Carmen Basilio in the arms of his trainer Angelo Dundee, left, and co-manager John DeJohn after winning the middleweight title from Sugar Ray Robinson in 1957.

By: RICHARD GOLDSTEIN, Associated Press
Published: November 7, 2012

Carmen Basilio, the welterweight and middleweight boxing champion of the 1950s who fought two brutal bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson, winning his middleweight title and then losing it to him, died on Wednesday in Rochester. Basilio, who lived in Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, was 85.

His death was announced by the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., where Basilio was born. He was among its first class of inductees in 1990.

They called him the Upstate Onion Farmer