The DeMarco Basilio Wars (diary entry)

11.03.2022

Wednesday morning's "Learn from the Fight" picked up from where we left Tony DeMarco last week. After briefly celebrating a moment of victory won in his hometown of Boston, the new champion had to comply with his contract to defend his title against the number one ranked contender. That contender was  Carmen Basilio and he was on on his second campaign for welterweight glory.

Tony DeMarco versus Carmen Basilio Undisputed World Welterweight Championship 10.06.1955

Born Carmine Basilio on 2nd April 1927 in Canastota, New York, USA, Carmen Basilio was one of nine siblings. Aged just five, he joined his family to work the onion fields and hence his ring nickname "The Upstate Onion Farmer". Basilio would always credit his early life of hard work as being what helped build up his character of fortitude and resilience as well as his physical fitness. A lot of attention was paid to the powerful shoulders he developed during those early years. His family were all lovers of boxing and Basilio drew inspiration from fellow Italian, the once world heavyweight champion, Primo Carnera. Basilio's father bought him and all his siblings boxing gloves. He earned a place on the high school boxing team and would later tell

Dave Lamele

in an interview, "

That’s the only reason I went to high school, because they had that boxing team. Without that I wouldn’t have gone.

"  After being honourably discharged from the Marine Corps he fought as an amateur for one year before turning professional in 1948.  Basilio won his first four fights, the first three by knockout. He then drew on points with Johnny Cunningham and Jimmy Parlin. His eleventh fight saw his first loss to Connie Thies. He would also lose his sixteenth fight to Johnny Cunningham who had previously beaten in their rematch via a second round knockout. The two would immediately fight a fourth time, this time Basilio won on points. Basilio began campaigning outside of New York to build up his record and reputation in a bid to get a contender position for the world welterweight title. He fought in Chicago, New Orleans, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. He beat former world champion Ike Williams with a seventh round knockout and a trilogy of fights with top contender, Billy Graham, losing the first time, winning the second and drawing the third. These popular fights got him noticed and won him the New York State Welterweight title. None of his 10 losses over his first 50 fights ended in a knockout, but he won 16 of them that way. Basilio got his first shot at world welterweight title in 1953. It was his fifty-first fight and would be his eleventh defeat. He lost a split decision to the reigning champion of the time, Kid Gavilan. This was despite the fact he had hurt Gavilan in the second round and then knocked him down near the end of the round with his lethal left hook. The Kid had struggled to make the count. This was only the second time Gavilan had been knocked down (the first time had been by Ike Williams). He was one of only a few world champions never to be knocked out. The audience were behind Basilio and Gavilan's verdict was greeted by boos despite the obvious facial damage sported by Basilio. Everyone at ringside believed the champion had swung the fight back in his favour after round 2 winning the fight by a small margin. Basilio's biggest battle was against the mob. It seemed rather ironic that the man who was inspired by one of the mob's most notoriously managed fighters, Primo Carnera, would become known as their most stubborn boxing adversary. He was ranked the number one contender for the world welterweight title for two years without being granted a shot and five years later would speak as a witness for the prosecution against the International Boxing Club. His war with them would later be made into a ESPN documentary, “Fighting the Mob: The Story of Carmen Basilio.” After his fight with Gavilan he won another fight against his old rival Johnny Cunningham, drew against Pierre Langlois and Italo Scortichini, before beating them both in rematches immediately afterwards within the space of four weeks. He then won his next six fights as Johnny Saxton's mafia management tried to side-step him. They took a wrong gamble with fellow Italian Tony DeMarco who they believed Saxton could confidently out-box. Knowing he wouldn't get Saxton, Basilio had nevertheless got DeMarco to sign a contract to say he would fight him 70 days later should he win the title. When DeMarco stopped an overwhelmed Saxton in round 14, Basilio had secured his second shot at the welterweight crown. Basilio stood at 5' 6 1/2". Basilio was a pressure fighter, a swarmer with an iron chin. He had a determined and relentless style that promised a blood and guts duel with the classical slugger that was DeMarco.  Basilio suffered to cut weight, going without water for a day to get down to 146 lbs to DeMarco's 145 lbs. Like DeMarco, Basilio was a converted southpaw and they both shared the same best weapon: the left hook. The legendary coach, Angelo Dundee was Basilio's cornerman but the "Upstate Onion Farmer" always prided himself on being self-trained. The match took place at War Memorial Auditorium, Syracuse, New York. The early rounds went DeMarco. Nevertheless, Basilio had a strong long game plan. Early on in round one we saw Basilio drop his left to invite DeMarco to come forward. Despite being a swarmer he used his reach advantage to goad DeMarco forward. Round 3 - DeMarco came out early with his best punch, the left hook that stunned Basilio. The challenger clinched to clear his head and then there were back to fighting in the pocket as their styles dictated. Basilio used a lot of bobbing and weaving to make DeMarco miss. Here Basilio set up the timing for DeMarco to keep missing. Round 4 - Basilio kept the work rate up and continued to try to goad DeMarco to punch himself out. However, by the end of this round the champion's lead hand punches (his dominant hand) were landing. Round 5 - DeMarco put more pressure on and was ahead on points. This might have been down to the fact that Basilio kept giving DeMarco room. Basilio landed some good shots to the body towards the end of the round. His strikes to the side were also taking the toll on the champion. Round 6 -DeMarco continued to land body shaking punches, but he was unable to land a powerful combination that was more likely to put Basilio down. Again, Basilio's swarming strengths weren't being played due to DeMarco, despite being a slugger, having the shorter range. With the punch trading, DeMarco was winning but Basilio was still breaking the champion's posture. Round 8 - Basilio used his jab to reasonable effect but DeMarco came back with some thundering rights. This time DeMarco began to land body shots and one clearly hurt the challenger. As they came in close Basilio leaned in and began winning the exchanges. Round 9 - DeMarco was still ahead but keen to get a knockout. He began to miss more frequently and Basilio routinely went to the body to good effect. Round 10 - Cut over the right eye, DeMarco came out visibly tired and on the back foot. Basilio's plan was working and he dropped the champion after a brief attempt by the champion to regroup. The challenger sent DeMarco down again with another overhand right within seconds of the Bomber getting back into the fight. DeMarco rose again showing tremendous heart. The bell rang and saved DeMarco from more punishment that he was willingly wading into. Round 11 - After the doctor cleared DeMarco, the champion came out keen to put the challenger down. However, he was still extremely tired and Basilio was eager fight on the inside. Basilio leant in and landed a range of punches. Finally, one of DeMarco's bombs landed with good effect. Still, it was not enough to put Basilio down and the two traded at close range. Round 12 -Fighting in the centre of the ring, Basilio kept picking his shots as DeMarco missed with punches. Finally, the referee step in to save DeMarco from more punishment. The title changed hands yet again and Carmen Basilio became the new World Welterweight champion.

