There Really Was One: 1956

[SWC75]

Ring Magazine conducted a poll of it’s readers in the wake of the retirement of Rocky Marciano and they voted Carmen Basilio the most popular fighter in boxing. He was also popular with the IBC because of the money they could make off of his fights. That was fine with Carmen: “Mr. Norris is a gentleman and a man of his word. If it wasn’t for Mr. Norris I wouldn’t have been champion. He’s given me the opportunity to put myself where I am today.”

Saxton I


Johnny Saxton had received a cash buy-out and a clause in the contract for the second Basilio-DeMarco fight that he fight the winner within 60 days. Instead he had to wait 6 months. Blinky Palermo couldn’t manage a fighter in New York, so the fight was shifted to Chicago, which Carmen always considered a “jinx” city after losing to Chuck Davey and Billy Graham there. But now he was the champ. And besides, after twice knocking DeMarco out, Carmen figured the Saxton fight wouldn’t go to a decision.

Saxton was a boxer rather than a puncher. Harry Merkerson of the IBC told Jack Slattery that, “When I first saw Johnny, I thought he was destined to become one of the great fighters. I saw him defeat Tony Pellone and he did everything right. Then something happened to him. He became a clutcher and a grabber. What brought it about, nobody seems to know for certain. It wasn’t until he fought Tony DeMarco in Boston and was knocked out that he abandoned the clutch and grab tactics. He stood up and traded punches with Tony and came off second best.”
It was thought that the best plan for Saxton was to get on his wheels and try to score points from long range and then move in closer in the later rounds, when Carmen would hopefully be tired from chasing him. Johnny said “I’ve changed my tactics a little. If I can get inside on him, I’ll show him what I mean. My idea is to throw punches all the time, be a busy fighter and punish him simply by hitting him so much.” Carmen figured “It’s going to be up to him to make the fight. If he wants the title, come and get it.”

Saxton landed the first good punch of the fight but Carmen seemed to have won the first round with series of hard combinations. Carmen “wobbled Saxton with a lethal left hand” in the second round but Johnny held on and then landed a punch well after the bell. In the third, Saxton opened a small cut over Carmen’s left eye with a series of jabs but opened a bigger cut in his own glove, which caused a stoppage of the fight while a new glove was put on him.

Youmans says Carmen’s cut was caused by Saxton’s fingernail after his glove was ripped open. Bert Sugar had a more jaundiced view: “When Saxton came out for the third, a small slit with padding exposed mysteriously opened up in Saxton’s glove, courtesy of one of the sponsor’s razor blades. The referee ordered a new glove be put on and 15 minutes were spent by Saxton’s cornermen in a Marx Brothers charade of ‘locating’ another one. When they resumed, Saxton had fully recovered and spent the better part of the next 12 plus rounds imitating a long-distance runner and at times an entrant in an all-night dance contest, entwined around his tormentor in death-like embraces.”

The Bernstein tape shows Saxton’s first round punch. It’s a good one and caused Carmen to hold on for a while. He gets clipped with another later in the round. Carmen is again in white, not black trunks and is fighting too straight-up and to far away against Saxton, who at 5-9 was three inches taller. In football, a big key is getting down toward the ground so you can come up under your opponents with greater leverage. The same thing is key in boxing. If you can get down, you are a smaller target and can punch up, with the canvas beneath you. If you aren’t getting “under” your opponent, it’s either inexperience, fatigue, age or perhaps a lack of focus and that may have been the problem here. Carmen wasn’t going to beat Saxton boxing straight-up from a distance.
Carmen’s cornermen were able to close his cut during the wait. The referee won round four by separating the fighters every time Carmen landed a body punch but letting Saxton, three inches taller, lean all over Carmen in the clinches. Carmen couldn’t work his way inside without the referee stepping in. He had to fight from a distance and that was Saxton territory. He even claimed after the bout that the ref gave him and extra push when he broke the fighters.

The Bernstein tape shows Carmen narrowing the distance in the fifth round and trapping Saxton in the corner for a long flurry of punches. Saxton shows little aggressiveness after that, moving backwards or sideways and just throwing the occasional job to kept Carmen off of him. Jim Jacobs, narrating the clip, says, erroneously “Both boxers were originally from New York City”. Carmen, of course, was born and raised in Canastota among the onions.

