The Really Was One: 1958

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Carmen Basilio was named Ring Magazine’s fighter of the year for 1957. Bill Reddy called him, “The most popular fighter of any weight in the world today. Carmen’s insistence on year-around conditioning, a program of incessant training in which he punishes himself regularly has been a prime factor in the admiration he has gained throughout the nation and the world.” Arnie Burdick noted that “The World’s Middleweight Champion has been banqueted coast-to-coast for the last couple of months. This activity has added only three pounds to his girth, (he now weighs 156), but the hand shaking and attendant speeches he’s had to suffer through probably has raised an ulcer that made him an everyday companion of aspirin or something stronger.” He was about to end that however, as he traveled to Miami to train with Angelo Dundee for the return match with Sugar Ray Robinson.

Carmen was still peeved that Robinson took home $483,666 to his $215,629 from the battle of champions. That was Carmen’s biggest payday ever but the fact that Robinson, after dissing him years before took home more than twice as much as he did was something he couldn’t forget. “He took the big money the first time but he’s getting nothing this time.” This time each fighter got 30% of the gross receipts. The fight, however, was scheduled for Carmen’s jinx city, Chicago. This time Carmen trained at Dundee’s gym in Miami.

There was no return bout clause this time but Robinson’s co-manager George Gainford reassured everyone that there would be a third fight should Sugar Ray win. “We will want the world to know that it wasn’t just a fluke. We have a two fold plan and the first part is to beat Basilio.” After that they were planning an exhibition tour of Europe and a rubber match. Carmen wasn’t worried. “I intend to win this fight.”

With less bargaining power on the money, the Robinson camp was reduced to complaining about the ointment Angelo Dundee had used on Basilio’s cuts in the first fight. It was called collodion-iodoform and, according to Gainsford, caused Robinson’s eyes to get irritated and water. Carmen had another substance in mind when he heard of the complaint. “He’s full of . If it got into his eyes, how come it didn’t get in mine?” it was one more dispute to get under Carmen’s skin.
Robinson showed in Chicago with a retinue of 17 people and took over an entire floor of the Hilton Hotel, where the rooms were $100.00/night. Carmen came with five people and rented one three room suite at the Bismarck for $42.00/night.

A contingent of 220 Canastotans traveled to Chicago to cheer their man on for the fight. Carmen was an 8-5 favorite. A poll of the 34 sportswriters present favored Basilio 21-13. But the paper noted that Robinson “can be considered the most remarkable middleweight of all time in his ability to destroy opponents in rematches to regain the title. After his dramatic 13th round KO of “Raging Bull” Jake LaMotta to win the title in 1951, he’s lost it to Randy Turpin, to retirement and to Gene Fullmer before regaining it by dramatic knockouts over Turpin, Bobo Olson and Fullmer each time. Robinson had never lost twice to anyone. Arnie Burdick noted that Carmen had won return bouts with Johnny Cunningham, Gaby Ferland, Billy Graham, Eddie Giosa, Vic Cardell and Johnny Saxton. Only Chuck Davey had beaten him in a second bout.

Amid much publicity, Sugar Ray’s pal Frank Sinatra flew in to see his friend take the middle weight title back- for the fifth time. Carmen growled, “How’s that going to help him?” At the weigh in, rising boxing broadcaster Howard Cosell told Carmen that he’d polled 10 sportswriters and 9 of them said Sugar Ray would win by a knockout. Carmen told him, “Nine of them are wrong.”

 

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ROBINSON II

“Boxing Legends notes: “Round one began with a toe-to-toe exchange as each fighter immediately attempted to establish superiority. The question remained unanswered at the bell ending round one.” Per Youmans, “When the bell rang to begin the rematch for the middleweight title, the champion exploded out of his corner, landing body shot after body shot.” Carmen won two of the first three rounds but suffered cut on the side of his nose. “In the fifth round, Robinson shook Basilio with a hard left-right combination that caused some puffiness to Carmen’s left eye.” Robinson kept jabbing at the eye and by the 7th round, it had closed.

Against a fighter who had knocked out the indestructible Gene Fullmer with a single right hand, Carmen Basilio now had to fight for 8 more rounds with his left eye shut. Not only was it shut but as Robinson kept pounding away at it, that left eye became on of the iconic images of boxing, either a symbol of its cruelty or of the bravery of its participants- or both.

