Billy Conn vs Ezzard Charles at Middleweight.

Scratching my head to think of times when he struggled with movers in his prime

 

All wrong how? You are correct that Conn didn't have big firepower, but it didn't stop him from beating some of the best fighters of his era, did it?

Conn was noted for his blazing speed at middleweight and much of it seemed to follow him as he climbed in weight. I don't see where Charles has any advantage in that department at all. In fact, Conn might have a slight edge there. Regardless I don't see where one could come to the conclusion that Charles has a "big speed advantage". The films definitely don't support this.

 

I'll expand on my analysis, I don't see how Conn will get Charles's respect and if he doesn't Charles will stalk him and knock him out. Charles could throw accurate lead power shots much faster than Conn, maybe even as fast as Conn's jab, he stepped in with incredible dynamism, his offensive footwork is great, much better than Joe Louis's. I also think the louis fight flatters Conn, Conn doesn't look quite as quick against Bettina for example. At mid-range Charles would rip opponents to pieces with fast, accurate, brutal combinations and I don't see Conn keeping Charles on the end of the jab

Conn is a great fighter but Charles is a different class and that's no insult to Conn, it's just the level Charles attained which is nigh on Robinson ability level

 

African Americans do seem to have more flash, ability to jump high, and speed than white people judging from the naked eye. This is my opinion from watching all sports.

 

Yeah, people hailing from West Africa is said to generally have more fast twitch muscle fibres. Empirically, that seems to be the case.

 

PP-We are talking on this thread Conn and Charles at below 160 pounds.To say Ezzard Charles as a middleweight, was in a "different " class than the 160 pound Billy Conn,who as a middleweight, was a tremendous fighter, who beat the likes of a prime Fritzie Zivic, Babe Risko, Vince Dundee, Oscar Rankins, Teddy Yarosz, Young Corbett3, Solly Krieger, Fred Apostoli, all great 160 pound fighters were in their primes. While 2 or 3 years later Ezzard Charles,great as he became at Lh, lost and drew with Ken Overlin and Kid Tunero. There can be no doubt that Billy Conn,as a middleweight
had a more impressive resume than Ezzard Charles did at 160 lbs. These two along with Gene Tunney I believe were the top 3 lightheavyweights of modern times...Cheers.

 

I'm talking in skill set and overall ability, Charles for me is top5 of all time P4P and imo would beat anyone below 175lbs, it's like watching a bigger Ray Robinson

He didn't beat Apostoli at 160lbs that fight was at the LHW limit, great win, maybe his best. Yarosz he went 2-1 against but both his wins were SDs. Charles beat an older Yarosz more cleanly. Dominating Burley twice, Yarosz and drawing with Overlin ranks higher at 160 imo and the Burley wins are probably 2 of the best MW wins in history, especially considering Burley is in many peoples top5 MWs, very underrated

 

Burley was originaly a welterweight, on a given night he could lose to jimmy leto, zivic, holman williams or jimmy bivins and draw with georgie abrams at his best, I wouldnt get carried away with 6 foot 168lb big middleweight, a young boy and still growing, beating him. There was a lot of other good fighters around, burley, young charles, bivins and co would all drop one loss a year or so anyway. kid charles was growing -he was still too young to drink legaly before the war!