A Forgotten Heavyweight-Joe Baksi-A late 1940's "Contendeh"

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

[tad]

Great videos on Joe Baski. Thank you. Gone, but not completely forgotten.

[tad]

I messed up on the spelling. It's Baksi. I guess I had forgotten him a little more than I had thought.

[Ambling Alp II]

Always interesting that guys who got a title shot (and lost) are usually remembered much more than someone else just as good or better who never got a shot.

If Baski had got a shot he would probably be better remembered today.

[Caractacus]

Joe Baski did get to fight Ezzard Charles but lost) just before Charles became HW Champion in 1949.

[enrique]

Little known fact: Baksi won a 4 rounder on points over Jack Brazzo who was supposed to be 11-0. Brazzo is better known as Oscar winning actor Jack Palance.

[Caractacus]

Did it happen somewhere in a Coal mining town in Pennsylvania ?
BTW JacK Brazzo sounds like a way cool more like a Hollywood name then Jack Palance.

[punchoutsb]

Always interesting that guys who got a title shot (and lost) are usually remembered much more than someone else just as good or better who never got a shot.

If Baski had got a shot he would probably be better remembered today.

This is definitely true

[Cap]

Thanks for the videos. I remember an issue of The Ring Magazine regarding Baksi as the second coming of Jim Jeffries. If he hadn't lost that decision to Olle Tandberg in Sweden, he probably would have got the shot against Joe Louis instead of Walcott.

[Caractacus]

so why didn't Olle Tandberg get the title shot instead ?

[Cap]

good question. Not enough of a marquee name?

[Woller]

Tandberg went to USA and lost a stinker to Joey Maxim, so he could not be used as an opponent for Louis.

[Cap]

Don't know why I didn't notice this before. Baksi had one fight in 1950, three in 1951 including a TKO over Jimmy Rouse December 13, 1951 at Troy NY. Then didn't fight again until 1954. What happened? The IBC & a certain mob guy controlled boxing in those days. Was Baksi blackballed by Norris? In shape he would've been a good opponent for Marciano.

[Ambling Alp II]

Not sure about this, but it may have had something to do with his trainer, Ray Arcel. Arcel was in disputes with the IBC. Arcel eventually attacked was hit over the head by a pipe and quit boxing for a long time. After the 1948 fight with Charles, Baski didn't get any more major fights. Maybe Baski wasn't getting big fights because of disagreements with the IBC, and decided to quit.

[Caractacus]

there is a brief story about an incident with Joe Baksi in Rocky Graziano's
1955 autobiography SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME,
in it Graziano writes that he was sent to Eshan's Training camp in Summit New Jersey
to train for his fight with Billy Arnold. ( March 1945)
Joe Baski was training there also at the time.
Graziano brought along some pals of his from the neighbourhood for company.
anyway Graziano and his 3 other plas were walking by the lake there ( in February)
and they decided to play a joke and throw Baksi into the ice cold lake,
( Graziano gave hand signals behind his back for them to do it)
which all four did, then Whitey Bimstein came running over to tell them to knock it off,
and told them Baksi could have gotten pneumonia.

[Cap]

Graziano wasn't exactly a step-up on the evolutionary scale.

[Caractacus]

yeah, do you think when he (Graziano)went into 'acting" after he retired from boxing
affected his "Boxing Legacy".?
(i.e the "dim-bulb charactor from the Lower East Side )

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