There Really Was One: 1954

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Between June 1949 and April 1954, there were 21 championship bouts held in the United States. 19 of them were promoted by the International Boxing Club. The US Government decided that this was a monopoly and the fact that the bouts were televised made them interstate commerce and they filed suit under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It was the beginning of the end for the IBC, but only the beginning.

Carmen Basilio should have been given another shot at Kid Gavilan’s crown in 1954 but Frankie Carbo decided to promote a fighter named Johnny Saxton, who was managed by his friend Blinky Palermo. Saxton got his shot against Gavilan on October 20, (per RRB and BoxRec: Youmans has it on 10/19). He spent virtually the entire fight grabbing onto Gavilan and holding on. 19 of the 21 writers present voted for Gavilan. But Saxton was awarded a unanimous decision. Four days later the New York State Athletic Commission ordered that Saxton’s first defense of his title should be against Carmen Basilio.

But Frankie Carbo had an old friend in Boston named Anthony Valenti with a fighter named Tony DeMarco. He decided young Tony should get a shot before Carmen, who spent 1954 marking time and keeping busy. Italo Scortchini, an Italian middleweight was Carmen’s first opponent of 1954, on January 16, in Miami.

But Frankie Carbo had an old friend in Boston named Anthony Valenti with a fighter named Tony DeMarco. He decided young Tony should get a shot before Carmen, who spent 1954 marking time and keeping busy. Italo Scortchini, an Italian middleweight was Carmen’s first opponent of 1954, on January 16, in Miami.

 

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“Scortchy” and Pierre

Basilio, “showed none of the class that carried him 15 rounds with champion Kid Gavilan last September. He was repeatedly rocked by hard lefts and rights thrown by Scortchini. …A looping left hook and sharp right uppercuts were Basilio’s best weapons. Basilio carried the fight to Scortchini most of the time, except when the Italian stopped his backpedaling and charged in for a flurry. There were no knockdowns and Scortchini was bothered with a bleeding nose in the second and third rounds….Both fighters fought more like heavyweights than welters, constantly circling and waiting for an opening, rather than jabbing and mixing it up….Basilio was bitter about the draw, declaring that he had backed off in the last two rounds because he thought he had the fight sewed up. ‘I won the fight going away and took it easy. The judging was lousy.’ Scortchini said ‘Basilio is nothing but a rough guy, not as smart as Gavilan.’”

On February 6th, Carmen Basilio was knocked out. An anesthesiologist put him out so he could have his tonsils out. Carmen had swallowed so much blood from his nose that he had difficulty breathing late in fights and felt that it left the impression that he was tired and that this might have affected the scoring. When he woke up he coughed so hard that he broke open the wound and swallowed so much blood that it was thought he might not survive. He needed a blood transfusion but he made it. Any thought of fighting was postponed for a while.

Scortchini lost an unpopular decision to Carmen Fiore at the War Memorial on March 28
th. The emotional Italo cried when the decision was announced. It was the third straight decision defeat or draw Scortchini had suffered, all controversial, (the other had been to Joey Giambra). The Basilio camp expressed the concern that Scortchy might get a favorable decision the next time.

On April 17, Carmen got a rematch with Pierre Langlois, with whom he’d had a draw the year before. “Carmen Basilio, looking like the Canastota bearcat of several months ago, awaited a new assignment from promoter Norm Rothschild after handing Pierre Langlois an artistic trimming in the War Memorial last night. Carmen won as he pleased, although a tired warrior at the end of the 10 round bout. It was unanimous decision in his favor. The crowd liked it immensely, judging form their cheers. The scrap lacked the brawling tactics of their first meeting in December but it was a good one and the spectators seemed to find plenty of excitement in the 40 minutes of milling.” (NOTE: it was a 10 round fight so I assume that the writer, Frank Woolever of the Herald-American, was referring to the 3 minute rounds plus the minute between them. I don’t think they had 4 minute rounds back then, although three minutes with Carmen Basilio must have seemed like four minutes with anyone else.)

“Basilio fought a completely different type of battle than expected, maybe something completely new for the ex-marine. He was not the rushing in, free-swinging punch peddler or yore but a smart, short sharp-shooter to puzzle, even bewilder his more experienced rival….Basilio employed the tactics of Jimmy Slattery, the old Buffalo Adonis and Ralph DeJohn, once Syracuse’ boxing master. At times his hands were at his sides as he suddenly weaved and bobbed. Then he would flash into action…He took charge from the start and outpunched and outmaneuvered the visiting Frenchman in every round….The Frenchman could not make him backup although Pierre was trying desperately for a knockout from the 6th round on….A cut was opened over Langlois’ left eye in the second and it bled freely when reopened in the seventh. Carmen had a mouse under his left optic but escaped without a cut or scratch.”