Carmen dominated the fifth round, landing several right hands while Saxton missed more of his punches. He did the same in the sixth but Saxton rallied in the seventh, enough to put Carmen on the defensive. Carmen kept chasing him in the eight but was stopped in his tracks by hard left. Carmen dominated the 9th and 10th rounds, getting in a good left hook when Saxton dropped his right. Johnny responded with another after the bell punch. Saxton hit Carmen with “an overhand bomb” at the beginning of the 12th round. Carmen “appeared to tire” at the end of the round.
The Bernstein tape has the 10th round. Saxton is doing nothing but moving away from the stalking Basilio, who keeps trying to corner him. The crowd has turned on Saxton, booing heavily every time he took a step back.

Saxton started to wrestle with Basilio in the 13th. Carmen kept punching to the body as Johnny waltzed him around the ring. There was more of the same in the 14th and 15th, with Carmen landing a good punch to the jaw near the end. Bernstein’s tape shows Saxton coming out more aggressively and even throwing a Bolo punch, but then grabbing onto Carmen and waltzing around with him with little interference from the referees.

At the end of the 15th round, Saxton, “walked to his corner, disdainful of Basilio’s efforts to slap him on the back and apparently knowing he had recaptured the 147 pound title”. The judges saw this fight 138-145, (E. A. Hintz), and 140 to 147, (J. . McManus) for Saxton and the referee, (Frank Gilmer) 142-144. Hintz scored two different rounds 8-10 for Saxton, (the 8th and 12th), even though there were no knockdowns. McManus gave Saxton 10 of the 15 rounds. Gilmer also had an 8-10 round, the 8th. Basically, every time Saxton landed a hard punch, he got an 8-10 round out of it. Carmen had the class to come over and try to shake Saxton’s hand, as disappointed as he was. Saxton barely acknowledged him. Ring Magazine named this boxing’s “upset of the year” for 1956.

Carmen claimed the judges gave him no points for being the aggressor. “They don’t score double hooks in this town.” Saxton said that Carmen was a clean fighter but “never threw anything that turned me back.” 20 of the 27 boxing writers at ringside voted for Basilio as the winner but their votes didn’t count. Joe Netro said “They stole the title from him. I thought a guy had to go after the title, not clutch and run. Imagine a guy running away and getting the title!” The crowd had booed Saxton’s tactics but he claimed it didn’t affect him. “If people want to boo, let them do it. It doesn’t bother me. I guess people want a knockout or a bang-bang fight I could only outbox him and try to put him away if the chance came. I fought him just as I planned.”

Dan Parker, a writer quoted in the Youmans book, wrote, “How much ability and popular appeal mean to the IBC and its wire pullers can be seen when a fine, honest, popular fighter like Basilio is sacrificed to get Saxton, boxing’s number one arena stinker, back on the throne. Basilio has never appeared in a bad fight. The honesty of his efforts has never been questioned. He and Rocky Marciano are the boxers in whom the public has unlimited confidence.”

U-Tube has the 1st, 5th, 10th and 15th rounds, narrated by the late, great Jimmy Jacobs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6qFddgcWCU

 

[SWC75]

Saxton II


Basilio, per the Youmans book, went to the New York State Athletic Commission and pleaded with them to allow Saxton to sign for a return match himself without Blinky Palermo having to be involved. “New York is the only place I can get a fair shot. Please allow him to fight in New York.” He got an unlikely ally in James Norris, who had been stung by criticism that the IBC had arranged the outcome and felt the only way to answer it was to allow the rematch to take place in Basilio’s home state. Not only would it be in his home state. It would be in his home town. Norm Rothschild had been so successful in promoting fights there, 56 of them had been shown on national TV, third behind New York and Chicago in the decade. That record convinced the commission to let him handle the rematch, which would be a decent into hell for Johnny Saxton.

Rothschild had been contacted by Gabe Genovese, who said he could arrange for the fight to be in Syracuse if Rothschild forked over $10,000 for Frankie Carbo. Rothschild called Norris and was told that if he could “work something out” with Genovese, he could have the fight. Rothschild said he would see what he could do. Genovese and Carbo got their money. Donnie Hamilton told Youmans, “Norm Rothschild was one of the most honorable men I ever met. A good guy. A good-hearted guy. He loved Syracuse and he loved boxing. He had no choice but to work with those guys. Otherwise, this area would not have these great fights.”

