Ninety years ago there was an Italian boxer who in the United States, which had become his second homeland, won a match against an opponent from Boston, becoming thanks to that victory a legend of Italian sports. That knockout not only won him a world title, but made him a symbol of redemption for the Italians who had emigrated from the many rural southern and central Italy living in New York and throughout the United States.

His name was Primo Carnera, born in 1906 in Sequals, a small town in Friuli Venezia Giulia, and he became the strongest boxer in Italian history because he was the first and still the only one to win the world title in heavyweight, the most important category in boxing. So important was winning the world belt that Carnera became a national hero in Italy and for all Italians scattered around the world, not just in the United States.

In the 1920s, Italy was a backward and starving country because it had just come out of World War I, which had brought death and destruction everywhere. It was during those years that Benito Mussolini came to power in the country by establishing the fascist regime that ruled Italy for twenty years. Those were difficult years and the people were looking for heroes to be inspired by, so Carnera became the hero of the Italians through boxing.

He was a giant 6,6 feet tall and came to weigh as much as 290 pounds during his boxing and wrestling career. He traveled the world, in those years where the means of transportation were only the ship and the train, performing all over Europe, in Canada and especially in the United States, where he was considered a real star.

He won in the ring by demolishing opponents with his powerful blows, and he performed in circus shows, even challenging bears. He was one of the first global stars and wherever he went he filled stadiums, arenas, circuses or sports halls. In Italy, his face was everywhere - posters, newspapers, advertisements, movies - and everyone called him the "gentle giant" because he was always smiling. In the United States, they called him "The ambling Alp" (the slow walking mountain) because he was a real colossus.

When he entered the ring, every opponent looked like a child compared to his physical prowess, and although he was not a technically gifted boxer, it was almost impossible to knock him out. He began his boxing career early, and after fighting 80 matches, with a record of 74 wins and 6 losses, on June 29, 1933, he fought the match that awarded the world heavyweight title for the first time in his career. The match was scheduled in the world temple of boxing, Madison Square Garden in New York City. Carnera entered the arena packed with 40,000 spectators, mostly Italians who had emigrated to the modern American metropolis.

That night, in front of a delirious crowd, he crossed gloves with Boston-born Lithuanian American Jack Sharkley, the reigning world champion. Carnera knocked out his opponent as early as the first round, but Sharkley got right back up. The match, then, was balanced for the first five rounds. In the sixth round, the Italian knocked Sharkey back down and he got back up after being counted out. A few seconds later, a deadly right uppercut by Carnera knocked out his opponent, ending the match and thus winning the world title, the first in history for an Italian boxer. In New York, but also throughout the United States, Italians celebrated all night long. He returned to Italy with the heavyweight title of world champion and immediately became a national hero.

His popularity was enormous, and during that period the production of comic strips, posters, and press articles depicting him as the prototype of the invincible man increased. In the same year, exactly on October 22, 1933, Carnera faced the match that still has the largest number of spectators in the history of Italian boxing. In Piazza di Siena, Villa Borghese in Rome, in front of 70,000 spectators, the world champion defended his world title against the very strong Basque boxer Paulino Uzcudun. The crowd was in a frenzy, and Carnera did not disappoint expectations. He beat his opponent from the first to the last round and although he failed to knock him out, he won the match on points. He was carried in triumph by the Italian people as if he were a king, and from that day on he became a legend of Italian sports.