Primo Carnera: The Ambling Alp's Rise, Ruin and Second Life

Primo Carnera came out of a small village in Friuli, worked as a circus strongman in France and became heavyweight champion of the world in 1933. He was one of the biggest men ever to hold the title, and his career is still one of the most disputed. Gangsters bought his contract, many of his early wins were arranged, and he ended up broke and badly hurt. He then reinvented himself in professional wrestling.

A Stonemason's Son in Sequals

Carnera was born on 26 October 1906 in Sequals, a village then in the Province of Udine and now in Pordenone, in northeastern Italy. His father was a stonemason and the family was poor. Accounts of his size begin with his birth, and they do not agree: one boxing-history site says he weighed 15½ pounds as a newborn, while a magazine profile gives 22 pounds. They do agree that he grew so quickly that feeding and clothing him was a struggle.

As a teenager he went to France to look for work. The age is not settled either: one source has him leaving Sequals at 14 and another has him arriving in France at 16 to lay bricks with other Italian migrants.

From the Circus Tent to the Paris Ring

For a time he toured Europe with a travelling circus as a strongman and wrestler. He showed off feats of strength and took on volunteers from the crowd. When the troupe broke up he was left with no work in Paris. In the summer of 1928 Paul Journée, a French heavyweight who was nearly as tall as Carnera, spotted him and began training him. Journée introduced him to Léon Sée, a very short manager who took his own share of the giant's earnings.

Carnera turned professional on 12 September 1928 at the Salle Wagram in Paris and stopped Léon Sebilo in two rounds. Sée then lined him up with easy opponents.

In late 1929 he twice met the American Young Stribling, and both fights ended in a disqualification. On 18 November at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Carnera was awarded the win when Stribling was disqualified for a low blow in the fourth round. In the rematch at the Vélodrome d'Hiver in Paris on 7 December, Carnera was the one disqualified, in the seventh. Both results drew suspicion.

Owney Madden's Investment

Carnera sailed to New York in December 1929 aboard the Berengaria. His contract was bought by Owney Madden, the Hell's Kitchen gang boss with interests in gambling. Former featherweight champion Abe Attell was brought in to train him. On 24 January 1930 he knocked out Big Boy Peterson in the first round in front of 18,500 people at Madison Square Garden. A 2016 Vice article by Christina Newland repeats an allegation that the actor George Raft, a friend of Madden's, spiked Peterson's drink before the bout.

The 1930 tour across America produced a run of suspicious results. In April the bout with Bombo Chevalier was found to be fixed and Carnera's purse was held back at first. Chevalier said a cornerman had rubbed his face with a sponge that burned his eyes and nose. In June, George Godfrey was disqualified for a low blow while he appeared to be winning, and he lost his licence and half his purse. The National Boxing Association had already suspended Carnera in May. According to Newland, opponents were bribed, threatened or tricked. She also writes that Carnera believed he was winning these fights honestly.

The Death of Ernie Schaaf

On 12 October 1931 at Ebbets Field, Jack Sharkey outpointed Carnera over 15 rounds. Then, on 10 February 1933 at Madison Square Garden, Carnera knocked out Ernie Schaaf in the 13th round. Schaaf was carried from the ring unconscious and died four days later.

In August 1932 Schaaf had taken a heavy beating from Max Baer and had been knocked down just before the final bell. He was reported to have suffered headaches afterwards. The autopsy found meningitis and showed he had not fully recovered from a bad case of influenza that had put him in hospital during training camp. New York's governor ordered an investigation, and there was talk of banning Carnera. Accounts say a letter from Schaaf's mother clearing him helped keep his career going.

Champion of the World, 1933

On 29 June 1933, in front of about 40,000 people at the Madison Square Garden Bowl in Long Island City, Queens, Carnera knocked out Sharkey in the sixth round with a right uppercut. This made him heavyweight champion. The fight has been argued over ever since. Some spectators said the final punch did not seem to land, and rumours of a mob fix spread quickly. The sources disagree about Sharkey's own view. Newland writes that he called it a fair loss for the rest of his life even though his wife had her doubts. The Wikipedia article on Sharkey says he later claimed the fight was fixed, but that statement has no cited source.

The money did not reach Carnera. One account says he got only a few hundred dollars from a $17,000 purse once his handlers had taken their cut. The same source estimates his earnings at more than $1 million by 1933, and he saw almost none of it. On 22 October 1933 he defended the title in Rome against Paulino Uzcudun and won a decision. It was the first heavyweight title fight held in Italy, Benito Mussolini was there, and Carnera gave the fascist salute to the crowd. On 1 March 1934 in Miami he outpointed Tommy Loughran, whom he outweighed by 84 pounds.

Eleven Knockdowns Against Max Baer

The two men had appeared together in the film The Prizefighter and the Lady. On 14 June 1934, in front of some 56,000 people at the Madison Square Garden Bowl, Baer wore a Star of David on his trunks, which was widely read as a jab at Carnera's links to Fascist Italy. Carnera went down 11 times according to two of the accounts, including three times in each of the first two rounds, though one article puts the figure at "at least 10." He also fractured his right ankle. The fight was stopped in the 11th round.

Joe Louis and the Long Fall

On 25 June 1935 at Yankee Stadium, in front of 60,000 people, the young Joe Louis stopped Carnera in the sixth round. Carnera's body was failing. In 1936 he took two beatings from Leroy Haynes. After the second he spent three weeks in hospital with temporary paralysis in his left leg, a sprained back and a damaged kidney. The kidney was later removed. He was also bankrupt. Sources date his retirement to 1937 or 1938. A brief comeback in 1945 ended after three losses to Luigi Musina. His final record is usually given as 88 wins and 14 losses, though at least one history counts 89 wins.

A Second Career on the Mat

Carnera made his professional wrestling debut in August 1946 in Wilmington, California, by beating Jules Strongbow. Sources give the date as either 20 or 22 August. He went unbeaten for about 120 matches until Yvon Robert beat him in Montreal in August 1947. In December 1947 he defeated the veteran Ed "Strangler" Lewis. He kept wrestling into the early 1960s, and WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2019.

He also kept acting, up to Hercules Unchained in 1959. The 1956 film The Harder They Fall, based on Budd Schulberg's novel, told the story of a giant fighter exploited by crooked managers, and audiences saw the parallel with Carnera. He sued for invasion of privacy and lost.

Home to Sequals

Carnera married Giuseppina Kovačič in March 1939. They had two children, Umberto and Giovanna Maria. He settled in Los Angeles, where he opened a restaurant. In his last years, ill with diabetes and liver disease, he went back to Italy. He died in Sequals on 29 June 1967, exactly 34 years after the night he won the heavyweight title.

Sources

• Primo Carnera, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Ernie Schaaf, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• Jack Sharkey, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
• The Ambling Alp – Primo Carnera, British Vintage Boxing, undated
• The life of Primo Carnera, The New European, undated
• The Hollywood Gangster, the Fix, and the "Man Mountain", Christina Newland, Vice, 23 August 2016