Remebering Tyson

[Kid McCoy]

Carnera had some legit wins. I believe the early part of his career was "fixed" but mostly because the opponents he fought had no business being in the ring.

The Godfrey fight was su****ious but Godfrey was known for throwing low blows. He did seem to try to KO Carnera with some of the right hands he threw.

He was knocked out by Louis and Baer but he did better against them than most. Carnera had actually built a lead on the scorecards against Baer despite the knockdowns he suffered in the early rounds until another wild haymaker landed and further injured his already broken ankle.

Against Louis he survived 6 rounds, keeping Louis off of him with the jab but absorbing terrific punishment at times and especially at the end.

I imagine a lot of his early opponents were overmatched, but there were undoubtedly some outright fixes among them. Thomas Myler documents them well in his book, Boxing's Hall of Shame.

For what it's worth, Carnera's manager later specified which Carnera fights were fixed and which were legit, and had the Godfrey bout as being on the level. Whether it really was, who knows? Godfrey did have a history of low blows though; he was disqualified against Larry Gains for the same reason.

[GJC]

He punch and he could take a punch. Toughness was thought of much higher as a quality than it seems to be today. If it came down to it I would certainly pick him over Trevor Berbick: Easily one of the worst fighters ever to hold a Heavyweight belt.

Poet

Agree that Berbick was poor wouldn't say he was any worse than Tubbs IMO but certainly in that bracket. Galento beating either of them? We'll have to agree to differ, I would compare Galento to Butterbean rather than Berbick.

[GJC]

Looking at Louis' record, it seems he fought his best competition towards the end of his career. This is also when he started suffering some losses. (I consider the Walcott fight a robbery). Tyson's resume has some great names on it to towards the end of his career (I'm not talking about age, only prime) This is also when some losses start showing up. So we really don't know how good these guys would have been had they met prime for prime with their respective opponents (Tyson vs Holyfield, Louis vs Charles etc).

Think both Louis and Tyson spent early parts of career clearing out the old guard. Louis pretty much wiped out all the title holders post Tunney and Tyson pretty much wiped out Holmes ex challengers. A lot of title holders have 3 acts clear out the old guard, face their contemporarys then onto the new wave. Thats why longevity is so important when measuring ATG's IMO

[GJC]

I imagine a lot of his early opponents were overmatched, but there were undoubtedly some outright fixes among them. Thomas Myler documents them well in his book, Boxing's Hall of Shame.

For what it's worth, Carnera's manager later specified which Carnera fights were fixed and which were legit, and had the Godfrey bout as being on the level. Whether it really was, who knows? Godfrey did have a history of low blows though; he was disqualified against Larry Gains for the same reason.

The Sharkey fight always had a smell to it though Sharkey was always a bit of a strange character

[TheGreatA]

Galento was decent but only if he was allowed to foul excessively.

To be fair he did have wins over Ettore, Haynes and Mann. Not big names but they were decent fighters although much smaller than Galento was.

He also had a big win over the best prospect at the time Lou Nova which kept Galento in the top 10 but everyone regarded the fight as a disgrace to boxing. Galento did everything he could to make a bar brawl out of it and the referee allowed it.

I believe Galento was supposed to fight a young Joe Louis years before their actual fight as a stepping stone.

[GJC]

For the record, I see Prime Louis beating Rocky by either TKO or UD, and Tyson beating Lennox Lewis by UD (probably not by Ko due to Lewis' height)

I would always put Louis over Marciano although I always respect Marciano's chin, stamina and punching power to give him a chance. Louis will win as long as he keeps that damn left up! Not sure I agree with Tyson over Lewis by UD, you think Tyson's stamina and heart will last against a quality opponent such as a peak Lewis? I think that Tyson could blast out a cold Lewis though, depends which Lewis turns up on the night. Lewis could be a slow starter, the best of Tyson was usually in the 1st 5 rounds I think if Lewis weathered those I'd fancy him to win.

[GJC]

Galento was decent but only if he was allowed to foul excessively.

To be fair he did have wins over Ettore, Haynes and Mann. Not big names but they were decent fighters although much smaller than Galento was.

He also had a big win over the best prospect at the time Lou Nova which kept Galento in the top 10 but everyone regarded the fight as a disgrace to boxing. Galento did everything he could to make a bar brawl out of it and the referee allowed it.

I believe Galento was supposed to fight a young Joe Louis years before their actual fight as a stepping stone.

Louis fought possibly the ******est fight of his career against Galento and still managed to slaughter him. Think the fight happened as the result of some clever PR on Galento's part. I think it is akin to Ali fighting that Japanese wrestler or when he was touted to fight Chamberlain the basketball player.

[Kid McCoy]

The Sharkey fight always had a smell to it though Sharkey was always a bit of a strange character

The Sharkey KO punch always looked legit to me. Carnera was a 250lb guy who put his full body weight behind that uppercut, and it's not as if Sharkey had an iron chin. At the very least, it was not an outrageously implausible outcome. I believe Jack broke his nose when he landed on his face, so if he did dive he certainly made it look good.

Sharkey was definitely a curious character though, variously claiming that he stayed down against Carnera because he saw the ghost of his friend Ernie Schaaf in the ring or just that Carnera had improved a lot since their last meeting. Again, who knows? But I believe it was legit.

[Southpaw16BF]

I believe Galento was supposed to fight a young Joe Louis years before their actual fight as a stepping stone.

Also in the prefight, Galento phoned Louis, to tell him he was going to get knocked out, and also bad mouthed his wife. Due to this Louis come out bad tempered and not his usaul cool calm self, and was staggered in round 1 and dropped in round 3.

But when he would rise, and find his feet Galento took one hell of a beating and was knocked out in 4.

[RightCross94]

Well, since you're neither Benitez OR Tyson you're hardly in any position to talk. More to the point, you completely dodged the point I made regarding Benitez winning HID first title at 17 over an ATG. BTW? What did YOU do at 17? Drop out of high school and smoke dope on the street corner?

Poet

hahha wow......owned