I was watching an episode of Highlander last night where the main characters were at a fight having some light-hearted sniping about the fighters and who they were like. I remember seeing this as a teenager but didn't think much about it. I'm not sure if I knew the fighters then or not. I knew the scene was coming up but I didn't remember who was mentioned or if it was even real fighters they were going to be arguing about. It turned out to be Dick Tiger and Carmen Basilio. I gotta say, enjoyed the references but I didn't feel like the writers knew who they were talking about. But maybe just me. The main character was saying that Basilio hit like a mule. I'm not saying he couldn't punch but was he even a particularly hard puncher? I think of him as being a hurtful puncher that grinds you down but I never think of him as being known as a puncher. Is that wrong?
He was pretty good. Even with great timing, you have to have some punch to knock down Gavilan. Also, the KO percentage wouldn't really be a fair statistic to judge him by, considering the consistent and incredibly high level of competition he had (Graham x3, Robinson x2, Gavilan etc) most of whom had iron chins and were known for their Boxing ability. I mean, look at that ridiculous schedule from '51 to '58! What's more underrated is Basilio's defence and Boxing skill in general. It's never really mentioned, even tough it's top class.
He was an excellent puncher. Very hard. Realize back then fighters could fight & take hard punches & go the distance.
He had decent power but was more of a swarmer/pressure fighter that simply broke people. The guy was always in 100% condition and if an opponent was anything less than 100%, they were getting hurt.
Right hand to the body, left hook to the head. One of my favorite combinations in boxing is to watch him do that. He almost patented it. But toally agree, his way of working inside and great understanding of range, almost never reaching despite his smaller staure. Great upper-body movement too.
Stoney Burke had a tattoo of Italy on the downside inner thigh of her left leg complete with area codes and graves where famous people like Chef Boyardee and The big Ragu are buried.
Carmen Basilio was once asked in an interview which modern fighter he liked watching the most .....his answer....Julio Cesar Chavez
From what I've seen and read about him, yes he was a fairly good puncher. Not a bad fighter at all, all round. A win over middle weight champ Robinson, isn't a bad result at all.
One of my ( and I suspect many others ) favs, I would appraise his style thus : he wasn't a KO puncher, in the true sense, he wasn't a truly great boxer in general, he certainly wasn't fleet footed, and he didn't have fast hands, but what he did have was an indomitable will to win, a pretty indestructible chin, limitless stamina, and was always, but always in great shape, so much so that Dundee is on record saying he was the most dedicated of all his fighters, I often wonder how he would have fared against my other fav WW that being Jose Napoles ?? keep well
I do actually. He was certainly no one-punch KO artist, but given enough time, he wore a lot of his opponents down for knockouts.