Alrighty So I once read that Ezzard in his prime fought like a bigger Sugar Ray Robinson. Which..isn't far off he certainly had the style and grace as far as footwork goes however SRR made too many mistakes technically got hit a lot I wanna say Charles had way more polished fundamentals. He was KO'd in his career which doesn't always show signs of a chin problem, I mean he did go the distance with Marciano So did Ezzard Charles have a weakness? There's a video on youtube of him fighting well out of his prime and he still managed to put on a boxing clinic. Let's discuss :bbb
IMO the only weakness that was apparent in Charles was a body too small for heavyweight. And he still excelled at heavyweight.
If Ezzard Charles in his prime, and before he kod Sam Baroudi had a "weakness", then Archie Moore, Jimmy Bivens, Harold Johnson, Charley Burley, Joey Maxim ALL who he beat had greater weaknesses. Furthermore I will go out on a limb and wager that Snooks as the prime Ezzard was called, would have surely beaten Clay/Ali were they the same weight...A great fighter was Charles and a dignified gentleman...One of my favorites...
It's said that he wasn't quite committed mentally after the Baroudi fight. That'd be a weakness, if true.
His weakness was fighting too often. Taking too many fights. His first career (before the war) Was very short. Three years but very active. So active that even though he was not much more than a high school kid he reached burn out and was decked something like 8 times just in his last two fights before joining the army. Had he continued then there would have been no title. It would have been the kind of rapid decline he had in 1955. The three years active service saved his career and he returned fully recovered, fully matured. But even then he was very active. Fighting so often would mean he would have improved on many results with more rest. A majority decision win over Joey Maxim (who he would beat clearly on other occasions) in 1949 is one example.
Whatever his weaknesses were, he has my undying respect and regard for puling himself together like he did in that first Marciano bout,,,,being past his own prime....warring with the peak Rock for 15 torrid rounds....makes him a top 10 atg heavyweight in my books.
Top 10 ATG heavyweight for Charles? Not a chance. Charles had plenty of guts. Sometimes he liked to brawl, when he should have boxed. Charles liked to beat his man to the punch and counter. He was floored 30 times, and didn't have the best chin in the world, but he gave the fans their monies worth.
The underlined is nonsense ,and you have been corrected by others on it before. Charles was a safety first fighter whom the public never enthused about ,he was perceived as boring,and lack lustre.
Evidently he was as Ray Arcel his great trainer and others in his entourage used the nickname term "Snooks" for Ezzard Charles...What a great unassuming lightheavyweight was Mr Ezzard Charles, not hype but SUBSTANCE...
I think Bert Sugar had him in there. Your mate Mongoose has worked hard to make a case for his being rated "great" at the weight, if not quite top ten, from memory. But yeah, he's 16-20 for my money.