Johnny Saxton (born July 4, 1930, in Newark, NJ) was a professional
boxerBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
in the
welterweightWelterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like kickboxing, taekwondo and mixed martial arts also began to use it for their own weight division system...
(147
lbThe pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
) division.
Saxton learned to box in a Brooklyn orphanage and had an amateur career winning 31 of 33 fights.
Saxton turned professional in 1949 and ran up forty wins without a defeat before losing to Gil Turner in 1953. His win over
Joey GiardelloCarmine Orlando Tilelli was an American boxer who was the middleweight champion of the world from 1963 to 1965, and was better known by his professional pseudonym of Joey Giardello.-Early life:...
and
Johnny BrattonJohnny Bratton, also known as Honey Boy Bratton, , was a professional boxer in the welterweight division...
helped propel him to fight with
Kid GavilanGerardo González , better known in the boxing world as Kid Gavilan, was a former gardener and world welterweight champion from Cuba...
in 1954 for the world welterweight championship.
Johnny Saxton (born July 4, 1930, in Newark, NJ) was a professional
boxerBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
in the
welterweightWelterweight is a weight class division in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like kickboxing, taekwondo and mixed martial arts also began to use it for their own weight division system...
(147
lbThe pound or pound-mass is a unit of mass used in the imperial, United States customary and other systems of measurement...
) division.
Saxton learned to box in a Brooklyn orphanage and had an amateur career winning 31 of 33 fights.
Professional career
Saxton turned professional in 1949 and ran up forty wins without a defeat before losing to Gil Turner in 1953. His win over
Joey GiardelloCarmine Orlando Tilelli was an American boxer who was the middleweight champion of the world from 1963 to 1965, and was better known by his professional pseudonym of Joey Giardello.-Early life:...
and
Johnny BrattonJohnny Bratton, also known as Honey Boy Bratton, , was a professional boxer in the welterweight division...
helped propel him to fight with
Kid GavilanGerardo González , better known in the boxing world as Kid Gavilan, was a former gardener and world welterweight champion from Cuba...
in 1954 for the world welterweight championship. He beat Gavilan via a fifteen-round decision to take the title. The lost the title the following year via technical knockout against
Tony DeMarcoTony DeMarco is a boxer and world welterweight champion. He was born in Boston and grew up in that city's North End community. Tony DeMarco's actual birth name is Leonardo Liotta. Tony’s father Vincent and mother Giacomina came from Sicily.To box in the league, the minimum age was 18...
. In 1956 he won the title again with an upset win over
Carmen BasilioCarmine Basilio, born April 2 1927 in Canastota, New York, better known in the boxing world as Carmen Basilio, is a former boxer of Italian-American origin. Some reports have suggested that Basilio changed his name from Carmine to Carmen before he began boxing, to sound more masculine...
, but lost the title in a rematch with Basilio later in the year. He retired in 1958.
Managed by Frank "Blinky" Palermo, a boxing manager linked to organized crime, Saxton's career was often marred by rumors of shady dealings. His two biggerst wins, against Gavilan and Basilio, were both controversial and unpopular with many in the boxing world.
His career Record: Won 55 (KOs 21) Lost 9 Draw 2
After boxing
Saxton worked as a security guard and a boxing coach after he retired. A hit-and-run accident left him with damage to one leg, and by the early 1990s he was living in a New York City apartment that had no electricity. A friend helped Saxton move to a retirement home in Florida. He was diagnosed with pugilistic dementia.
External links
- http://www.boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=9703&cat=boxer
- http://www.boxinginsider.com/history/strange-days/