“Speaking in his dressing room after the battle, Pierre insisted he was slowed by the constant warnings of the third man in the ring. Referee Berl refused to let Pierre hit coming out of clinches and wrestle and throw his lighter opponent or use his head. The referee became incensed in the eighth and took the round away from the Parisian for lashing out with a punch as the pair was being broken from a clinch.”

A month later, Langlois beat Joey Giardello, the #1 middleweight contender. At the end of the year he was given a title shot against Bobo Olson and went down in the 11th round. Bill Reddy noted “Basilio, obviously, handled Langlois much more intelligently and capably than did Giardello…Langlois is screaming for a title shot but Basilio’s rooters are claiming that he rates the #1 middleweight spot,(both Scortichini and Langlois were middleweights), in addition to his top welter ranking. “

U-Tube has the last two rounds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRC5neJf--c

Note that Carmen is now fighting from more of a crouch and that he’s keeping his hands low to force an attack by Langlois, (pronounced “Lang-Loy“) into attacking so Carmen could counter-punch.

 

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“Scortchy” and Al

A new organization called the “World Boxing Federation”, “with representatives of each of the main regulatory bodies of the western hemisphere), came into being with one of its first orders of business in a meeting at Monte Carlo being to “straighten out the welterweight mess”. They did so by establishing Carmen Basilio as the #1 contender and passing a rule that Kid Gavilan had to defend his title against him within 6 months. But Gavilan was negotiating to meet Jimmy Saxton without sanctioning that as a title bout. The understanding was that Carmen would face the winner within 90 days. Bill Reddy reported that both Gavilan and Saxton had signed an agreement to that effect.

The rematch with Scortchini was scheduled for May 15 in Syracuse. “Figuring that his so called ‘European Style’, which emphasizes defensive skill, may have cost him the victory in his last three bouts, Scortchini is reported to have changed his strategy and is expected to carry the fight to Basilio tonight.” Carmen, on his part, was looking for a knock-out to avoid putting it in the hands of judges again. “I hope he does. I honestly tired myself out trying to catch up with him in Miami….I’ll knock Scortchy out if he dares to force the going.”

Carmen scorched “Scortchy” with a shot to the midsection that put the Italian on the defensive for the rest of the fight. It was fortunate for Carmen’s left eye was already bleeding at the end of that round. It looked as if Scortchini would go down several times in the middle rounds, (hit upper torso actually was forced through the ropes at one point in the fourth round, as shown by a picture on page one of the sports page), but he survived and actually went toe to toe with Basilio in the last couple of rounds, trying to steal the decision with a late rally as he did in Miami. But it didn’t work. The judges had it 6-4 and 5-4-1 for Basilio and the referee made it unanimous, 6-3-1. It was the fourth time Carmen had followed up a draw with a victory over the same opponent. He also had three wins over fighters that had previously beaten him.

His next opponent, (on June 26), was Al Andrews of Wisconsin, who had, “zoomed into the fistic limelight recently by whipping Chick Davey twice, blasted Wesley Lowery three times, took two out of three battles with Pat Manzi and had beaten many other good welters. Andrews has been boxing only 22 months and is known as a fighter rather than a boxer. He tells friends that the easiest fight he had was when he blasted Chuck Davey into a bloody mess….He also tells friends that his next bout will be against Kid Gavilan for the welterweight championship.”

“Giving the greatest performance of his career, Carmen Basilio carved out a unanimous decision over a rugged and willing but outclassed Al Andrews of Superior, Wisconsin before 4600 at the War Memorial. (Al, it turned out, was not superior.) Taking charge from the opening bell, Carmen never gave his rangier, (5-10) opponent a chance as he landed repeatedly with his vaunted left hook. Al tried hard and never stopped trying on the roughest night of his career, to keep from being bombed into oblivion. Oblivion was never very far away for Al, especially in the seventh round when he was floored twice and only the bell saved him from going down a third time for an automatic knock-out.” As usual, Carmen’s left eye suffered a cut, this time on a butt in the wild 7th round action. “It bled but slightly in the last three rounds when Carmen refused to take any unnecessary chances and seemed willing to carry his opponent in the final rounds.” He needn’t have worried: Carmen was awarded all 10 rounds on two cards and all but the first one on the other. And the once promising Andrews was unable to avoid oblivion. He went on to lose 31 of his final 49 fights. He’d started out with an unorthodox defense- holding his arms in front of his face to avoid Carmen’s punches. He found out why it was unorthodox as Carmen worked the body round after round. Norm Rothschild said, “When I saw Andrews on the floor, for the first time I wished I wasn’t in this business. He’s a great youngster and Carmen was just too much for him.”

