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Sugar Ray Robinson vs Carmen Basilio 23.9.1957 (Selected Rounds) - World Middleweight Championship

2,384 views · Published 18 February 2016 · 15:09 · Indexed 14 October 2026

Channel: Classic Boxing Matches · 2016 · Sports

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The 1957 Fight of the Year between Sugar Ray Robinson and Carmen Basilio for the World Middleweight title.  More info below...

The Onion Farmer, Carmen Basilio, began his boxing career in 1948. In 1953 he beat Billy Graham for the USA New York State Welterweight title and later that same year challenged Kid Gavilan for the World Welterweight Title, becoming only the second man ever to floor Gavilan but losing via a dubious split decision. In 1955 Basilio would get another shot at the World Welterweight Title but this time against new champion Tony DeMarco, winning via a 12th round TKO. Basilio would successfully defend his title against DeMarco later in the year winning once again by 12th round TKO with Ring Magazine naming it Fight of The Year. In early 1956 Basilio would lose his Welterweight Title to former Welterweight Champion Johnny Saxton, a result which was widely booed by the crowd present. 6 months later he would win back the Welterweight Title by 9th round TKO in a rematch with Saxton.  In the rubber match, Basilio would TKO Saxton again in 2 rounds successfully defending his World Welterweight title.  Basilio was still the champion when he entered the ring with Robinson and held a 51-12-7 record.

Sugar Ray Robinson was entering this fight with a 140-5-2 record and was coming off back to back fights against Gene Fullmer in which he lost and then regained the World Middleweight title.  Robinson was now in his forth reign as World Middleweight Champion.  His list of victims included many great fighters such as Bobo Olson, Rocky Castellani, Rocky Graziano, Randolph Turpin, Kid Gavilan, Tommy Bell, Henry Armstrong, Fritzie Zivic, Maxie Shapiro, Sammy Angott and of course Jake LaMotta.  He was a former World Welterweight Champion and had vacated the title after 5 years when he won the World Middleweight title from Jake LaMotta in 1951.  There was no doubt Robinson was one of the all time greats however he had been boxing for 17 years and had already retired once from the sport.  Although the power and ring IQ was still there, the speed and footwork were not what they use to be and according to most boxing pundits, men like Gene Fullmer and Ralph Jones, the most recent boxers to have beaten Robinson, would never have come close to doing so if they had taken on a prime Sugar Ray Robinson.

For almost the whole 15 rounds, neither man was able to really establish a clear lead it was that close.  Nobody was backing down and although Basilio was the smaller man giving away almost 4 inches in height he gave as good as he got the entire time!  Basilio was hit with some massive shots but he just took them in his stride and kept firing back, even with cuts above the eyes!  The fight was nothing less than amazing when you see the effort both fighters gave and the tremendous amount of punishment they unleashed on each other.  After 15 intense rounds Basilio had earned himself a well-deserved split decision to become the new World Middleweight Champion!

Sugar Ray Robinson said in his autobiography that he thought he had won.  The referee had also told Robinson that he thought he had won.  Prior to his fight with Basilio, Robinson was claiming to have been going through financial issues again with the tax department and the stress of that situation had affected his performance...

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