Burdick reported, “By virtue of his hard body punching and hooks to the chin, the champion took an early lead. He was getting the better of the infighting and there were a lot of clinches.” Burdick was certain that Robinson turned the fight in his direction with a poke into Carmen’s left eye in the fourth round, (per an audio tape I have of the broadcast of this fight, it happened right after a clinch). After that, “the champion had too rough a row to hoe. He didn’t quit, though, like a less courageous battler. And his keen boxing sense and conditioning and youth enabled him to make a real fight of it. In fact, it says here that One-eye’d Jack from Canastota was leading after 12 rounds. He had beaten Robby to the punch in both the 9th and 10th rounds to get the better of some of the heated exchanges. But Carmen’s fuel was beginning to run low late in the fight and he was getting easier to hit for the tired Robinson. Never before had Basilio, late in a fight, looked at the clock in order to pace himself. But from the 11th on, he did.”
“The Sugarman looked like he was trying to take Carmen out of there with a single punch, (as he’d done to Fullmer). Some of his shots in the early going looked quite desperate but they missed by plenty and Carmen’s capable defense kept the Sugarman off balance. Robby didn’t seem to sense Carmen’s eye problem until late in the fifth round. Basilio had hit out well early in this stanza and Robinson appeared tired. Then, with about 30 seconds of the round left, Carmen got tagged with a couple of Robbie’s better shots. These gave the Sugarman a real shot in the arm when the champion came out for the 6th round with the left eye closing…and closed. Robinson was well on his way to capturing the middleweight crown for the fifth time.”

Bob Considine wrote: “Ray closed the poor man’s left eye tighter than quarter past three in the sixth round. From then on the brave bull Basilio fought from memory and by touch. Whenever he could he’d feel his way in through Robinson’s blinding jabs and occasional rocking rights like a blind man crossing Times Square at noon without benefit of a seeing eye dog. Once in close he got in some good licks. But the remnants of Ray’s great talent prevailed. He backed off, stabbed, struck, piled up points and turned Basilio’s face into what looked like a head-on collision.”

Carmen’s corner said prior to the 10th round that they were going to ask the fight to be stopped. His reply, “If you stop this fight, you better be out of town before I leave the ring”.

Carmen forced Ray to cover up with repeated body shots in the 10th and 11th but Ray came back strong in the 12th and in the 15th hit Basilio with “a right to the jaw that made his body quiver. Robinson remained on the attack, buckling Basilio’s knees with a perfect three punch combination. Somehow, Basilio remained standing, staying on his feet and battling as best he could as the bell clanged to end the fight.”

The scoring was wild. The judges had it 4-11 and 3-11-1 for Robinson. The referee found it 9-5-1 for Basilio. Here is the breakdown: (5 point must system)
Referee Frank Sikora:
Robinson- 445 455 444 444 555 Total: 66
Basilio- 555 544 555 555 443 Total: 69
Judge John Bray:
Robinson- 445 455 545 555 555 Total: 71
Basilio- 554 544 454 444 444 Total: 64
Judge Spike McAdams:
Robinson- 445 555 555 455 555 Total: 72
Basilio- 554 444 544 544 444 Total: 64
Only twice did the judges find an even round- and they disagreed as to whether it was the third or seventh round. They agreed on the winners of the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 13th, 14th and 15th rounds and ironically Sikora graded the only 5-3 round in the 15th.
Sikora said “I gave it to Basilio because he made the fight. He carried it to Robinson and fought three minutes of every round. Robinson was a spot fighter, coasting much of the time. I scored it in Basilio’s favor because he was scoring with body punches. Robinson’s only big round was the last. Basilio had Robinson in a bad way three or four times with his persistent attack. I’m on top of the action all the time, closer to the fight than anybody. I voted the way I saw it and the judges voted the way they saw it. I thought Basilio won.”


Carmen said after the fight that he was willing to go another 15 rounds. Robinson said, “Well, maybe he could have gone another 15 but not with me. I never fought anyone tougher than Basilio- he hurt me. Jake LaMotta was as tough- but he wasn’t tougher. I’m tired as hell.” Both men were done in and there were rumors both might retire from the ring. Perhaps they should have. It was the 50’s version of the “Thrilla in Manila”, two great fighters pounding away at each other with neither ever being the same again. Neither ever won a championship fight again. Bill Reddy later noted that Kid Gavilan, Johnny Saxton and Tony DeMarco had never won any important fights after their experiences with Carmen Basilio and wondered if Robinson might join that list. He did.

