Carmen Basilio, Boxing Hall of Famer Who Trained in Abay, Dies at 85 Posted Wednesday, November 07, 2012 at 11:01:13 AM     Alexandria Bay, NY 1000 Islands  Comments  Unique Views 2593/Total Views 2755

Carmen Basilio, a former welterweight and middleweight boxing champion of the world has passed away. It happened early today (3am Nov 7th, 2012) in Irondequoit, NY where Carmen has lived since 1985. Carmen was 85 years old and had been hospitalized due to pneumonia. Basilio was born and raised in Canastota, NY which BTW later became the home of the Boxing Hall of Fame which Carmen was inducted to in 1990 as part of it's 1st round of inductees.



Basilio used to live and train in Alexandria Bay. He was a two time Welterweight champion and he won the Boxing Middleweight championship of the world by beating Sugar Ray Robinson in one of the most exciting 15 round decisions in middleweight boxing history.

The link below is the Wikipedia Entry on Carmen..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Basilio

Many people from Alexandria Bay knew Carmen. Amoung them was my dad "Bobby Williams" and his brothers who used to play various sports and fool around with Carmen on the football field. Carmen was also good friends with Frank Cavallario of Cavallario's steakhouse.

At one point Carmen even owned some cottages in town. Some of them still stand. You'll see them on the left as you leave Alexandria Bay heading for Redwood.

Anyway, I was lucky enough enough on a few occasions to meet and videotape the champ. He was quite the character and will be missed. Please look through the video and pictures I have taken over the years of Carmen. I have also reposted some very interesting videos regarding Carmen and his adventures dealing with the MOB containing some very old video of Carmen in Alexandria Bay.

Pictures and Video below..


Carmen whacking poor Mel Busler at the Italian American Club..








My dad "Bobby Williams" shaking Carmen's hand at the Italian American Club in Watertown, NY




Video from the Italian American Club.. Mel Busler conducts a great interview and Carmen rewards him by smacking him up. :)




Carmen at the Quest For Champions Event in Alexandria Bay..




Video I did for the event.. featuring Carmen again whacking some guy before getting into the ring..




And finally.. The truly awesome story about the Mob and Carmen Basilio..

It's long but really worth watching, especially if you would like to learn more about Carmen..

Part 3 around the 10:35 mark actually shows some old video from Alexandria Bay at the building where Carmen used to train. It's very cool. I took a couple screenshots seen below..

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