Ezzard Charles KO 2 Bob Satterfield 1954

:goodmore exciting to watch and more impresive finish than any of charles's actual title fights.

 

In the absence of any charles v moore film or of charles stopping baksi or outpointing fitzie fitzpatrick and elmer ray what is wrong with saying the satterfeild win is charles's most exciting filmed win?

 

I understand ... this Charles had weakened legs ... he could not move over the distance ... watch the Marciano fight .. Ez basically stayed in the trenches and traded with him ... obviously no way for a small guy to fight Rocky unless your name was Langford ... that said it was a dramatic KO ...

 

Without question an exciting win ... just far from a peak Charles ...

 

Christ, that was a spectacular fight & knockout. What I would give to have that in HD at 30 frames per second..

 

BEAUTIFUL left hook by Charles...

 

could charles ever have executed that KO better? How could he have improved on it?

You have to be near prime to exhibit that kind of timing.

Bob was KOd 12 times but in boxing you are only as good as your last fight, against charles satterfeild had knocked out bob baker and was on a KO rampage up the ratings. with baker eliminated the winner of this fight was a lock for the role as most outstanding contender.

 

Charles peak ran from 1947-1953.

there were points in Charles’s long career where he was "treading water" purely to maintain his position within the ranks and other times where he landed big fights that could lead to something where he shone. a fighter had to know when to hold something back. I think in a long active career it has to be that way otherwise you burn out.

.. he shone against baksi, did not impress against ray. shone against layne, did not impress against valdes. shone against satterfield etc. even as a champ he did it. the barone fight was a stinker by all accounts but he got good write ups against valentino. charles only truly slipped after the two marciano fights. the evidence of a shot fighter is when they stop knocking out rated guys, charles did this in back to back fights before fighting marciano.

After the war, In a new four year career against albeit excellent opposition Charles notched up a new 40-2 record by which time he had lost the title to wallcot a guy hed previously beat twice, the other loss was also avenged.

not including light heavyweights, 14 of the 42 fights were against heavyweights at that time rated in "The Ring" annual ratings. that means he won 12 (6 by KO) fights with rated heavyweights by the time he lost the title.

in Charles next 18 fights over 36 months he faced 11 at that time rated contenders a far higher ratio. he was 14-4 in these 18fights and knocked out 4 of the 7 rated contenders he beat.

this means ezzards 1951-54 win ratio is negligible against his 1946-51 record and his KO percentage was actually higher in the 36 months since losing the title against at that time rated contenders.
This study proves that on paper against rated heavyweights Charles was apt to lose once in a while so long as he fought as often as he did and the film proves he was still putting out championship class performances, knocking out rated contenders throughout the 48-54 period.

Charles never made the ring ratings as a heavyweight until 1948 so his peak began at the tail end of the 40s.

in 1955 Charles fought 11 times. altogether he fought 3 times in December, 2 times in April and august each. unsurprisingly Charles only won 6 times out of the 11. he fought 8 rated heavyweights that year and did not knock out any of them.... this was when he faded

 

1946 Charles was coming off a longer lay off than the first part of his career. he had actualy been a soldier longer than he had been a boxer, how can the first year of his new career be included within his prime? he compiled great wins against moore but was dropped by loyd marshal as well.

early 47' fitzie fitzpatrick nearly knocked ezz out then charles lost to Ray. From october 1947 was when charles turned a corner as a super force to be recond with knocking out bivins, marshal and Moore.

1948 was the year charles makes the HW rankings - 24 months into the start of his new career. 1948 charles was as good as he was going to get.

 

He was active in 1946 and spent the first few months of the year by disposing of lesser opposition and getting rid of any ring rust he may have had. Charles got dropped with a body shot but was in no great trouble and took full advantage of the count as the film indicates. He beat Archie Moore, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall and Oakland Billy Smith this year.

Fighting as many quality opponents as he did, he was bound to run into some problems like he did against hard-hitting Fitzpatrick whom he KO'd in the end. He was robbed against Elmer Ray and avenged the loss by a KO.

1946-1949 was undoubtedly Charles at his very best.

 

this is an established opinion but check his record. 1948 was the very best of charles until then he was getting better and better then he reached a peak. You could bet your house on charles beyond that point.

between losing the title to walcott and facing marciano nobody truly got the better of charles incuding walcott in their final fight. the layne, johnson and valdes fights were all very close and that oposition was better than valentino, oma, beshore and barone that charles was beating in title fights.