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HISTORY: On June 14, 1934 at the Madison Square Garden Bowl in Long Island City, New York heavyweight champion Primo Carnera defended his title against hard punching challenger Max Baer. Baer exposed Carnera, knocking him down 12 times and stopping him in the 11th round to win the title. Carnera was a slight favorite on the afternoon of the fight. By the time the boxers entered the ring, Baer was slightly favored. The gross gate was $428,392.80, and the net was $361,357.29. The paid attendance was 52,268. Carnera's purse was $122,057.08, and Baer's was $65,044.31. The Associated Press reported: "Eleven times in eleven rounds, the massive Italian, biggest man ever to hold the title, crashed to the floor from Baer's blows, twice in the last round, before Referee Arthur Donovan stepped in and stopped the fight after two minutes, 16 seconds of the 11th. . . . A twelfth time the giant slid to the floor full-length from lost balance in a wild lunge at his foe." There has been a long debate about exactly how many knockdowns Carnera suffered in this bout. Some say as few as seven, others say 10 and still others claim there were 12. Nat Fleischer, who was ringside for the fight, stated in the August 1934 issue of The Ring Magazine, of which he was the founder and editor, that Carnera was down 12 times and slipped once. He gave Baer three knockdowns in the first round, three in the second, one in the third, three in the 10th and two in the 11th. He said Carnera slipped in the eighth after missing a punch.
On the undercard future heavyweight champion James J. Braddock scored a major upset, stopping the highly touted Corn Griffin in the 3rd round. Braddock took this fight with a two days notice and a purse of 250 dollars. Griffin floored Braddock in the 2nd round with a right hand behind Braddock's ear. After Braddock got up Griffin charged in trying to force the stoppage but Braddock instead countered Griffin with a strong right cross and dropped Griffin heavily to the canvas. Griffin barely beat the count but never recovered. The rest of the round Braddock kept countering Griffin's left hooks with right hands but Griffin survived the round. In the 3rd round after 2:37 of pounding and countering the referee stopped the fight and Braddock managed to overcome the 5-to-1 odds as this supposed to be only a tune-up fight for a young heavyweight hope John 'Corn' Griffin against a "washed-up, old fighter".
Offered here is a rare, original, official program for this event.
FULL DESCRIPTION: This is an original, official program which consists of 64 pages complete including covers. Includes photos and biographies of both fighters and a full bout listing. Not scored. Clean inside and out. Not creased or torn. Tight binding. Mild corner wear. 8 1/2" x 11."
An exceptionally rare and desirable heavyweight championship program. Seldom seen and we have not offered a better example.