Carmen Basilio versus Tony DeMarco Undisputed World Welterweight Championship 30.11.1955

After the fight Basilio took a non-title match against Italo Scortichini again and won by unanimous decision. This was followed by a non-title najority decision over Gil Turner. He then returned to Boston to defend his title for the first time against its previous holder. The fight was held at the location where DeMarco had first won the title from Saxton, Boston Garden. DeMarco had fought once since losing the belt where he knocked out Chico Vejar in the first round at the same venue. DeMarco was attempting what no one had done since Barney Ross in 1935: win back the world welterweight title. 13,373 turned out to watch the rematch. Despite Basilio's stoppage in the previous fight, ESPN reported that "the local betting gentry was so sure that DeMarco would regain his crown that they had put their money where their faith was, bringing the prefight odds down to 6-5, pick 'em." Tony DeMarco entered the fight with a record of 47-6-1 and Carmen Basilio was 47-11-7. The theory was that DeMarco had simply run out of steam after round seven from the previous fight and up to the that point had been battering Basilio. He was also by far the harder puncher with his recent one round defeat of Vejar offering evidence to this effect. Both men had won 47 fights, but 30 of DeMarcos had come via knockout whereas Basilio had one 21 this way. DeMarco's previous performance against the champion had been put down to the fact he had been forced to take fight so soon after winning it from Saxton. However, a bigger deciding factor for both this fights might have been revealed by the fact that whereas both men had undeniably iron chins, DeMarco had been stopped twice in his career whereas Basilio, despite losing and drawing more matches than his opponent, had never been stopped and only been knocked down once in his career. We didn't have footage of rounds 1, 2, 3 and 4, but this is what I have gleaned from reports on the fight: Round 1 was DeMarco's. He came out with a plan to stick and move more rather than be pulled into the trenches. He came with confidence and won the round, firing off two left hooks and a hard straight right just before the bell. Round 2 had seen more of a fast-paced slugfest with DeMarco going for the head and Basilio aiming for the body. Basilio changed his punches to upstairs, cutting DeMarco over his left eye and also breaking his own left hand. Round 3 saw Basilio take the fight to DeMarco as he tried to compensate for the loss of his left hook's potency with hard rights to the head and body. Despite shaking the champion with a four-punch combination, DeMarco kept missing the bobbing swarmer who took round 3. Round 4 - We picked up the action here. The tide of the fight appeared to be reversed in round 4 as DeMarco, possibly sensing a weakness in Basilio's attacks, unleashed his heavy punches to the champion's head. After some uncharacteristic caution being shown by both fighters at the beginning both landed hard right hooks bringing a cheer from the audience. Basilio aimed for the body and DeMarco stayed high. DeMarco's best punch, the left hook, staggered Basilio three feet back into the ropes. The champion recovered quickly and waded back into the fray. With just under a minute left DeMarco caught Basilio with yet another stinging punch walking him onto a straight right. The champion now wore a slight cut over his right eye. Basilio showed some good head movement and landed a few hooks but DeMarco won the round, landing his own just before the bell. Round 5 - DeMarco appeared to abandon the stick and move plan by keeping to the pace he set in the previous round. He head-hunted the champion landing left/right and right/left combinations that brought cheers from the crowd. Towards the end of the round, DeMarco's keeness to knock out Basilio soon was demontrated by some stance switching where he walked across the ring landing his rights. Basilio muffled the attacks and continued to throw punches to his opponent's mid-section. As the bell went he was still wading in, determined to turn back the tide. Later Basilio would say that he felt DeMarco's punches were losing their sting. However, this would not align with what we would see in round 6 and especially 7. Round 6 - The round opened with both fights placing shots and find their range. Early on a brief exchange where Basilio went to the body DeMarco landed two left hooks. Basilio tied up the challenger and dug in with more right hooks. He flicked out his left, disguising the damage but now visibly not using it as a power hand. He also used his right over-hook and lean on DeMarco, probably to