Billy Graham welterweight. He beat Kid Gavilan by split dec, and lost to him by the same margin in a very controversial fight.Losing to him again. Lost to Carmen Basilio, beat him ,and drew with him. Beat Golden Boy Art Aragon. Conceded 9lbs to scrapper Paddy Young and beat him. Drew with Rocky Castellani whilst giving him 7 lbs. Gave away 6 lbs to Joey Giardello and beat him. Graham finished with a record of .102 wins 15 losses and 9 draws from126 fights. Never ko'd, he was ranked , no 2 in1950 no3 in51 no6 in52 8 of his 15 losses were to Gavilan x2 Basilio Giardello x2 Demarco Thomas Vejar x2 His last 2 bouts. Larkin he went his first 56 fights without losing. Yet nobody mentions him today.
More seriously, it's probably a consequence of him not being (1) a heavyweight, (2) a champion, or (3) a guy who fought one of the few hot button champs from the lighter weight classes that this forum talks about a lot (Robinson, Mayweather, Duran, Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, etc.)
Yes ,I love the heavies but of 30 threads on page 1, 19 are about them. I don't anticipate much activity for my thread,but WTF, you can only try.
He's like a lot of fighters throughout history where a decision or two could have gone his way and then he's categorized as 'great' instead of 'very good'. In Graham's case, it's largely the third fight with Gavilan for the Welterweight Championship that hampers his legacy. By most accounts he defeated one of the great welterweights of all-time but didn't earn the nod, so he retired a titleless contender. I like what I see on film, though. He had a wonderful, educated jab. He was subtle but effective defensively and just had a good brain for boxing. I love that he didn't need to move a lot to outbox a guy.
The famous line 'He was as good as a fighter can be without being great.' was said, possibly not exclusively but it was the first time I read it, about Billy Graham. By all accounts one of boxing's great gentlemen. When discussing being hit low, he pardoned his French for the benefit of any ladies present before going on to call the region being protected (or not) as 'the olives'. Also very proud of his Roman nose - not out of vanity but more that it showed what a cutie he was. In fact, he was the definition of a cutie, someone who doesn't seem to be blessed with any exceptional physical talents - speed, strength, power - and yet, somehow, keeps winning through guile and nous.
He was a great fighter imo. Great educated if un- flashy technique, subtlety, toughness and ring IQ. I think that his hand speed, functional strength, spiteful edge and infighting ability are all underrated tbh. Outstanding fighter.
Not only never knocked out but never even down either. Whatever attributes might be unappreciated, his durability isn't among them.
A lot of top fighters try to stay in range using the high guard/earmuff defence, intelligent upper body positioning, little half steps and very minimalistic defensive shifts/slips/sways/dips that Graham used but often fail to pull it off and make sitting ducks of themselves. Do the wrong thing at the wrong time, don't react quickly enough, unravel under pressure or don't have a full handle on the different aspects of that approach. It looks easy but it really isn't and requires a lot of nous and confidence to pull off.
I read a quote about him that sums it up pretty well: He was as good as you can be without being great. I love his style and his beautiful left hand.
All you need to know about Graham can be gleaned from watching the 3 or 4 minutes of film which exists of his fight in Chicago against Carmen Basilio. Beautiful pot-shotting against an all-time great. Billy's one of my favorite fighters to watch.
