ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Carmen Basilio, a genial onion farmer’s son with a malevolent left hook who wrested the world middleweight boxing crown from Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957, has died. He was 85.
Edward Brophy, executive director of the Boxing Hall of Fame in upstate New York, says Basilio died early Wednesday morning in a Rochester hospital where he was being treated for pneumonia.
Basilio lived in the Rochester suburb of Irondequoit (uh-RAHN’-duh-kwoyt) and was among the first class of hall of fame inductees in 1990, a group that included Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis and Jake LaMotta.
His career ended in 1961 with a 56-16-7 record that included 27 knockouts.
Basilio’s family said he’d been in failing health since heart-bypass surgery in 1992.