U-Tube has the entire fight, with original, (occasional and rather excitable), commentary:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2gGEowTqbQ

I didn’t bother to score it as it was so one-sided. It was a man against a boy. Carmen seems to have some kind of medical dressing above his eye in the latter rounds. I didn’t know you could do that.

 

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A Guarantee?

Jack Slattery wrote a very angry column on 6/28, accusing the New York State Athletic Commission of being too lenient or even in cahoots with Jim Norris and the International Boxing Club. He quoted Jack Cuddy, of the UPI, “one of the better judges of fighting talent”, as saying that “Tonight Carmen Basilio would have beaten every welterweight in the world and most all of the middleweights”. Ray Arcel told him “Tonight I saw the greatest Basilio I ever saw. If he isn’t given a shot at the champion immediately, it’s a crime”. That was perhaps appropriate as, Slattery noted, mobster Frankie Carbo was “the real power” behind Kid Gavilan and his good friend, Blinky Palermo, managed Johnny Saxton, who had been given a title shot despite the fact that Basilio was the #1 contender.

“Don’t you know why Carmen Basilio, the clean, hardworking kind of boy you contend is the best kind of advertisement for the sport is the legitimate challenger? That he is being given the run around by the all-powerful boxing monopoly simply because he does not belong to them? Because he won’t allow himself to be cut up by that blood-sucking group? Does Carmen have to sell himself to the International Boxing Club or give a piece of his contract to Frankie Carbo to get a title shot?

Instead Basilio got the first of two fights against veteran trial horse Ronnie Harper, whose last two fights in a 28-33 career these would be. The first came on 8/17. It was regarded as a ”tune up” with the big news of the day that Carmen had agreed to a rematch with Carmen Fiore, signing a contract with the International Boxing Club to do it. Jack Slattery noted with “awe” that once Carmen signed for another fight with Carmine Fiore, who was in the “stable” of the International Boxing Club, his name started popping up all over the press in connection with possible big money fights with other contenders who had been spurning him. Carmen went to Fort Wayne to fight Harper with an agreement hat he’d get a title shot “within 4 months” against the winner of the Saxton-Gavilan bout. Carmen was also told he’d be introduced in the ring before that bout.

“After an even first round, Harper stung Basilio with a long overhand right. Basilio shook off the punch, floored the West Virginia state champion for a nine count and went after him with both hands as he arose. Referee Dick Patton stopped the fight at 1:50.”
The second fight with Carmen Fiore was scheduled for Madison Square Garden on 9/17. It was only Carmen Basilio’s second fight in that fabled arena, (the first being against Vic Cardell in 1951). Slattery said “Fiore’s a rugged lad with a knockout punch in his left hand. He’s every bit as capable of knocking out Basilio as Carmen is of finishing Fiore…Fiore is the type of fighter capable of making Carmen look good. He’ll mix it readily and that’s where Basilio shines….But if Fiore beats Carmen- forget I came to work today”

Slattery continued his commentary on the International Boxing Club. “That group has been called Octopus Incorporated. It seems to possess part of everything it comes in contact with. There’s little in the way of boxing flesh that the Norris-controlled enterprise doesn’t own or control in part. I doubt that the IBC now has control of Basilio or a piece of the third of his contract which returns dividends to Joe Netro or Johnny DeJohn. What is more likely is that the IBC has a guarantee from Carmen’s managers that he will cooperate with them in the future. Cooperate could mean any number of things. It could mean exclusive rights to use Basilio should he get and win a fight with the winner of the Gavilan-Saxton fight. It might mean that he no longer grants his services to Ray Arcel’s Saturday Night Fight Productions, which are in opposition to the IBC. It might mean that future appearances in Syracuse will carry a clause that the IBC is a co-promoter…IBC President Jim Norris agreed that he thought that Basilio, the #1 challenger, deserved a shot at the title. Like Russia, the IBC can discover something whenever it is convenient…It is very unlikely that the IBC would set Carmen up with a victory before a national television audience in Madison Square Garden so close to a championship fight that if they didn’t have plans to give him a shot at the title. It is even more unlikely that they would risk him walking off with the crown without insurance that they would not be out in left field should he win.

Carmen almost scored a first one-round KO when he nailed Fiore with left hooks to the chin and temple in the first round, causing two knockdowns and leaving Fiore reeling, his head through the ropes with his face bleeding from cuts on the nose, mouth and chin. The referee pulled Carmen away and it seemed he was stopping the fight. “I thought the fight was over. When a ref touches a guy’s arm to direct him away from a guy’s who’s been taking a beating, it usually means the fight is over.” But he didn’t and Carmen sprained his thumb in the second round. This caused Carmen to box cautiously after that and allowed Fiore to survive.
But Carmen “did a deft job of chopping up his oncoming rival for the first seven rounds. He met Fiore’s rushes with well-timed counters and shook his rival several times. In the eighth, Fiore, his face smeared with blood and his trunks red-splattered like a butcher’s apron, seemed to have gotten a second wind. He nailed Basilio with a smashing left and right and caught the favorite several more times with vicious punches as the crowd of around 2,000 cheered him on. He kept up the offensive to win the ninth handily, despite being warned once for a low blow.” But Basilio had piled up enough points to win all three cards, 6-3-1, 7-2-1 and 8-2.Jack Slattery said “He looked like a guy with a job to do who was supremely confident he could do it.”

