Rocky Marciano vs. Ezzard Charles

:good Good post

 

:good He made them fight his fight and used his diadvantages to his advantage,He set traps and was blessed with power in both hands and hard earned stamina and a solid freakish torso and great recupritive power

 

Mendoza classic dr. Z


I thought Marciano looked pretty damm good against 6'2 215lb 78" reach Joe Louis. Sure Louis was old, but you can get some insight on how rock would deal with a bigger fighter watching that fight.

 

Ezz pulled it together for two more fights, both against Marciano. I think he was inspired for those two fights and gave it his all, only to to be twice defeated by that unstoppable force of the Fifties, Rocky Marciano. In that first fight, both fought like the world class guys that they were, real 15 round warriors. In the rematch, Marciano showed GREATNESS by overcoming that hideous split nose and all the blood that came from it to save his title and undefeated record with a brutally efficient 8th round ko. Two great fighters in both fights.

 

Good post. Just rewatched the fight and agree with your observations.

 

Agreed. Charles' lack of head movement, lack of a meaningful jab, and lack of much effort to control the distance in this fight makes me wonder how fighters and their trainers even went about devising fight plans and strategies back then. For most of the footage, Charles basically just used some basic, fairly flat-footed lateral movement while trying to beat Marciano to the punch with power shot leads.

Side note: Was also surprising to see how widely Marciano missed a lot of wide open hooks and uppercuts, in instances where Charles didn't even react or move away from the punches. Looked like Marciano was just winging a ton of those punches without really trying to place them. Charles was lucky that Marciano had such short arms and wasn't a more precise puncher.

 

He was an excellent commentator , would have made a great pro at the job.

 

Charles ducks an overhand right.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-dABwtU[/url]


Charles side steps an uppercut, ducks a left hook, and pulls his head from a right cross.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-OcnzaE[/url]


Charles using lots of head movement to slip a Maricano flurry. Gif guts off with Charles ducking a right cross.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-LpXCUn[/url]


After moving away from an overhand right, Charles slips a left hook and two rights with his head.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-Yu-ubP[/url]


Now now, I'm not trying to claim Maricano never hit Charles in the fight. But There are countless examples of Charles using movement to evade Rocky. Enough to make this claim of "lack of head movement" utter garbage.

I will rip the rest apart later.

 

Don't be silly. Of course Charles sometimes moved his head when Marciano was throwing punches at him (especially later in the fight, when he w.

But there were also a surprising number of times when Charles didn't (watch how many times he stands in Marciano's punching range, with a fairly still head, while Marciano wings hooks and fierce uppercuts at him). But otherwise he showed Marciano very few level changes and seldom changed the slot position of his head. Looked almost intentional, like he was more focused on luring Marciano into throwing his power punches so that he could try to time him and beat him to the punch. He did that by basically standing in front of Marciano and making his head an attractive target at times. Lack of head movement was also conspicuous at times when they were clinching or in close, which allowed Marciano a lot of opportunities to wing uppercuts at him.

Some of you guys seem to think that "good head movement" means just wiggling your head around to avoid incoming punches.

 

Sometimes? As in a rare occurrence? Nah, not letting you off the hook on that. Charles employs frequent head movement in the early footage of the fight, though he eventually gets broken down by Rocky's unorthodox combinations and exhausting pressure.

A "lack of head movement" was not a problem, Charles used as much as he could.

 

[Sorry, I added more to that post while you were replying (FYI)] You're right though that my original language was a bit of an exaggeration.

 

Actually, what stood out most to me were the instances where Charles didn't move his head after he threw his power punch leads (he also fell in a bit with several of them). Risky, flawed tactic against an opponent with more power and a better chin. Left himself an unnecessarily exposed target within Marciano's (very) limited punching range numerous times throughout the fight, and this played a big role in Marciano finding him with his own headhunting counters. This is not smart or strategic boxing.

 

One might want to question why there is lack of a meaningful jab employed by Charles in the footage.


Charles tries a jab but finds Rocky's leaning crouch a hard target.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-1lYdbG[/url]

Charles actually looking a bit confused by Rocky's stance and feints, fails to pull the trigger on a jab.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-sBQ3PA[/url]

Rocky blocks a left hook, pulls from an aggressive jab and bombs a right over a second.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-i03AWW[/url]

Charles bends and attempts to double jab but Rocky evades in his crouch.

[url]http://makeagif.com/gif/rocky-marciano-vs-ezzard-charles-i-vPCCf6[/url]


Charles ultimately finds more success with left hooks and right hand leads, as the jab just isn't open to him.

 

This would be a perfect time for a gif.
Because it has a well thought out analysis along with it.
Would be cool to see some examples that go along with the description.

 

Charles never attempts to establish the jab. As the commentators note pretty early in the first round, he basically comes out trying to land hook and short right leads. Virtually all of the few jabs that he does throw appear to be light punches meant to find range, distract, and set up his other punches.