I know many of you will disagree with my selections, and furthermore, many of you have a much greater knowledge base than I do from the era. But, I am quite fond of the 10 fights I listed here. Which ones would you replace, and for which? This content is protected
Great video, good list. I liked everything on it. I might have switched LaMotta vs Dauthuille 2 for Pep vs Saddler 4, but that's pretty much how I see the era too. I keep hearing about Gavilan vs Gil Turner as being great and Norkus vs Nardico is supposed to have eight knockdowns, but I haven't seen them yet, so I couldn't say for sure if they were better than any of the ten you listed. Below is a list of films from the 50s I like integrated with my list of films I've read suggested and need to watch. It's about 50/50 what I've seen and haven't seen. *s next to what I haven't seen yet. 1950 Jake LaMotta vs Laurent Dauthuille II Artie Diamond vs Jimmy Flood* 1951 Jersey Joe Walcott vs Ezzard Charles III Robinson vs Lamotta VI Willie Pep vs Sandy Saddler IV Johnny Bratton vs Charley Fusari* 1952 Rocky Marciano vs Jersey Joe Walcott I Kid Gavilan vs Gil Turner* 1953 Rocky Marciano vs Roland La Starza II Kid Gavilan vs Carmen Basilio* 1954 Rocky Marciano vs Ezzard Charles II Bobo Olsen vs Kid Gavilan* Charley Norkus vs Danny Nardico* 1955 Carmen Basilio vs Tony DeMarco II* Gene Fullmer vs Eduardo Lausse* 1956 Carmen Basilio vs Johnny Saxton II* Ralph "Tiger" Jones vs Tony Baldoni* 1957 Sugar Ray Robinson vs Carmen Basilio I Sugar Ray Robinson vs Gene Fullmer I 1958 Archie Moore vs Yvon Durelle I Sugar Ray Robinson vs Carmen Basilio II 1959 Gene Fullmer vs Carmen Basilio I Florentino Fernandez vs. Gaspar Ortega II* Benny Paret vs Gaspar Ortega*
I thought Marciano vs Charles 1 should have made the cut, along with one of the Basilio vs DeMarco wars.
I hadn't really considered the first Marciano-Charles bout, which was perhaps an oversight on my part. But I was looking for a number of different Basilio bouts, none of which (as I recall) were of particularly great video quality. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough, and perhaps that quality of modern transfers shouldn't have factored into my decisions, but if I'm being honest here, it did to some extent.
Quality list, here. I've seen MOST of these bouts. But I need to dedicate more time to watching Kid Gavilan.
Yeah, Basilio v DeMarco 2 in particular isn't great quality footage but it's a great, great fight. Basilio was the most exciting fighter of the 50s - he seemed to be in either the fight of the year or a fight of the year candidate for about 5 years straight to the end of the decade.
Agreed, Basilio was great. I've been thinking that we ought to have a category for most exciting fighter the same as we have for p4p. I was thinking that Marciano would pass it to Basilio, who'd pass it to Ortega, then it goes to either Charley Scott, Jose Stable, or Ali. After Ali, it could go to Frazier then Foreman, then Matthew Saad Muhammad, to Bobby Chacon, Daniel Zaragoza or Chris Eubank Sr to Evander Holyfield, to Gatti, then it's Manny Pacquiao to Israel Vazquez, from Vazquez to JM Marquez, and finally to Orlando Salido. The forties would probably be some combination of Tony Zale, Rocky Graziano, and Bob Montgomery. The thirties has Armstrong, Canzoneri, and Louis. You could probably even trace this stuff back to Dempsey in the 20s.
Just watched Basilio-Saxton 2 (Ring fight of the year 1956). Not quite as good as Basilio-DeMarco 2 but a very entertaining fight. But Johnny Saxton fought a crazy fight tactically.
