“I don’t enjoy getting hurt, waking up with a puffed eye and pain, stiff all over, but you have to take the bitter with the sweet. The sweet is when guys recognize you on the street, say, ‘Hello, champ,’ know who you are. It will always be sweet for me.” - Carmen Basilio

*Enhanced photo courtesy of Classic Boxing Society contributor JTheron

Tony DeMarco vs Carmen Basilio. Boston Garden, December 1955.