Tony Graziano, boxing manager and restaurateur, dies at age 103

Graziano, who was born January 18, 1922 in Verona, New York, first found success in boxing as a manager, guiding fellow Canastota resident Billy Backus to the undisputed welterweight title with a fourth round stoppage of Jose Napoles in December of 1970. He was also the original manager for future welterweight and middleweight champion Carmen Basilio when he turned pro in 1948. Among the other boxers he worked with out of his Canastota Boxing Club was Rocky Fratto, a Syracuse, New York based boxer who narrowly lost a vacant WBA junior middleweight title fight in 1981 to Tadashi Mihara.