Quite a few BOXERS 'tried' and 'flirted' with Wrestling especially when they became
'too old' to be credible and effective as Boxers!
A Classic example of this was PRIMO CARNERA-The WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING
CHAMPION for 12 Months between JUNE 1933 and JUNE 1934!!
The 'Ambling Alp' was going strong as a Wrestler in 1950-16 Years after he lost his World
Boxing Title!!
But and Unbelievably he was STILL Wrestling Top Wrestlers in 1960!!-26 Years on!!
Here he is at LEICESTER in MARCH 1960 taking on our own-at the Time-BRITISH
HEAVYWEIGHT Wrestling Champion-BILLY JOYCE-NOT for the Title of course!
Must have been an Incredible Match?-I wonder how it went?-What was the Result?
Quite a 'Coup' for the Promoter?....
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His younger brother, the imaginatively named Secundo, ran a club in Dean Street near where the Groucho is nowadays.
The book The Harder they Fall by Budd Schulberg and the film with Bogart are based on Carnera. He sued I think for libel and lost.
Powerlock wondered if Primo Carnera "wrestled in any other countries or was the UK his only wrestling".
Carnera also wrestled in:
USA [of course :) ]
Australia
Canada
Mexico
Switzerland
Japan
I was once told that he was a wrestler before he ever boxed but not sure if that information is true or not.
I believe that same year he defeated Geoff Portz at Preston.
Poor old Primo. It's pretty much common knowledge that the Mafia controlled him and the majority of his main boxing matches were fixed, we all know the wrestling was fixed as well!
I know he made a few film appearances and I hope he made money from that, and wrestling, because I am not sure how much of his boxing money he actually saw.
Not quite Carnera, who I never saw.
I saw an ex-British heavyweight boxing Champion - Jack London at Newcastle fighting Lloyd Barnett ,another ex boxer and they were both poor wrestlers.
Drew the crowds in by name alone.
Here are a few more of Carnera, he took on most of the notable heavyweights:
Evidently Primo was pretty poor as a wrestler, my dad saw him at St James, and told me he was bloody useless as a wrestler and reckoned he only did it because he was skint
Carnera just under six feet six inches(6'5.75'') and nineteen stone four pounds.
And here's the Man himself!....
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