wear him down. For all of Basilio's decent amount of head movement, he did not show a lot of intelligent protection at this point. DeMarco continued to land heavy punches on his open chin. A welt began to emerge under the champion's left eye. Round 7 - Two minutes of the round saw a lot of caution and jab exchanging. Basilio tied up DeMarco a few times and DeMarco, now appearing to be slower, kept throwing large overhand rights. Basilio ducked and rolled low allowing the challenger's punches to sail harmlessly over. At around the 30 second mark Basilio tried to rely on landing a right, but DeMarco caught his opponent with his signature left hook. The champion's legs were shakey and DeMarco, smelling blood, steamed in with his usual torrent of finishing blows. Angelo Dundee called from Basilio's corner to take the knee for an 8-count to rest. However, the champion surprised everyone by being able to weather the storm for the remainder of the round and rolled to avoid around 15 power shots. “I got hit on the point of the chin,” he would explain to author Peter Heller in "In This Corner: Forty World Champions Tell Their Stories", "It was a left hook that hit the right point of my chin. What happens is it pulls your jawbone out of your socket from the right side and jams into the left side and the nerve there paralyzed the whole left side of my body, especially my leg. My left knee buckled and I almost went down, but when I got back to my corner the bottom of my foot felt like it had needles about six inches high and I just kept stamping my foot on the floor, trying to bring it back. And by the time the bell rang for the eighth round it was all right." Round 8 - Basilio could be seen stamping his feet, as described, on his stool just as the bell rang. DeMarco was ahead on the scorecards now but continued to resort landing big punches. With little setups in sight and further emboldened by the knockout he could taste in the previous round, the challenger resorted to throw continuous power shots. Similar to their previous fight, the shorter armed DeMarco was adopting a swarmer's style of fighting. The problem here was these were the punches of a slugger and every time he missed he wasted more power. He may have been called the "Miniature Marciano", but he lacked Rocky's footwork that enabled him to better corner opponents and drove the relentless pressure. Furthermore, he wasn't a natural swarmer. This was Basilio's domain and proof that DeMarco's power was waning was demonstrated when finally a good right hit Basilio's head. The champion shook it off and then did well to roll away from the others as well as tie up the challenger. Round 9 - DeMarco's right eye had a cut above it and his corner worked hard to stem the flow. The challenger still looked the steadier of the two fighters. He was still ahead on the scorecards and his hometown was behind him. However, his big haymaker sweeps kept meeting air before Basilio closed the distance with his shoulder and muffled the slowing onslaught. DeMarco began using his left to set a datum, as before, for a big overhand that missed by a mile. Round 10 - Cut over the right eye, DeMarco came out visibly tired and on the back foot. Basilio's plan was working and he dropped the champion after a brief attempt by the champion to regroup. The challenger sent DeMarco down again with another overhand right within seconds of the Bomber getting back into the fight. DeMarco rose again showing tremendous heart. The bell rang and saved DeMarco from more punishment that he was willingly wading into. Round 11 - After the doctor cleared DeMarco, the champion came out keen to put the challenger down. However, he was still extremely tired and Basilio was eager fight on the inside. Basilio leant in and landed a range of punches. Finally, one of DeMarco's bombs landed with good effect. Still, it was not enough to put Basilio down and the two traded at close range. Round 12 -Fighting in the centre of the ring, Basilio kept picking his shots as DeMarco missed with punches. Finally, the referee step in to save DeMarco from more punishment. The rematch lasted just two seconds longer than the first one. DeMarco was still standing when the referee stepped in but he collapsed to the canvas a few seconds later and did not get up for close to two minutes.   Ring Magazine awarded the DeMarco/Basilio World Welterweight Championship rematch Fight of the Year for 1955. Basilio's fights would win this accolade five times in a row. Although Muhammad Ali would beat the total number of fights by one, no other fighter has been involved in as many consecutive fights to have won this award. Basilio would also win Fighter of the Year in 1957.