Saxton had fought three times since regaining the crown, winning all three non-title bouts, including a 10 round KO of Gil Turner in Chicago. Carmen had contented himself with hunting and fishing and training at a camp he set up in Alexandria Bay. There was talk before the fight of both fighters “changing their style” for the rematch. But, as they say, a leopard can’t change its spots. Saxton, a clever boxer but light puncher, was likely to move side to side while Carmen was going to bore in and work the body to slow his man down, then go to the head to take him out. Both fighters predicted knockouts, which was fine with Carmen, who wanted no part of the judges.

Youmans: “He had achieved his championship by outlasting a guy who had laid it on the line against him. Tony DeMarco had fought him until he had nothing left to give. Basilio identified with that. If he was going to lose, he wanted it to be like Demarco lost his: going down fighting, knowing you had given it your all and your all just wasn’t quite good enough. He could live with that. There was no shame in that. But losing it the way he had was wrong. He couldn’t allow a fighter like Saxton to be welterweight champion. He didn’t deserve it and he sure as hell hadn’t earned it. The next time...damn his jab…damn the referee…he would destroy Johnny Saxton. It was the right thing to do.”

Carmen had another ace up his sleeve. In the past, he’d always gotten a “victory” haircut from his barber, Angelo Papero before a bout but had been too busy to do so after the first bout. He made sure to show up on time- 1PM Tuesday, 9/11/56, to get his hair cut. Angelo figured the failure to honor this ritual had cost Carmen the first Saxton fight and Carmen was taking no chances this time.

Arnie Burdick polled the press corps the night of the fight and reported that the consensus was that Basilio would probably win but that it would be a dull 15 round fight, like it was in Chicago, as Saxton would not want to mix it up. But they warned that Basilio had to watch out for cuts but Saxton would not as he never cuts. Instead Saxton did mix it up, it was an exciting fight, Saxton was the one who got cut and it ended in a knockout. At least they had the right winner.

Youmans reported that Saxton “was surprised by the anger the crowd had toward him. He expected a partisan crowd but was taken back by the degree of negative emotion directed at him. It was far worse than he had expected.” At first it made him more determined to prove himself to these people. Blinky Palermo had said to the press before the fight, “You fellas keep saying that my boy won the title with the help of the officials who robbed Basilio. Well, tonight he will prove to everybody that he’s the master. He’ll fight Basilio’s style and beat him at his own game. He’ll prove that he’s the better man.”


Ed Linn says that “Saxton’s camp had come up with the crazy theory that Basilio couldn’t fight if he had to move backwards.” Carmen told him “After Saxton has fought a man once, he seems to get a little more confident.”

Saxton surprised everyone by meeting Basilio in the center of the ring and trying to dictate the action to him by denying him punching room. He was taller by 3 inches and younger by 3 years and the strategy seemed to be working for a couple of rounds. But then Carmen’s punches began landing and, according to Burdick, “his right hand was busting in over Saxton’s heart and his left hooks were spinning him around with punishing volume. Those first hard shots in the third round changed Saxton’s attitude from one of complete, dead pan self assurance and confidence to one of concern and, later, of fear and trepidation.” He began to backpedal and box.

The Bernstein tape shows a very different fight from the one in Chicago. Both fighters are in a crouch and there’s never more than a couple of feet between them in the early going. Saxton is actually more than holding his own and a surprised Basilio is trying to punch his way back into the fight, which he eventually does by the fourth round, when a combination sends Saxton into the ropes. After that, he becomes the Johnny Saxton from Chicago, always moving away. But this ring seems a lot smaller than the one in Chicago and there’s nowhere for him to hide. I also found a longer version of the fight I’d taped from ESPN Classic in 2003, (there’s an ad for Sports Illustrated’s book commemorating Ohio State’s “run to #1”, so that certainly dates it). I have every round from the fourth onward. Jack Drees, the fight commentator, notes in the fifth round that the crowd is reacting to Carmen’s swings at Saxton’s head but what impresses Drees is the body shots, the impact of which was audible at ringside. Later, he notes the crowd booing at the backpedaling Saxton but Drees says “I can’t really blame him”.

Basilio opened a cut over Saxton’s left eye and tore open his mouth, (Whitey Bimstein declared it the worst mouth cut he’d ever seen), and by the seventh round, victory was just a mater of time. “The fading titleholder was through as far as continued heavy warfare was concerned after that mouth cut was inflicted…Johnny wanted no part of that beetle browed, determined looking individual seated in the corner opposite him…He was boxing at long range in a worried, almost absent-minded fashion, seemingly just running out the clock with no thought of taking away a victory.”