Arnie Burdick said “In his three previous fights here- all losses, Carmen accused the judges of being half-blind. Last night, from the fourth round on, the blind man was poor Carm…All hands agreed that neither Carmen nor Sugar Ray demonstrated the strength, the punching power, the endurance or the stamina that each fighter flashed in such abundance last September in Yankee Stadium…or the alertness or quickness, either….It appeared that the Robinson of last September would have stopped the one-eye Basilio and, by the same token that the Basilio of last fall would have made Robinson quit.”. Burdick noted that “Carmen was on the verge of being knocked out at the finish- not from the force of Robbie’s punches but rather from fatigue- his legs just wouldn’t work any more…he couldn’t get away from punches he normally would have slipped or ducked….Sugar Ray had to be carried to his dressing room.” One writer said Robinson “looked like a person who had been administered a heavy anesthetic.” Basilio often said, “I walked out of the ring. They had to carry him out.”


The general opinion was that Carmen would have defended his crown if he’d not been injured in the eye. Carmen said “I couldn’t measure the distance” between him and his opponent after the eye was closed. Referee Sikora said “I thought he made the fight. He kept boring in every second of the way while Robinson loafed whenever an opportunity presented itself. He coasted through the early parts of a round and then spurted in the waning seconds to finish with a flurry’. This is called “stealing the round” and is how that other Sugar Ray managed to beat Marvin Hagler three decades later. After the eye closed, Ray was able to score points repeatedly with his jab and that was what really won the fight. This was Ring Magazine’s “Fight of the Year” for 1958.
Angelo Dundee said “I wanted to cut his eye but I couldn’t because the bleeding was internal, right next to the eyeball. Hey, I’m no surgeon. I had the razor blade ready in my pocket but I couldn’t use it. All I could was apply ice between rounds….He’s the only guy, period, that could have handled that and kept going…he’s one of a kind.”

Carmen’s return to Syracuse was held up after his left eye began leaking blood and his wife ordered him to go from their hotel to a hospital. (Carmen also had to cancel another appearance on the Steve Allen Show and an appearance in Las Vegas with Mickey Rooney.) The doctor’s found a cut under the eyelid and a tiny tear on the eyeball itself, both of which were closed with a single stitch, (?) after the swelling went down.

Carmen didn’t get back to Syracuse until April 5th, 10 days after the fight. By then he looked almost normal again and said his vision was “normal”. His fans had a large sign for him, “You’re still the champ”.

Here is a two part, re-mastered U-Tube clip of the IBC highlight film, including a close-up shot at the end of the first clip of Carmen’s shut left eye.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oipTvLxX1Ho



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFcMzhZ2om0&feature=relmfu

The ring announcer is Ben Bentley, whom you may remember from years later as the host of the Chicago-based show “The Sportswriters on TV”.

 

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GREEN AND YELLOW

He’d made more than $250,000. All his money went into “Carmen Basilio Enterprises, Inc”. There was already talk of a rematch but the loss of the title meant the loss of bargaining power.

Now back in possession of the title, Robinson set new standards for hard bargaining. He wanted to promote the fight himself and take home the lion’s share of the receipts. The prize money Robinson demanded was 42% to Sugar Ray and 17 1/2 % to Carmen. When Basilio refused to go along, he called Carmen “yellow”. By the end of August Robinson had refused to say if he was willing to give Carmen a rubber match or when. The National Boxing Association, which was now running the sport, or trying to, eventually deprived Robinson of the title for inactivity. New York State did not recognize this and Robinson held onto their version of the middleweight title until defeated by Paul Pender in 1960.

According to a 1986 Bud Poliquin column, Carmen did encounter Robinson again- at the famous Marvin Hagler-Thomas Hearns fight in Las Vegas that year. “”But upon doing so, he encountered eyes that long ago had become vacant lots. ‘He doesn’t remember anything’, Carmen said. ‘He had to ask his wife who I was. She said ‘It’s Carmen Basilio’, so he said hello. I went up to him 15 minutes later to talk to him and he forgot who I was. His mind is gone. He just doesn’t remember.’ Things had come full circle. Sugar Ray Robinson didn’t know who Carman Basilio was in 1953 and he didn’t know who Carmen Basilio was in 1986. But he sure knew in 1957 and in 1958.

