Ezzard Charles: How good was he?

He is regarded as the finest light heavyweight of all time by many, as is common knowledge. For me it's a bit mad to call anyone the best ever at a certain weight but it can be done and justifiably to be a degree I suppose. At 160 and even more so at 175 he was at the very highest level. One of the best fighters of all time. Beatable at heavyweight when not at his best but at times throughout his heavyweight campaign he was a great fighter. At his best he is one of the goats h2h.

 

I would say possibly. He was naturally bigger than both. He laid out Archie Moore, he beat Charley Burley convincingly. He would go on to become the heavyweight champion of the world when past his prime. He was never given a title shot at middleweight or light heavyweight. I'm a huge Hopkins fan, I believe he has mastered boxing from a scientific perspective, and Toney will tee off on anyone that stands in front of him, but Ezzard Charles was a complete fighter and I see no reason to favour either of them over him prime for prime.

 

He could have, and would have, beaten the likes of Hopkins or Toney.

Charles was great. He wins more than he loses in any era.

Although he had a solid chin, he was dropped on occasion, but smooth and a technical master.

 

Peak for peak I think he thrashes both Toney and Hopkins, and I'm a big fan of both. Once he hit his stride, he was never beaten by a Light Heavyweight. Even the first two heavyweights to beat him - Jersey Joe Walcott & Elmer Ray - were outstanding fighters he had already previously bested (The loss to Ray would appear to be a robbery, too).

He really had everything, his chin was the only thing that could be called a weakness, but it was well above average. He proved himself against a murderous list of punchers and even well past his peak managed to take Marciano the full 15 round distance, something no one else was able to do. Top 5 ATG.

 

A top 10 lightheavy of all times , top 5 most probably and a top 50 p4p .
Marchegiano was a lightheavy himself , and as people do know , he stopped Charles and d other main man who stopped Charles .
Other fighters who may be ranked higher than Charles @ 175 are Sam Langford and Arnold Cream himself , although Cream could not have made 175 in his era , so there is a partially valid argument 2 y Cream was not a lightheavy .
His "win" over Louis is a good / OK achievement on p4p basis , but poor on h2h basis and is d opposite of impressing .
A younger Louis was already/previously outboxed for quite a long while by an overrated supermiddle and badly beaten by Arnold Cream .
Ezzard Charles > Archie Wright both p4p and h2h
and many consider Wright as d best lightheavy of all times and top 20 p4p . Many even consider Wright as a top 10 p4p , but it's just because they can not think about a top 20 .. or 30 and so on .
There was a thread about Charles vs Toney & Hopkins and d majority here picked him 2 stop both , although despite being naturally bigger than both , he would not have stopped Toney , if Toney appears in his vs Jirov shape or even his vs Montell Griffin shape , but could have won a decision over Toney .
Even as a lightheavy , I have doubts if d Charles that "beat" Louis , Cream , Wright (he really was Wright's daddy) , Maxim , etc and took Marchegiano d distance 1 out of 2 times , could have done what Spinks did vs Holmes , just because of size considerations .
Another fighter who can be considered in comparisons with Charles is Qawi , whom very few fighters in history ever fought something close to .
It is just up to speculations (wild) as to what would have happened if they ever fought , and I suppose that if they fought a sufficient # of times , various outcomes would have been received .

 

Pretty Good.

Pup.

 

An all time great light heavyweight, top five at the least ... likely higher ...

he'd be a light heavyweight or cruiser today and be terrific at either ...

Too small to be a heavyweight today ...

 

Throw out the word "possibly" when you post the answer about Ezzard beating Toney or Hopkins...James Toney and the" prime "middleweight
would hardly make the top 15 LHs in the 1940s when Ezzard Charles ruled the roost against the likes of Archie Moore, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall,
Joey Maxim etc. These guys were in their primes as Lightheavies,whilst Toney and Hopkins ,both in their 30s and real middleweights were able to
become successful as LHs because of weakened era of quality fighters of today's LHs.
An example= Do you think that a 46 year old Hopkins or Toney would even be a contender against that group of 1940s lightheavies I cite above.?
The answer,No,they would most likely been retired...

 

I wrote a piece on him which can be found here:

[url]http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=10622280&postcount=761[/url]

IMO, the best LHW ever.

 

Vano, kudos to your incisive bio and films of the great Ezzard Charles career.What a great fighter he was.As a young middleweight he might have been the equal of Ray Robinson,but his body frame grew into a lightheavyweight. Was he the greatest Lh of his time, and since ? Certainly,without a doubt. Would he have beaten Gene Tunney at 175 ?
A question that can never be answered..:good

 

Cheers m8 :good

Charles for me was the greatest LHW ever (pips Moore for me). He could outbox specialist boxers and outslug massive bangers. A cert for my 10 top ATG.

Take a look at the other pieces in that thread, there's some really good write ups in there. I've done a one of Wilde, Jersey Joe and Jimmy Bivins, and there's plenty of others.

 

Yes, emphatically.

 

Underrated power....