FULLMER II
The fall guy had a rematch with Gene Fullmer for the middleweight title set up, this time in Gene’s back yard in Salt Lake City. Carmen was a 5-8 underdog. Bill Reddy wrote: “Basilio seems to be in the finest condition for any of his fights in recent years”, (but then, they always say that and Carmen’s regime was so disciplined that there couldn’t have been much difference: at age 33, it’s about reflexes as much as conditioning). “Grimly determined, Carmen nevertheless seems to have none of the tension which he carried into the ring in San Francisco.” The whole picture has changed for Basilio. He doesn’t have any of the managerial worries that plagued him at the last minute in San Francisco. Moreover, his wife who was ill a year ago and didn’t come west, arrived last Monday and her presence means a great deal to Basilio’s peace of mind.” Carmen told reporters “I expect to win this fight. I’ve never felt better and I don’t expect to make the mistakes I made the last time. Sometimes there has to be a little luck, too. Gene will have to be lucky to beat me. I don’t think he will.”
Fullmer, four years younger, had never lost a fight, amateur or professional, in the state of Utah. Of course his big fights tended to be elsewhere. His one championship bout there had been a 15 round decision in Logan over Spider Webb in December. That was followed by a 15 round draw in Bozeman, Montana with Joey Giardello the previous April, a fight characterized by constant head butting by both participants. I guess they got in an equal number of punches and head butts, too.
As in the previous fight, Fullmer had some innovative training techniques. This time it wasn’t a Willie Mays bat. Fullmer felt that his greater reach, 67 inches to 63), had won him the previous fight with Basilio and he wanted to extend it even more. “The thick-shouldered Fullmer has been spending time yanking himself upwards on the ropes to pull out his reach.” Hmmm…. Basilio also had an unusual training method. To prepare for the bull-like strength of Fullmer, Carmen sparred for four rounds with 215 pound heavyweight Mike DeJohn. “Mike’s big and heavy and he’ll be good for me, clinching and wrestling. I know some things I’m going to try. I’ll have a different battle plan. I know I fought him all wrong last time.”
There were problems at the small baseball stadium, (Dirks Field, which seated 4,000 for baseball but could fit 12,000 for boxing), where the fight was to be held. In a previous fight there the fighters complained that the sun was in their eyes for about 15 minutes during the fight when they were positioned to the west, (the main event was scheduled for 7PM so that it could be seen at 10PM in the East). To combat this, a large screen had to be erected over the grandstand. Then there was the weigh-in, which couldn’t take place in the ring, as scheduled because they were behind in constructing it. The scales were set on an apparently flat place on the ground. But the readings seemed off. So they put the scales in one of the dugouts, which had a concrete floor. The results were still unsatisfactory. Then Dickie DeVeronica, a stablemate of Carmen’s, who had beaten Gene Fullmer’s younger brother, Jay, in Utica nine days before this fight, noticed that a clasp was attached to the “hook and eye” of the scale. It had been put there to keep the scales firmly in place in transit. He removed it and the weigh-in was completed in the dug-out.
Bill Reddy commented: “Years ago, weigh-ins used to be conducted at ringside, with fighters forced to make the prescribed weight just before the bout. In recent years, fighters have generally weighed in at noon prior to the fight. For a big man, this is an advantage for, if he has had to “boil down” to make the weight, he has several hours to stoke back up again. For their last fight, Fullmer barely made the 160 pound limit after shedding weight quickly and it was estimated that by fight time that he gained as much as 8 pounds. Against Basilio’s best weight of 154-156 pounds, for which Carmen has to take no precautions, this can mean a 10-12 pound weight advantage, an important factor in many bouts in this range. Fullmer’s weight bulge can be even greater this time as the Utah commission has decreed a Wednesday morning weigh-in, giving Fullmer even more time to replace weight losses.” The fight was that Wednesday night. Arnie Burdick put it more succinctly: Even more important is the gnawing feeling vividly registered here the other evening that a ring packed with fists belonging to a full-fledged middleweight is no place for the modern Basilio.”
