Primo Carnera

Primo Carnera, born in Sequals in northeastern Italy on 26 October 1906 and nicknamed the Ambling Alp, was an Italian heavyweight boxer who held the world heavyweight title from 1933 to 1934. He stood about 6 feet 5 inches and weighed more than 275 pounds, which made him the heaviest champion in boxing history until Nikolai Valuev in 2005, and he won the title by knocking out Jack Sharkey. Through the Great Depression he was a major box-office attraction who set attendance records, including a crowd of some 75,000 to 90,000 at Barcelona Olympic Stadium in 1930 against Paulino Uzcudun. After boxing he worked as a professional wrestler in the United States and as a film actor, appearing in The Prizefighter and the Lady in 1933, and his story loosely inspired the 1956 Humphrey Bogart film The Harder They Fall. He held dual Italian and American citizenship from 1953 and died in Sequals on 29 June 1967.