Jack Sharkey Vs. Primo Carnera June 29, 1933

By Robert Grey Reynolds, Jr

Jack Sharkey fought Primo Carnera at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn in 1931. His left hook decked the Italian giant and he won the bout comfortably. Several years later the two boxers met again, this time at the Garden Bowl in Long Island City. Many things had changed between the two fights. Carnera was fighting to take the heavyweight boxing title from the Boston fighter of Lithuanian descent in the second bout. Perhaps most importantly the big second fight almost never came off. Primo fought Ernie Schaaf, another Boston-based boxer in February 1933. Injuries Schaaf sustained while fighting Carnera resulted in his death several days later. Schaaf, a friend of Sharkey's from their U.S. Navy days, went down in a heap in Round 13. Stretchered to Polyclinic Hospital in NYC, he came out of a coma only briefly before he died from an intracranial hemorrhage.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Robert Grey Reynolds, Jr
• Release date: Mar 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311191243

Robert Grey Reynolds, Jr

I am a soon to be retired Duke Medical Center library researcher, who enjoys writing. I have been writing on Wikipedia for years and have begun to writeebooks. My pastimes include selling books on EBay, genealogical research, baseball (Pittsburgh Pirates), collecting antique furniture and coins, and spending time with Kingsley, my cocker spaniel.

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Jack Sharkey Versus Primo Carnera

World Heavyweight Boxing Championship

Long Island City, New York

June 29, 1933

Published by Robert Grey Reynolds Jr.

Copyright 2015 by Robert Grey Reynolds Jr.

On May 2, 1931 the New York State Athletic Commission announced that it would name the winner of a bout between Jack Sharkey (born Joseph Paul Zukauskus, October 26, 1902-August 17, 1994) and Primo Carnera (October 26, 1906-June 29, 1967) as boxing’s world heavyweight champion. The fight, scheduled for fifteen rounds, was to be fought at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York on June 10th.

The public was excited over a possible meeting between the winner of Sharkey-Carnera and the victor of the Maximilian Adolph Otto Siegfried Max Schmeling (September 28, 1905-February 2, 2005)-William Lawrence Willis/Young Stribling (December 26, 1904-October 3, 1933) bout. The latter fight was held in Cleveland, Ohio on July 3rd.

Figure 1 Young Stribling

Schmeling had defeated Jack Sharkey on a foul in June 1930. He offered Sharkey a return bout but it was cancelled by Max’s manager Joe Jacobs (Yosef, Yussell the Muscle, 1896-1940). The New York Boxing Commission later stripped Schmeling of his world heavyweight title because of this subterfuge.

Primo Carnera had been on the barred list since he fought Louisiana native Leon Bombo Chevalier (March 7, 1897-March 15, 1948) in Emeryville, California on April 14, 1930. His