Similar to sweet_scientists thread on Emile Griffith. Thought we could maybe have a look at some of the close fights involving Carmen Basilio such as Davey II; Gavilan; Langlois I; Saxton I; Robinson I; Ortega; and Pender. However, unlike Griffith, Basilio was mostly on the 'wrong' end of the decisions. I'll start us off with the rematch with Davey Basilio: 1,4,9,10 Davey: 2,3,5,6,7,8 Total: 96-94 Davey (6-4) I hear a lot of people mention this as a bad result and that Basilio should have gotten it. I thought it was a very, very close fight, but the main determining factor was that in the middle rounds Basilio's workrate dropped and Davey was able to outwork Basilio from range with light shots, Basilio did land the harder shots in most rounds so I can see a case for him winning it, but I don't think he necessarily deserved this, I think his strong finish may have influenced people a bit. One thing I did notice though was Basilio was very raw, his shots were not quite as accurate as they would later become, he did not move his head as much and his footwork was quite poorly balanced.
Good stuff G, should be an interesting thread. The only fight that is fresh in my mind is the Gavilan fight, which I re-watched a couple of weeks ago. My original card was the following: Kid Gavilan vs. Carmen Basilio: 146-143 Gavilan Basilio: 2,3,4 and 15 Basilio. Gavilan: 1,5,7,810,11 and 14 Gavilan. Rounds 6,9,12 and 13 even. When I re-watched it I saw that round 2 could have been a 10-8 to Basilio, round 3 could have been an even round, round 9 could have gone Basilio's way and the final round probably could have gone Gavilan's way - the commentary on it seemed to think it was a clear Basilio round but I felt Gavilan went close to edging it. Apparently Gavilan was sick leading up to the fight and hence his lacklustre performance. I know everyone has an excuse, but this was an underwhelming performance from Kid imo. He was nearing the end of his prime too of course, so maybe it was just that, but I had seen much better from him. Credit to Basilio though, I don't think Gavilan has an easy time with him no matter what the case is. My other cards for Basilio's fights: Carmen Basilio vs. Chuck Davey II: 97-95 Basilio Davey: 2,3 and 6. Basilio: rounds 1,7,8,9 and 10. Rounds 4 and 5 even. Carmen Basilio vs. Johnny Saxton I: 145-142 Basilio Saxton: 1,7,8,12 and 13. Basilio: 2,3,4,5,8,9,10,14 and 15. Rounds 6 and 11 even. Carmen Basilio vs. Pierre Langlois I: 96-95 Langlois Basilio: 1,2,6 and 8. Langlois: 3,5,7,9 and 10. Round 4 even. Carmen Basilio vs. Pierre Langlois II: 97-94 Basilio Langlois: 7,9 and 10. Basilio: 1,2,3,4 and 8 ( 10-8 ). Rounds 5 and 6 even. Carmen Basilio vs. Gaspar Ortega: 96-95 Basilio Ortega: 3,4,7 and 10. Basilio: 1,2,5,8 and 9. Round 6 even. Paul Pender vs. Carmen Basilio: 146-139 Pender Basilio: 2( 10-8 ), 3 and 5. Pender:1,4,6,9,10,11,12,13,14 and 15 ( 10-8 ). Round 7 and 8 even.
It should be interesting, some really hard to score fights. I could of swore you had Basilio winning, or you used to think that. Commentary was very biased. Been ages since I watched it and I wasn't that into Gavilan at the time, so can't comment on how well he did. I do think Basilio improved after it though. Who does. I'll get round to watching these.
Basilio: 2,4,5,7,8 Langlois: 1,3,6,9,10 Total: 95-95 Draw Superb fight this. Langlois at times used his faster hands to win the exchnages just generally I preferred Carmen's harder more precise shots. The tenth was very nearly a 10-8 round as Langlois laid some serious hurt on Carmen.
Pender is pretty underated imo. Basilio gave it his best shot though, but that was the most one sided Basilio fight I ever seen on film imo.
Just watched Basilio vs Langlois II. A superb display by Basilio, he really shows his technical side by keeping low on the outside in the middle of the ring and using his head movement to counter punch. As well as using angles to set up darting raids to the body. It shows how well different technical attributes can be used in different ways by the same fighter for completly different results. Generally Basilio goes forward with a crouch, bobbing and weaving to set up attacks, here he uses it on the counter superbly. Langlois I felt because of Basilio's countering decided to go one punch at a time instead of using his workrate like he did in the original meeting, but still Basilio rreally did beat him this time. Basilio: 1,2,3,4,6,7,8* Langlois:5,9,10 Total: 97-92 Basilio (7-3) * denotes a 10-8 round as Langlois was deducted a point for hitting on the break repeatedly.
I thought Davey might've edged Basilio in their rematch, but the one-sided scoring was bull****. Gavilan-Basilio is one of the closest fights I've ever seen. I think it could've gone either way by a round. I think a draw in the first Langlois fight was fair. As I recall, Basilio got off to an early lead, and Langlois came on strong at the end to even it up. I thought Basilio beat Robinson fairly decisively in their first fight.
