I'm watching an old classic of him against the greatest himself on espn classic and this man is given the greatest toughest fight I've seen him against on tape. Outside of Maybe Floyd Mayweather I don't know of any fighter between 147-154 that can keep up with the type of pressure that Camen is bringing to SRR on this old Espn classic.
He'd be champ, but with weigh ins now a day ahead of time who knows what division he'd fight in. He beats Pac or Maywaether.
Okay, but I don't think he would beat Pac with his style. Tough tough man, and the inside game has if anything regressed since Basilio (and the advent of better ring shoes allowing better movement - in the old ****py ones sometimes you had to stand and trade and have a good inside game). Definitely competitive but he has losses to guys that are more normal than Ray Robinson and fought inspired fights against Sugar Ray. His fight with Saxon, if I am thinking of the right fight, had some good inside stuff worth looking at. My father (73 now) trained with Basilio in New York when he was a kid because his father was friends with Basilio's management like Joe Netro etc. Anyone who thinks those guys wouldn't be competitive in the modern era is a moron, but whether he would actually trouble the very best welters from the last three decades (Hearns/Leonard, etc) is not clear at all. I think Mayweather is just a small step below Leonard and those guys.
He'd win some lose some just like back in the day. Except instead of losing to Robinson, Fullmer, Gavilan, Graham, he'd lose to Mayweather, Pacquiao, Marquez, and maybe Khan. He wasn't really great so much as he made great fights like Gatti. He's sort of like a more exciting, slightly better version of Maidana fighting at 140-147. He'd maybe avenge one of his high profile losses or take someone big into a really close fight. That's the way I see things going down.
I think he's leagues better than Madaina in the skill department, just nowhere near as heavy handed. I figure he would be more like Juan Diaz with more pop than a plodder like Madaina. Not to be profiling, but except for guys like Gatti and Marciano (the heavy handed slow Italians) a lot of the other Italian boxers are softer punching fast guys who throw punches in bunches, and I think Basilio fits in that mold of a high pressure but not necessarily concussively powerful puncher. I think he would beat Khan badly.
