Carmen Basilio dead at 85

Carmen Basilio, who beat Sugar Ray Robinson for boxing's middleweight title, has died in Rochester, N.Y., the International Boxing Hall of Fame said. He was 85. The Hall of Fame in Canastota, N.Y., Basilio's birth city, announced the champion died Wednesday, The New York Times reported. The organization, which had Basilio as one of its first inductees when it opened in 1990, said the boxer began as a welterweight champion and stepped up a weight class in September 1957 to take the middleweight title from Robinson. Basilio was awarded the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of 1957 and lost the middleweight title back to Robinson the following year. Basilio retired in 1961 with a career record of 56 wins, 27 by knockout, 16 losses and 7 draws. The boxer is survived by his wife, four children and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.