Billy Backus
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Billy Backus, (born March 5, 1943) is an American former Undisputed World Welterweight Champion professional boxer. In the summer of 2006 Backus retired from his correctional facility job and moved to
South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
."Canastota's last champ pulls up stakes." October 15, 2005
''The Post-Standard'' (Syracuse, NY)
/ref>


Early boxing career

Backus, who is the nephew of boxing legend and former world champion
Carmen Basilio Carmen Basilio (born Carmine Basilio, April 2, 1927 – November 7, 2012) was an American professional boxer who was a two-time Undisputed Welterweight Champion and Undisputed Middleweight champion, beating Sugar Ray Robinson for the latter ...
, started his career by winning only 7 of his first 19 bouts. In 1964, things looked promising when he won four bouts in a row, but then he suffered a three fight losing streak. At this point of his career, he had a record of 8 wins, 7 losses and 3 draws and he retired from
boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...
. To make things worse, he had lost his last fight, against Rudy Richardson, on his twenty-second birthday.


Rise to prominence

Backus resumed his boxing career in 1966, but probably never in his wildest dreams could he have envisioned what happened next: in his comeback bout, he knocked out Tod Purtell in the first round, and that marked his embarcation on a seven-fight winning streak that included avenging an earlier loss to Dick French. That streak was broken by a defeat at the hands of Percy Pugh in
New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...
, but soon he started on another winning streak, eight in a row, including two over Pugh. Then, Pugh broke his winning streak once again, beating him in 15 rounds, once again at New Orleans. After splitting two fights with Jerry Pellegrini and drawing in four rounds with
Ricky Ortiz Richard Young (born May 12, 1975) is an American former professional wrestler and football player. He is best known for his work with WWE performing under the ring name Ricky Ortiz. Young spent time in the XFL, Canadian Football League (CFL), ...
, Backus embarked on another winning streak, including an eight-round knockout over Ortiz in a rematch.


World Welterweight Title Bout

After that last streak, Backus was ranked among the top ten Welterweight challengers of the world at number 10. The year was 1970 and Mexico's
José Nápoles José Ángel Nápoles (April 13, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was a Cuban-born Mexican professional boxer. He was a two-time undisputed welterweight champion, having held the WBA, WBC, and ''The Ring'' welterweight titles between 1969 and 1975. ...
had earned the right to make an optional defense of his world title (meaning he could pick any challenger among the top ten to defend against). His management, figuring they'd have an easy fight ahead of them, picked Backus as the challenger for this optional title bout. But Backus landed a punch that opened a cut over Nápoles' eye in round one, causing Nápoles to bleed profusely, and the fight was stopped in round four. Since the cut had been ruled to be caused by a punch, Backus was declared winner by a technical knockout, and he had realized a dream that many fans never thought he would: he had become the world's Welterweight champion. His uncle Basilio, watching from ringside, said: "Billy winning the world title is the best thing ever to happen in my life, even better than me winning the world title." Billy won two non-title fights, including one over
Robert Gallois The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, praise, reno ...
in Paris, and then had a rematch with Nápoles in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. This time Nápoles returned the favor, knocking Backus out in the eighth round and regaining his title.


Career decline

He finished 1971 with a ten-round decision win over Jose Gabino, and went 3–2 in 1972, losing two fifteen-round decisions to world title challenger
Hedgemon Lewis Hedgemon Lewis (February 25, 1946 – March 31, 2020) was an American professional boxer and trainer. He held the NYSAC welterweight world title in 1972 and challenged for welterweight world championships on three occasions; the unified WBA, a ...
. He lost 3 of 4 bouts in 1973, and went on a European tour in 1974, winning 2 and losing 2 in Paris and Berlin. In 1975, he went to Australia and lost by a knockout in five to
Rocky Mattioli Rocky Mattioli (born Rocco Mattioli, 20 September 1953) is an Italian-born Australian former boxer at junior middleweight, and former world champion. Rocky was the 2004 Inductee for the Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame Moderns catego ...
, and then he came back to the States, where he beat Marc Gervais by a knockout in ten. This marked the start of another 9 fight winning streak, which led the WBA to make him their number one challenger. After drawing in twelve rounds with
Everaldo Acosta Acevedo Everaldo is a given name. It may refer to: * Everaldo (footballer, 1944–1974), Everaldo Marques da Silva, Brazilian football left-back * Everaldo Costa Azevedo (born 1944), Brazilian boxer * Everaldo (footballer, born 1949), Everaldo Ferreira d ...
, he had a chance at regaining the world welterweight title when faced against world champion Pipino Cuevas of Mexico, once again in Los Angeles. After losing by quitting on his stool in the first round, Backus then announced his retirement from boxing for good. Although he isn't a member of the
International Boxing Hall of Fame The International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, right next to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected on ballots cre ...
(unlike his uncle Basilio, who is), in 1990, Ed Brophy and some Canastota businessmen came up with the idea to build the hall of fame in Canastota, to honor Canastota's two native world champions: Basilio and Backus. In 2010, the award nominated "Title Town USA, Boxing in Upstate New York" by noted historian Mark Allen Baker was published by The History Press in 2010 and supports Canastota, New York as the epicenter of Upstate New York's rich boxing heritage. The book includes chapters on both
Carmen Basilio Carmen Basilio (born Carmine Basilio, April 2, 1927 – November 7, 2012) was an American professional boxer who was a two-time Undisputed Welterweight Champion and Undisputed Middleweight champion, beating Sugar Ray Robinson for the latter ...
and Billy Backus. The introduction was written by Edward P. Brophy, Executive Director of the
International Boxing Hall of Fame The International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, right next to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected on ballots cre ...
. Backus had a final record of 48 wins, 20 losses and 5 draws, with 22 wins by knockout.


Professional boxing record


Titles in boxing


Major world titles

* WBA welterweight champion (147 lbs) * WBC welterweight champion (147 lbs)


''The Ring'' magazine titles

* ''The Ring'' welterweight champion (147 lbs)


Regional/International titles

*
New York State New York, also called New York State, is a state in the northeastern United States. Bordered by New England to the east, Canada to the north, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south, its territory extends into both the Atlantic Ocean and ...
welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...
champion (147 lbs)


Undisputed titles

* Undisputed welterweight champion


See also

*
List of world welterweight boxing champions Beginning with Mysterious Billy Smith to Harry Lewis, the welterweight world champions listed below are more widely recognized in the United States and are not as widely sanctioned as the boxers that follow. Beginning with boxer Pat Bradley, is a ...


References


External links

* , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Backus, Billy 1943 births Living people American male boxers People from Canastota, New York Boxers from New York (state) Welterweight boxers World welterweight boxing champions World Boxing Association champions World Boxing Council champions The Ring (magazine) champions 20th-century American sportsmen