Basilio - more myth then substance.

Great fighter who as we know was involved in some terrific bouts. His fights were exciting because of his flaws as a fighter then anything else. The thing with Casilio is that he was a national hero. The hard working, everyday joe bloggs who everyone could relate to. Tough, honest, family man.

His best wins were against SRR, Tony Demarco, and Ike Williams. Nothing really stands out after that. He finished with a less then impressive record of 57 wins, 16 losses and 7 draws. Only 27 kos and he himself was koes twice.

Why all the fuss?

Lacked skill and charisma...but is lauded for some reason.

Saxton, Graham and Turner were no fools either but do think he is largely over rated in large part due to his victory over Robinson without which we're left with a very good welterweight who won some and lost some.

I'll answer this with an anecdote.

Yasuhiro Yamashita (or, just Yamashita as he is universally known by all Judo lovers) was only defeated by about 5 men - and went undefeated for 9 years. This is in a sport where people struggle to remain undefeated over 2 or 3 competitions. The people who beat Yamashita, few and far between though they are - are lauded and semi-deified - as they beat the greatest. I've met one of them - nice bloke - he admitted that Yamashita was a kid when he'd beaten him - but it counted all the same.

Something similar with Basilio.

Provokative article, OneTwo - I've come to expect it. That said, I'm not sure I really agree with it, or with the sentiments left by Ghosty.

I certainly feel that as a Welterweight, Basilio is worthy of 'great' status rather than 'very good.' His crude style needed a fair amount of polishing, and so naturally as a young pup in the game he lost a few decisions early on, much like Armstrong. But by the time he made it to championship level, he was basically a pretty dominant performer; to this day opinion on the Gavilan verdict is split somewhat, and even then, there's no disgrace there as the Kid was clearly one of the greatest Welterweights who ever lived.

Once he got his hands on the title, he was a dominant champion - the Saxton 'loss' was a rank injustice owing everything to Mr. Palermo and nothing to Basilio being the lesser fighter, and he put it right in spectacular style in a rematch. Then there's the two classics with DeMarco, and the fact that he completed a fairly rare double at Welterweight and then Middleweight against a still very, very good Robinson to top it all off.

Perhaps given a little too much fame thanks to being linked with Sugar Ray, but as a Welterweight he was great, I feel. More myth than substance? Never in a million years.

Were he fighting now Chris I think he'd have got the nod more times than he did, was an era where work rate wasn't judged as highly.

I think it's also worth pointing out that the two times he was stopped were against Fullmer, who was like a bigger, stronger version of himself. He was stopped on his feet and hardly helpless at that.