The fight was something of a disappointment. Both fighters were known for their aggressive tactics but Fullmer had won the first fight by holding back and counter-punching. He tried it again but Carmen was unwilling to oblige. So both fighters played against type and pecked away at each other from long range. They managed to do some damage anyway. By the fifth round, Fullmer had cuts over the left eye, on the lip and on his chin while Basilio’s left cheek was red. “Both fighters got what appeared to be deep cuts along their left eyes in the sixth but Fullmer’s was stopped pretty well thereafter while Basilio’s continued to bleed.”
In the eighth round came a bizarre sequence. “Basilio had retaliated for a left to the body that knocked him against the ropes by landing an almost identical shot to the midsection which sat Fullmer on the middle strand. From there, Fullmer pushed Basilio so violently that Carmen flew backwards across the ring and did a full backwards somersault coming up on his feet immediately.” It’s to Carmen’s credit that he could make such an acrobatic move but it was also a clear indication of who was the stronger man. This was the closest the fight had to a knock-down.
The temperature was 90 degrees at fight time but “There was no indication the heat bothered either fighter…A gimmick which, it was hoped, would enable Carmen to overcome the effects of the high altitude, (4200 feet), here apparently failed to make any difference. After the second round and apparently several times thereafter between rounds, Basilio was given oxygen through a small tube which ejected the gas from a small cartridge. The oxygen, which was approved by the Utah commission, may have helped but certainly not enough to keep Basilio strong in the last few rounds.”
“It was in the 10th that Basilio definitely showed signs of tiring and Fullmer, although he missed wildly at times, carried the fight to Carmen strongly in the 11th. The final round saw Carmen bleeding from both eye and in the nose. When Fullmer pinned him against the ropes, Basilio signaled the beginning of the end by refusing to let the referee break them. He did it once more and Fullmer poured in the punches rather wildly. When the referee had a third hard time trying to pry Basilio away, he stopped it. There were some complaints but it seemed that even if the referee had allowed it to continue, Basilio couldn’t have summoned the strength to change the outcome.” The referee and one judge had Fullmer ahead by 6 rounds. The other judge had it 8 rounds.
It was the second knockout loss of Carmen’s career, both of them at the hands of Fullmer. And in both of them, he was on his feet at the end. Basilio was angry at the ref after the fight. “He didn’t know what he was doing. I would have liked to have taken a punch at him at the end. He deserved a smash. But I’d have been suspended for life.” In fact, a front page picture shows Carmen starring at the referee, his fist cocked as the fight ends. The referee has fallen backwards against the ropes, expecting the worst.
Reddy reported that “Basilio criticized everything about Utah boxing except Fullmer…He snapped at newsmen ‘I got nothing to say’, then let loose a torrent of comment. ‘I was messed up from the start. They had a lousy scale at the weigh-in and only one kind of gloves. You don’t win in Utah unless you win by a knockout. This Utah commission belongs to Jensen, (Fullmer’s manager). The referee stopped the fight because he could see the handwriting on the wall.’ Do you mean you could have won if you’d gone the limit. ‘Sure I could have.’ Do you want to fight Fullmer again? ‘Why not?’” Carmen claimed that the cuts he had over both eyes came from head butts.
There was speculation that this was Carmen’s last fight but he wasn’t so sure. “Everybody’s retiring me. But I haven’t thought about it yet. I thought I fought a good fight. Not as good as San Francisco. But the referee certainly didn’t give Gene Fullmer all those cuts.”
U-Tube has a couple postings of this fight, in sections. Here’s one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdk3JQwCuI0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzzAfGV0Quw&NR=1&feature=endscreen
(this includes the 8th round somersault)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvojvPih8Oo&feature=endscreen&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4BZp6AA2f8
Carmen seems to have let his hair grow for this fight. He almost looks as if he’s wearing a toupee. But a toupee wouldn’t have lasted 12 rounds with Gene Fullmer. I didn’t score the fight because it didn’t go the distance, (where are also some missing rounds here), but it looked to me like Carmen actually did better in this fight than in the San Francisco fight. He avoided much of Fullmer’s counter-punching and fought with some effectiveness from long range. Jack Dress says that Carmen was “holding on” in the 12th round but it seems to me that Fullmer is the one mauling him. And the stoppage seems very premature, as in the first fight. In both cases Carmen was too far behind in the scoring to have won but looking at this tape, I’ve got to wonder about that scoring.
