I remember his tough fights with Gene Fullmer - man, those were crunchers! Tough dude who never backed away no matter what. And a good guy, too. He was an onion farmer from the Syracuse area just like his dad. Darn good guy - wish I could have met him. Will be sorely missed.
Rip champ. One f the greatest warriors of all time. 5 fights of the year in a row, amazing And his name was Carmen (the real name was Carmine), not Carmin
RIP Carmen. I have a funny story. Many years ago I met Carmen at the boxing hall of fame. Right before the picture was to be taken, he put his hands over my eyes. In a very fast hard way. So one of the pictures with me and Carmen has his hand over my eyes. Well I was talking to my friend after who took the picture. He said he saw some guy once start to take a picture with Carmen and as the picture was taken, Carmen slammed his hand down right on the guys nuts! My friend said " if Carmen did that to me I would of punched him!" Well a year or two later this same friend comes to another Hall of Fame with his wife, and we are talking about Carmen Basilio, and my friend's wife says "remember when Carmen slammed you in the nuts when the picture was about to be taken?" I hope my friend who this happened to does not read ESB.
he didn't say anything. I am not sure that he remembered telling me that some other guy was hit and not him. If he did he must have been embarassed, but we never spoke about at all. I always remembered this and his wife saying that.