I believe Lamotta's physical strength would be the telling factor later in the fight, from the tenth round on...In the early going, Basilio meets him blow for blow and Jake (believe it or not) begins to utilize his jab and head movement in the face of the fierceness of Basilio's will...I've only seen the first Basilio/Fullmer fight, but in that fight, Basilio actully forced Fullmer, the stronger middleweight to begin boxing! IMO this scenario would repeat itself...Basilio would have to exert himself tremendously to stay even with Jake in the trenches, and he would succeed...but not in the later portion of this fight. LaMotta comes on down the stretch...Basilio as rugged and tough as anyone does not have the adaptability to overcome Jake IMO. LaMotta by UD
LaMotta wins, too big and too strong for Carmen. And knowing Jake, he wouldn`t have elected to box Carmen like Fullmer did either but rather he would have gone right to him and used his superior physical strenght to maul and wear down Basilio in close and bully him into the ropes. I see a brave and dead game Carmen taking a shellacking for most of the fight until either his corner or the referee calls a halt to the one-sided contest. I reckon Jake would do the job quicker than Gene did, so I`ll take him by TKO around the 10th with Carmen of course protesting the stoppage and insisting he could continue even though battered and bruised. That was Carmen for you, you would have to kill the man to stop him for as long as he had blood pumping in his veins and was conscious he would keep coming. Speaking of Carmen I still remember one time several years ago on another forum, some poster was going on about how Carmen was a bum with no chin (I kid you not) because he wasn`t throwing enough punches in the last few rounds and couldn`t last to hear the final bell in his first fight against Gene Fullmer. This cat was seemingly oblivious to the fact that Carmen was running on fumes by the tenth round, but by the sheer strenght of his courage and indomitable will he hung in there until the 14th trying his best to win until finally he could take no more and was stopped on his feet after Fullmer had him hurt from a big right hand and was about to rain bombs on him in the corner at which point the referee wisely stopped the contest. Carmen was a great fighter and hard nights work for ANY welterweight that ever lived and quite likely any jr.middleweight as well, unless they come in as super middles come fight time like they do today. Speaking of all this weight gain going on today after weigh ins, Carmen had a rather interesting thing to say to a buddy of mine who met him years ago about that and today`s fighters in general including how he thinks he would have fared against SRL, here goes: When asked about Ray Leonard..his impression of him. "He was great but he wouldn't have been ready for me when he was champ. I'd have kicked his ribs in...guys like him didn't fight enough. He'd learn how to beat a guy like Duran but what happens if he fights 40 fights against solid guys..there'd be some losses there...he's great they say but great means **** against a guy like me. Us back then'd be greater than great now..I'd be welter champ forever weighing 16o pounds on fight night" 'he's great they say but great means **** against a guy like me.' I found it funny that the relativity of 'great' which I believe very strongly was reinforced by one of those that exemplified the theory.
Both were incredible warriors. Based on Basilio losing convincingly to guys like Paul Pender and Fullmer I'd take the Bronx Bull by decision of late TKO. Jake was too strong for Carmen. Basilio was a beast at welterweight though.
The Carmen Basilio that fought SRR in the fall of 1957 would have given LaMotta a good fight. The Basilio of the Fullmer and Pender fights wasn't the same fighter and had slowed reflexes and had lost some of the durability that was his trademark. The 1957 Basilio would have beaten Pender and would have given Fullmer a tougher fight IMO.
Haha, that is an awesome quote, Carmen is a funny guy, but there is alot of truth to that statement. Fighters fight, these days, the buisness of boxing prevents them from doing such. All this 3 fights a year buisness, Jake and SRR fought three times in three weeks. No excuses
Well Basilio's prime was pretty much pass it when he lost to Pendler and Fullmer, I would not used thsos fights as a yard stick for this fight. The Robinson, Galivan, Saxon, Demarco fights are other beast. I think you guys are writting Carman out. I think he have a great chance in winning this.