Ray’s problems late in life didn’t soften Basilio’s attitude toward him however. After Robinson died in 1989, Basilio said “I don’t give a . There’s no sense in putting on an act that I feel sorry for the person because he was the most arrogant person I’ve ever met.

Carmen thought about trying to take back the welterweight title from new champion Virgil Akins. Benny Floyd, a California promoter offered to set up a tournament to determine a new champion. National Boxing Association Vice President Harry Falk said “There should be some activity in that division. It’s a crime to permit a man to defend once a year against a man of his choice. Some of these other boys should be given a chance.”

 

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ARROGANT ART

Carmen’s comeback fight was with Art Aragon, the darling of the west coast fight set, in Los Angeles on September 5th, 1958. Aragon, called the “Golden Boy”, was perhaps the most pampered fighter of the 50’s. He hob-nobbed with celebrities. He fought before packed houses, (more than $2,000,000 in total gate). There were constant rumors his fights were fixed. He also wore “patches” over his eyes made of collodion to prevent or protect cuts. His manager insisted this was allowed under California boxing regulation, which permitted “a reasonable amount of protection”. A couple of times fighters had refused to face him unless the patches were removed. Vince Martinez had made such a demand in 1954 and won both the controversy and the fight, giving the Golden Boy’s “features an artistic carving”. In 1956, Cisco Andrade refused to fight him under the same demand until Frank Sinatra came into the dressing room to convince him to go through with it. He got a 9th round TKO for his troubles.

Carmen Basilio, the man who had fought Sugar Ray Robinson half blind for 10 rounds, would have none of it.
Aragon, sometimes known as “Arrogant Art”, predicted an easy win as “Basilio’s easy to hit. And anybody I can hit I can beat.” Golden Boy, “the greatest drawing card in California boxing history”, “made a ring fortune by being unpopular- like a wrestling ‘villain’”. He alienated the local Chicano population by announcing he was “Spanish, not Mexican”, (he was from New Mexico), causing them to root for his opponents.

Since the Sugar Ray bouts were closed-circuit, this was Carmen’s first nationally televised bout in 18 months. It took place in Los Angles’ Wrigley Field, (later the site of “Home Run Derby”). Many people wondered why Carmen was fighting Aragon, who had not ventured away from the West Coast for a fight since 1946 and who was not in the rankings, despite a career 82-16-5 record, (with 55-1 knockouts). Shouldn’t he be chasing Sugar Ray Robinson for a third fight? “He could go chase himself”, manager John DeJohn said. What about Virgil Akins, the welterweight champ? “We couldn’t make that kind of money, ($60,000), fighting Akins. We were looking for the best move for our boy. I wasn’t going to let this boy fight or $10-12,000. We’ve got a nice payday with Aragon and we can still do business with Akins for the championship later on.”

Basilio, “ducking under Aragon’s sweeping left hooks”, went after Aragon’s body. Golden Boy’s defense was mostly centered around protecting his jaw so Carmen raked the beltline, (a few punches may have been slightly below it), then worked his way up with uppercuts. He completely dominated the first four rounds.

Aragon “drew a big roar of approval in his one and only big round, the 5th. He staggered Basilio twice in the three minutes with long rights and lefts to the head. At one stage, Basilio’s corner seemed alarmed that he might be hurt. Basilio closed strong and took complete charge again in the sixth. Punching savagely, he drove Aragon from one corner to another without much opposition.”

He broke open a cut over Aragon’s unprotected left eye in the 7th and “toward the end of the round, Aragon tottered in a dizzy fashion one foot toward his own corner.” In the 8th “Carmen took it easy for just a few moments then backed Art into a neutral corner, dealing out severe miseries so that the referee stepped in and lifted Carmen’s hand in victory.” Aragon’s corner had already thrown in the towel, and empty gesture under California law, which did not recognize that as the end of the bout. It was the first time Aragon had been stopped since 1948, when he lost a fight on cuts. He said afterwards “I made eighty grand for the Basilio fight. Unfortunately, it cost me ninety grand to get out of the hospital.”

U-Tube has two four part postings of the original broadcast of this fight. This one has the full opening, including that Gillette jungle that I always used to like so much. Jimmy Lennon is the uncle of the famous Lennon Sisters of Lawrence Welk fame. Wrigley Field is where “Home Run Derby was filmed the next year. This is part one- part two will be to the right and so on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV0nmcY3mPc

Yes that’s a young Mary Tyler Moore in the commercial with Rock Hudson.