A BOXING BARNUM

Hokitika Guardian, 18 June 1932, Page 6

A BOXING BARNUM

PRIMO CARNERA’S • HABITS

GREAT FISTIC SHOWMAN

LONDON, May 23,

There may be doubts about the ranking of Primo Camera as a heavyweight fighter, but there ought to be general agreement that he is' the pugilistic inventor par excellence, that he is the champion breaker of traditions, that he is one of the greatest fist'ic showmen the world has known, and that he has no present rival as a money-maker, •writes Trevor Wignall in a London paper of March 23.

Camera is unorthodox in the ring, but he is much more so away from it.

The average boxer, in training, does a little road work,in the morning, and engages in sparring and loosening or fat-reducing exercises in the afternoon. Between the hours of his activity he leads a most restful life, and is tucked into bed by nine o’clock. That is about the hour when the mammoth Italian i«’ beginning to feel properly awake. When he is not sitting with friends in an Italian restaurant he may be found in the lounge o! a d n luxe hotel, or in an outsize seat in a cabaret.

Another point is that two or three days before a fight th» normal champion goes into a sort of retirement. He scorns road work, and any talk of sparring is liable to throw him into a tantrum. Boxers arc kittle cattle—especially in the 48 hours or so that precedes a contest.

But regard the habits of Camera, as practised this ; very week. Instead of swathing himself in cotton wool on Monday, he journeyed to Leicester, where, in the evening, he boxed a num--1 ,<n\ of hard rounds with Jack Stanley, •Eddie Steele, and Guardsman Gater. The bout with Stanley was the-move intere'-'ting because it was the former London policeman who lent himself as the first stepping stone to Camera’s remarkable rise to fame.

It will be remembered that when the Italian originally came to London he had a second-hand overcoat, odd boots and about five francs in his pocket. He was hired for a preliminary contest with Stanley, but as that only lasted about a minute, little was of the human mountain. Next morning, however, all London was following him ahe walked about the streets.

At Leicester, Stanley was aerin Carnera’s opponent in an exhibition, and, to the delight of the crowd, boxing’s Barnum suddenly stuck out h's soiarplexus, and invited Stanley to hit it. with all his power. Stanley obliged. An instant later he was down in the dust on his back. The former policeman had to be helped to his dre singroom. Three days before h© was booked to meet George, Cook in London, Cartfera was at Stoke-on-Trent, where he toyed with four opponents, all of whom were in the neighbourhood of 6ft.. 6’n. Even John L. Sullivan never thought of the barnstorming that conies so easily to Camera, and certainly Dempsey and Tunney never made railway journeys to take part in exhibitions the night before their contests.

Camera is already the?, richest man that ever walked out of the village "ear Venice, where he was bom. but if he continues to give exhibition- in aIJ the odd hours when lie is not battling—for ther e is much money in these provincial appearances—he will presently be the wealthiest person in Ttaly and all the countries adjacent to it.