Youtube has the 8th and 9th rounds. As it opens, the tear in Saxton’s mouth is being worked on in the corner. The first half of the round the fighters circle each other from a distance. Carmen has his man and is trying to load up on his punches to take him out. He catches him with a big right hand near the end of the round and Saxton almost goes down. At the end of the 8th round, Basilio told his corner men “I’m going to knock this guy out. It’s coming soon”. It didn’t take long.

A left-right combination at the start of the 9th turned Saxton’s legs into rubber and he grabbed the rope to prevent himself from going down. The Referee then ended it. Carmen Basilio was again welterweight champion of the world. Youmans: “In his mind, he had righted a wrong. He wept openly in the ring, overcome with the emotion of completing his mission.” He’s also seen kneeling to give a prayer of thanks. Jack Drees tries to interview him but Carmen is just too full of emotion. He does get out “I knew I was going to lick him from the beginning” and says that it means so much to get back the title. He later said “This time he fought me like a man.”

The ESPN Classic tape shows an extended version of the post-fight interviews, including one with Rocky Marciano, who is plugging an article on his career he wrote for the Saturday Evening Post. Drees asks Rocky if it’s true that he’s “hung ‘em up for good”. Rocky tells him he’ll have to read the article. Drees then closes the show by thanking WHEN-TV for their assistance in broadcasting the fight. Older fans will remember those as the call letters of the local CBS affiliate in the 50’s and 60’s.
Angelo Dundee, Carmen’s trainer, said “He handled Saxton with ease and followed instructions. He took the guts out of the guy.” (A 9/19/07 Post Standard Article says the 1957 Sugar Ray Robinson fight was “the first time Dundee worked the corner for a World Champion” but in fact he’d been working Carmen’s corner for several years before that- his first great fighter.)
Carmen told Ed Linn “Winning back the title was the biggest thrill of all. Thrilled as I was the first time, I never really realized what it was until it was taken away.” This was Ring Magazine’s “Fight of the Year” for 1956.

Saxton was found crying in his dressing room by reporters. He was getting nine stitches in his lip, but claimed that “Carmen didn’t hit as hard as DeMarco did”, (ask Tony if he agrees). Johnny blamed the crowd for his defeat, saying that they booed so lustily when he tried to outbox Carmen, he felt he had to stand toe to toe with him. He also blamed the referee for stopping the fight, saying he was never in trouble until Carmen “hit a nerve” in the 9th round.” Saxton said he didn’t want another match in Syracuse because “I don’t know why the people don’t like me. I have no excuses…he just beat me…but the people here don’t like me…Encouragement is the greatest thing in the world and I just didn’t have any tonight.”

Blinky Palermo agreed, saying, “We’ll have a return bout when WE are ready. The bout will be where WE want it. By WE I mean Saxton and myself.” Blinky was used to getting his own way. He criticized the referee: “He did a bad job. He never should have stopped the fight in the ninth until Johnny had hit the deck at least once.” He criticized Whitey Bimstein: “I wouldn’t have allowed Johnny to fight with that bad tear.” He criticized Jonny Saxton: “Carmen fought a good fight but I can’t understand why my boy changed his style.” Perhaps because Blinky wanted him to?

The paper showed three pictures at the top of page 55- Carmen having his hand raised in victory by John DeJohn while the defeated Saxton, with a towel over his head, shook his other hand. Rocky Marciano and Ring Magazine’s Nat Fleischer at ringside and Joe Netro, Carmen’s manager, conferring with Blinky Palermo, Saxton’s manager, on a rubber match. Carmen’s take was just over of $87,000 and DeJohn announced that it was his last fight of 1956 because two big paydays were enough. They would fight Saxton a third time but that would be in 1957, and not in Chicago.

The paper reported that Carmen had a date to appear on the Ed Sullivan show the following Sunday. Arnie Burdick declared that with Marciano having announced his retirement, Carmen was now “the apple of the eye of the fistic profession.” Arthur Daley wrote, “If a fighter’s combative style is that of a rabbit, he’s only asking for trouble when he pretends that he is a tiger. Saxton asked for such trouble in Syracuse Wednesday Night when he fought Carmen Basilio, who’s proud boast is ‘I’m the toughest guy in boxing.’”

U-Tube presently only has this silent view of the beginning and end of the fight from some Argentine source, inlaid with website addresses and logos, etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmr9f6OWs50
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4tZoeIz9zk