[1][2] An iron-chinned pressure fighter, Basilio was a combination puncher who had great stamina and eventually wore many of his opponents down with vicious attacks to the head and body.

[4] Basilio began his professional boxing career by facing Jimmy Evans on November 24, 1948, in Binghamton, New York.

In the middle of that 24-bout span, 1950 rolled over and Basilio met former world champion Lew Jenkins, winning a 10-round decision.

Basilio lost a 15-round decision to Gavilan and went for a fourth meeting with Cunningham, this time winning by a knockout in four.

Saxton's manager, mafioso Frank "Blinky" Palermo",[5] was later jailed along with his partner Frankie Carbo for fixing fights.

After that, he went up in weight and challenged ageing 36- year-old world middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson, in what may have been his most famous fight.

[citation needed] From that moment, and until his retirement in 1961, he fought only sporadically, but three of his last fights were attempts to recover the world middleweight title, losing twice to Gene Fullmer: by a TKO in 14 at San Francisco and by a TKO in 12 in Fullmer's home state of Utah (in Salt Lake City), and also later, when he lost a 10-round decision to defending world champion Paul Pender.

In between those fights, he was able to beat Art Aragon, by knockout in eight and former world welterweight champion Don Jordan by decision in ten.

[8] Evidence submitted to the subcommittee showed that Basilio's on-the-record managers, John DeJohn and Joseph Netro, paid Carbo frontman Gabriel Genovese $39,334.41 and approximately $25,000, respectively, during the time Basilio fought for and defended his welterweight and middleweight titles.

Later Carmen, a high-school dropout, taught physical education at Le Moyne College in Syracuse.

[10] Basilio, who was also a member of the United States Marine Corps at one point in his life, was able to enjoy his retirement.

In 1990, Ed Brophy decided to build the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, to honor the two world champions who were born there: Basilio and his nephew.

Although Backus isn't a member of the Hall of Fame, Basilio is, along with many of the fighters he met inside the ring.

Basilio was interviewed for an HBO documentary on Sugar Ray Robinson called "The Bright Lights and Dark Shadows of a Champion".