starred Carnera alongside several other big name boxing figures, including Jack Dempsey, James J. Jeffries, Jess Willard, and the current number one contender, Max Baer of California. The hard-hitting and charismatic Baer’s recent knockout of Max Schmeling turned a lot of heads and made a match between he and the champion a highly anticipated showdown. On June 14, 1934, at Madison Square Garden, the pair finally did battle in a most unusual and chaotic affair. The champion went down in the opening round under a barrage of punches from the wild-swinging challenger. Sensing a first round knockout imminent, Baer pressed forward for the first time, putting together a ruthless series of punches that sent Primo down twice more. Carnera showed tremendous heart in surviving the round, but was clearly unaware of his surroundings when the bell rang and he wandered into the wrong corner. Exhausted by his futile efforts to put the giant away, Baer tried desperately to finish the still groggy champion off in the second, but to no avail. The pair ended up clinching and wrestling for the next several rounds, with both men frequently tripping and falling to the canvas. During one of these tumbles, Baer got laughs from the crowd by looking over at Carnera and joking, “Last one up’s a sissy!” Eventually Carnera, having steadied himself, began to use his size and reach against the challenger. The Italian was never known as a quality boxer, but, against the crude and exhausted challenger, he had had enough skills to gain a lead on the score cards as the fight entered the tenth round. Toward the end of that round a roundhouse right from Baer turned the tide once again, sending Primo fumbling across the ring. A follow-up fusillade of blows sent the champion down. The brave but battered Carnera made it to his feet just in time to hear the bell clang to signal the conclusion of the round. The minute rest did little to revive Carnera’s senses. He came out for the eleventh, but proved to be little more than a gigantic target, going down twince more before the referee stopped the contest. Including the wrestling falls in the middle of the fight, Primo hit the deck eleven times in eleven rounds. Primo had lost the championship.
Joe Louis & Later Years

Taking five months off to regroup following the embarrassing fiasco with Baer, Carnera returned to the ring for a tour of South America in late 1934. He fought three opponents of mediocre to poor quality, winning all four bouts. Only Victorio Campolo of Argentina lasted the twelve-round distance. Then he returned to America to knock out an unheralded giant by the name of Ray Impelletiere with a devastating left hook in the ninth round.

On June 25, 1935, Primo took on his first top ranked opponent since Baer when he faced up-and-coming Joe Louis from Detroit. At this point the undefeated but inexperienced Louis was regarded as an untested prospect and thus many became interested in the results of a match between the ex-champion and the raw novice. But, because of the political turmoil created from Italy’s recent invasion of Ethiopia, the fight took on a meaning that spread beyond the realm of sports. Ethnic tensions within New York City grew so dangerous in fact that many powerful people in the city pushed for the fight’s cancellation. Despite - or possibly because of - the controversy, 62,000 paying customers showed up at Yankee Stadium to watch Louis annihilate his gargantuan foe. After the first round, Carnera’s face dripped with blood, some of his lower teeth having been pierced through his upper lip. The remaining rounds only prolonged the inevitable, as Carnera proved easy target practice. A right hand in the sixth round sent the ex-champion “down slowly, like a great chimney that had been dymanited,” wrote journalist John Kiernan. Exhibiting the same heart as he had against Baer, Primo rose dazedly to his feet, only to collapse once again under another Louis attack. He bravely stood up yet again, just in time to be battered to the floor a third time. Carnera had the honor of being on his feet yet again before referee Arthur Donovan stopped the fight.

The decimation at the hands of Joe Louis was Primo’s final performance as a major contender in the heavyweight ranks. He managed a few more wins against moderate level opponents on American soil before suffering two consecutive losses to the much smaller Leroy Haynes in 1936 and returning to Europe. The change of locale did nothing to change Carnera’s faltering career. After suffering a second round knockout at the hands of Joseph Zupan in Zupan’s pro debut, he finally retired. Returning to his native Italy to live in peace, Carnera’s financial problems prompted his return to the ring after the end of World War II. Though he won his first two comeback bouts, three subsequent losses prompted the permanent completion of his boxing career. Still in need of cash, he resorted to a semi-successful professional wrestling career in America and later starred as the villain in several low budget movies. When there was no more money to be made, he once again returned to Italy, where he died of psoriasis brought on by alcoholism on June 29, 1967, at the age of sixty.

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