Bolio was bred by Maurice Carver and Eddie Klaus in 1969. His sire was the famous pit ace Klaus’ Zeke and his dam was Klaus’ Goldie. Bolio’s pedigree is very heavy in the blood of a bitch named Carver’s Judy and her sister the great Carver’s Black Widow. In fact he carried fifty percent of this blood in his breeding.
Bennett Clayton of Texas bought Bolio from Carver and sent him to Floyd Boudreaux to be matched, he was hooked into a dog that had killed both of his previous opponents. This dog’s name was Rowdy. Bolio was contracted into Rowdy twice. The first time Floyd was not content with Bolio’s conditioning for the fight, he knew that Bolio must be perfect to fight a dog of this caliber. After Floyd paid the forfeit he set up a new match with Rowdy for the big night of a southern convention. This time Bolio was in great shape and when they hit, it was a real war. Bolio killed Rowdy in about two hours and was voted best in show! At this same convention, there were many champions being shown and among them was Davis’ Grand Champion Boomerang. I was not at this fight and I got my information from other dog men and the sporting dog magazines.
Sometime after the fight Bolio was sold to a fancier in southern California. The new owner of Bolio was not interested in matching him again, even though I felt he was the best 43 lb. dog alive at the time. He decided to use him as a stud dog and that was the best use for him.
Bolio was so talented he never got hurt in rolls. I was lucky enough to see him roll many times against all kinds of dogs including dogs that were up to 15 pounds larger than he. He handled ALL his opponents with ease.
I have not seen a large number of the famous foundation dogs fight and maybe some of them were better dogs than Bolio. I have seen many fast lane dogs in action since these foundation dogs faded into the past and I can say that Bolio is the best dog I have ever seen pound for pound. He was not an extremely hard biter, but he could shut his mouth. He was very skilled at keeping his holds and sometimes it would appear that he was glued to his rivals head, he liked to fight the head. He was very strong and fast wrestler and would quickly get his hold and then use his body weight and muscle power to wear the opponent down while punishing him the whole time. He would move in such a way that the other dog would be carrying most of Bolio’s weight with him. When the other dog would slow down from the head holds, Bolio would go into the throat. If a dog did happen to get Bolio off his head, Bolio would go toe to toe with him, but not for long. Bolio would work his way back to the head and again be in total control. He was the fastest, smartest, and most effective head dog that I have ever seen. He had natural air and I never saw him slow down. He was a very intense dog and he loved to fight. When in the corner he would scream with rage until he was released into the other dog. Occasionally, he would bite you if not released quick enough.
Bolio as a producer was the best stud dog that I know of that ever lived. He was bred to some poor cur bitches and produced excellent pit dogs from them. When he was bred to good bitches, those results were amazing.
Some friends of mine had a dispute with Bolio’s owner and ended up taking the dog while he was at church. I had no part in the taking of Bolio from his owner’s yard and do not know the details of the dispute between him and my friends. I don’t use his name because the purpose of this article is to praise Bolio, not to put down his former owner. Bolio’s former owner had stolen dogs from me and so I feel that I owed him nothing. When the people who took Bolio offered me breeding rights to the dog, I accepted immediately. Bolio remained on my yard until he died at the age of thirteen. He would sire litter after litter of good dogs and I would rate him as a better stud dog than my Tombstone dog, who was also a great stud in his own right. Bolio produced fine dogs from all his breeding’s, no matter what the bloodline was. His pups carried the same traits that made him such a great dog.
When I bred a daughter of Bolio’s, Red Baby, to Tombstone, the result was thirteen very good dogs. Eight of these dogs won 20 matches. The other five was used as brood bitches. Champion Tonka, Champion Snubby, Champion Crash, and Creamator were some of the better known dogs I sold from this breeding.
One of the first bitches I bred to Bolio was Faith, a Clouse bitch. This breeding produced eight game and talented dogs, including Chen Leng and Champion Princess. Red Baby’s mother was a sister to Offer’s Crazy Babe, a pure Clouse bitch. Red Baby’s litter was a bunch of great dogs.
I had a bitch named Tuffy that was heavy in Clouse blood. She was by Tater and Faith, and when I bred her to Bolio, I got some very good dogs including Bull Boy Bob ROM and Champion Dugan. Bolio worked well with good Tombstone and Clouse bitches. He also sired good ones to great dogs out of bitches from the bloodline’s of Eli Jr. and Ironhead. This reminds me of a statement made by Ricky Jones. He said, “My favorite bloodline’s are the Eli/Ironhead cross dogs that came from Maurice during the early and mid seventies. Percentage wise these dogs will get you to the pit more times than any other bloodline out there. There are a lot of good dogs from other bloodline’s, but over all you will get more dog for your money and time from the Eli/Ironhead line.” Ricky Jones can run any bloodline he wants and he has a right to his own opinion. I don’t think any bloodline is so superior to the other top bloodline’s that it wins every time. However, Ricky stated very clearly that his dogs will win more that any other, now how in the hell would he know this to be a fact, he never used anything except the Eli blood and did 99.9% of his winning in his own back yard! I say his opinion is weak and wrong! I owned and saw dogs of Bullyson, Eli Jr., and Ironhead when Ricky still had his hound dogs. I say the Bolio blood is superior and I sold my Bullyson-Eli Jr., dogs to make room for the Bolio blood that I breed. I talked with Carver on many occasions and he told me more than twice that the Bolio dogs are his best without a doubt. In the whole article he never spoke about two of the best dogs he owned, Chome and Chocolate Soldier. These two dogs won 4 matches for him and they were bred by Diamond Jim out of a Olio bitch bred to the great Luther dog. The mother of Chome and Soldier was Patrick’s Rose. I understand that Jones had a lot of wins to his credit, but the fact is that a puppy I sold as a pet beat Grand Champion Sandman even though Sandman outweighed him by 3 lbs. I am talking about Grand Champion Buck, a Bolio dog. If Ricky can make a statement that his dogs are the best, I can tell you that the people with Olio dogs aren’t losing any sleep over his “Honest Dogs.” I would not trade one good Olio dog for any of his dogs. I quests most serious dog men run the line of dogs they like the best.
Bolio’s blood is by far the biggest part of my yard. Almost all my dogs have some Bolio blood in them and many are 60-70% Bolio blood. I don’t think you get the best results by just inbreeding on one good dog. You need other good bloodline’s to cross them with and to keep them strong. I am without a doubt the biggest Bolio fan in the world and I have been bragging about him for twenty years. Maurice Carver told me that “all the Bolio dogs will do for you is win. Lots of people don’t like them after they win, but they get the job done!” Eddie Klaus and Maurice Carver deserve the credit for breeding Bolio and his great litter mates Mendicino, Andy Capp, Daisy, and Leggs Diamond. All I did was realize his potential as a stud dog. I am sure I would still have bulldogs if I had never heard of Olio, but I know my yard is a better yard because of him.
If I could have any dog that lived in the past, today, as a two year old dog, I would take Bolio.
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