After the fight, Carmen was asked if he preferred to fight Kid Gavilan or Johnny Saxton. He didn’t hesitate to answer “Gavilan. I fought him and beat him once. Naturally I’d like to fight him. I know I can lick him.”

U-Tube has a three part, silent version of the Fiore fight. Here is part I:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgMgJ3C85Ng
The other two parts can be seen on the list on the right side of the screen. Carmen was a hard puncher but normally a one punch knock-out guy. But he almost gets one here. Look at how wobbly Fiore is after he first goes down. It’s amazing this one went the distance.

 

[SWC75]

Keeping Busy

Trying to keep Carmen busy, Norm Rothschild lined up a fight in Syracuse with Gil Turner. But when Turner was surprisingly KO’ed by Al Andrews, he backed out of the fight and the best guy Rothschild could get as a replacement for the 10/15 fight was one Allie Gronik of Detroit. Gronik actually had a good record with 55 wins and 12 losses since a 1947 debut. However Groniks’ foes were not highly rated. He had a reputation as a sort of “wild man” in the ring. His fighting style was described as that of “a man searching for his wallet in an alley brawl”. Gronik was surely searching for his wallet now as this would be his biggest payday. His wife’s birthday was the day after the fight and he promised to “give her a birthday present by upsetting Basilio”. He was a southpaw who had to learn to box righthanded because so few boxers want to fight lefties. “He hits from all angles and is a difficult target.” It turned out he was an easy target and got hit from all angles.

There was more action outside the War Memorial than inside as what was left of Hurricane Hazel passed through Syracuse while the fight was going on. Carmen told Poliquin “I remember the whole building shaking.” The bout itself was totally one-sided. “In fact, it looked like Gronik had tumbled headfirst into a meat grinder.” Groniks’ only displayed talent was the ability to remain upright while absorbing blow after blow. He never went down although he came close a couple of times. When Gronik held his hands high, Carmen worked his midsection. When the hands came down, he rung Allie’s bell with shots to the head. Gronik, referred to by some as “The Clown Prince of Boxing” for his unorthodox ring style, “went home battered young man, sadder and wiser. There were cuts over both eyes, his right eye completely shut and his body was reddened from a terrific pounding. His wife sat in the audience and watched her mate ‘take it’.” Carmen, for one of the rare times in his career, was unmarked. The cards were 10-0, 9-0-1 and 9-1, the last seemingly having granted Gronik a round “for showing up”. Gronik fought one more time, then quit the ring. Fortunately there would not be too many fights left against such overmatched opponents for Carmen Basilio.

Bill Reddy told a story of how well known Carmen was in Havana after his good showing against Kid Gavilan. Reddy had been there for a baseball game between the Syracuse Chiefs and the Havana Sugar Kings, who were then in the International league and when Basilio had beaten Scortchini in their rematch, the result was announced in the stadium and a huge roar went up. One Cuban writer told Reddy that Basilio was a tough fighter. “The Keed took him too lightly, but he was tough.” Reddy pointed out that Gavilan was taking Basilio even more lightly by refusing to fight him again. “He can make money without fighting Basilio. Why take a chance?”

Five days after the Gronik fight, Johnny Saxton outpointed the fading Kid Gavilan for the title in Philadelphia. Gavilan had avoided Basilio but not defeat. Norm Rothschild stated that he thought Gavlian should have been declared the winner but that Carmen Basilio would have beaten either fighter, probably by knockout. Gavlian had lost to Bobo Olson for the middleweight title on April 2nd, starting a slide that would see him lose 17 of his final 28 fights.

On 12/10 Peter Mueller’s managers sued Carmen Basilio because he and his managers supposedly backed out of a fight with Muller after they “saw how Peter handled Ralph ‘Tiger’ Jones. They said that Peter was too tough.” That little matter would be resolved the next year.

On 12/16, Carmen ended the year with another “confrontation” with Ronnie Harper, this time in Akron, Ohio. He “toyed with his foe for two rounds, ended the third with a hard left hook, that turned out to be the last blow of the fight”. It was also the last blow of Harper’s career as he refused to come out for the fourth round. It was a quiet ending to a frustrating year. The next year would be both loud and satisfying.