He won more fights by knockout than any other heavyweight champion (IBU, NBA, NYSAC) in boxing history.

Though an inch (2.5 cm) shorter than Willard, Carnera was around 40 lb (18 kg) heavier and was the heaviest champion in boxing history until Valuev.

He enjoyed a sizable reach advantage over most rivals, and when seen on fight footage, he seems like a towering giant compared to many heavyweights of his era, who were usually at least 60 pounds (27 kg) lighter and 7 inches (18 cm) shorter.

[16] In 1932, Carnera faced the tallest heavyweight in history up to that point, Santa Camarão, a 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) Portuguese fighter.

[18] Schaaf had suffered a severe beating and knockout in a bout with future heavyweight champion Max Baer six months earlier, on 31 August 1932.

Furthermore, an autopsy revealed that Schaaf had meningitis, a swelling of the brain, and was still recovering from a severe case of influenza when he entered the ring with Carnera.

[19][20] For his next fight, Carnera faced the world heavyweight champion, Jack Sharkey, on June 29, at the Madison Square Garden Bowl in Queens, New York.

There is disagreement regarding how many times Carnera was knocked down, with sources giving conflicting totals of 7, 10, 11 (per Associated Press) and 12 (per The Ring magazine founder Nat Fleischer, ringside for the fight, who wrote that Carnera was knocked down 12 times and slipped once after a missed punch).

Carnera's 1933 title defense against Tommy Loughran held the record for the greatest weight differential between two combatants in a world title fight (86 lb or 39 kg)[25] for 73 years until the reign of Nikolai Valuev, who owns the current record for the 105+1⁄2 lb (47.9 kg) weight advantage he held in his 2006 defense against Monte Barrett.

Carnera still ranks as the fourth-heaviest, behind Valuev, Tyson Fury and Andy Ruiz Jr., over eighty years after he held the title.

It would be another sixty years, when Lennox Lewis defended the WBC heavyweight title against fellow-Englishman Frank Bruno in 1993, that this would occur again.

During his tenure as world champion he played a fictional version of himself in the 1933 film The Prizefighter and the Lady starring Max Baer and Myrna Loy.

Here he plays the heavyweight champion who barely holds onto his title with a draw decision after a furious fight with Baer.

After being pulled by the ape into a pool of water, Carnera threw a couple of futile punches to Joe's chin.

Primo Carnera went 120 straight wrestling matches undefeated (119–0–1) before suffering his first loss to Yvon Robert in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on 20 August 1947.

Carnera's greatest victory took place on 7 December 1947 when he defeated former world heavyweight champion Ed "Strangler" Lewis.

Boxing Commissioner James Farley, watching ringside, "was not altogether satisfied with the contest" but did not launch an investigation.

Bob Soderman of the Chicago Tribune reported, "Rioux didn't do much fighting..being too intent on doing what he had been hired to do; that is, making sure he fell to the canvas at the slightest provocation."

After an investigation, the Illinois Boxing Commission cleared Carnera but fined Rioux $1000 and revoked his license.

[41] Mrs. Chevalier told them her husband had been approached earlier to agree to a "fake fight," but that he had directed all business to his manager, Tim McGrath.

His first opponents—Big Boy Peterson, Elzear Rioux, Cowboy Owens—were known to be incompetent but their feeble opposition to Carnera suggested that they had been bribed to lose.

Suspicion concerning the Monster's abilities became almost universal when another adversary, Bombo Chevalier, stated that one of his own seconds had threatened to kill him unless he lost to Carnera.

But only one of 33 US opponents has defeated Monster Carnera—fat, slovenly Jimmy Maloney, whom Sharkey beat five years ago.

In a return fight, at Miami last March, Carnera managed to outpoint Maloney.Requiem for a Heavyweight, Rod Serling's 1956 Emmy Award-winning teleplay for Playhouse 90 directed by Ralph Nelson (who also won an Emmy), focused on down-and-out former heavyweight boxer Harlan "Mountain" McClintock.

A highlight was the appearance of Max Baer, playing a fighter the mob could not fix who destroys the giant in his first fair fight.

In his 1933 collection of short stories Mulliner Nights, Wodehouse described one character as follows: "He was built on large lines, and seemed to fill the room to overflowing.

"[54] Carrera's fight with Walter Neusel is described in One-storied America by Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov (1937).

Carnera is mentioned in the 1939 pulp fiction story series Avenger #1 Justice Inc, by Kenneth Robeson on page 59, as an example of a "giant" as the author attempts to describe the physical stature of Algernon Smith - one of Richard Benjamin's future crime fighting allies.

Carnera is mentioned in Cambalache, a 1934 tango song by Enrique Santos Discépolo that was featured in the musical drama film The Soul of the Accordion.

The Yeasayer song Ambling Alp, from their 2010 album Odd Blood references Carnera by his nickname in the title and second verse.