Ezzard Charles's Consistently Underrated and Unbelievable Heart.

Ezzard Charles fought tooth and nail with the some of best fighters in history. But his fighting pride and heart goes unnoticed, despite wearing it on his sleeve.

By my count, Charles was dropped 33 times in his long career.

He got up for all but 4, one of which was one of the greatest one punch KOs ever. One was against a beast like Rocky Marciano while past his best and the other 2 were whilst he had ALS, and in all of those bouts he tried to get up in time.

An example of his heart is in the first Bivins fight. He exchanged viciously with Jimmy for the entire fight, and in the process was dropped 4 times. After each of these KDs, he got back up and fought back at a higher pace than before and subsequently scored two KDs of his own.

Another example is the first Lloyd Marshall fight, where he was dropped 8 times. In this fight he was reported to have a hip injury, he got up every time before a count of 3, except for a count of 9 in the 7th, and fought on before the referee stopped the fight after the 8th KD.

He took multiple rematches against both men, and holds KO victories over both.

A greay example of Ezz's fighting heart is his rubber match with Archie Moore. Archie Moore landed a huge left hook on Charles and Charles staggered, Moore immediately jumped on him and grabbed his opportunity with both hands, everyone watching thought Charles was on the verge of getting KOed, yet to everybody's shock, he suddenly snapped into a flurry of left hooks and then landed a devastating cross which put Moore down. Charles, then seized the moment and landed the finisher, another straight right. Moore went down, trying to pull himself up off the ropes, it'd take him 20 seconds.

In his fight with Fitzpatrick, Charles brawled with him and paid a price, he was clipped with a hard right hand to the temple and got up at 7, he then went back to brawling with him and systematically demolished him, scoring 2 more KDs before stopping him 3 rounds later.

Look at the JJW KO7. Charles was gone, looked like he'd been shot. Yet he still attempted to get up.

Yet another case for his great heart is the 2 Marciano fights. I mean, look at em. He's fighting Marciano and as it progresses gets the **** beaten outta him, keeps on going till the final bell. The rematch with Marciano, he gets dropped in the second, and gets right back up and starts fighting back for the whole thing.

Even niesh cases, like the Satterfield fight; takes a big punch in the first round, looks wobbled, comes back with a highlight reel KO in the next round. Or the 2nd Maxim fight, where he was losing clearly for 5 rounds, then flurrying non stop hunting for a KO, almost getting it, hurting Maxim and cutting him before taking a decision.Or the Bivins rematch where he was dropped, but bravely fought back to win a clear decision and hurt Bivins with his own counter punching. The Overlin & Bengal fights are examples of KDs from a green Charles and him immediately getting back up and fighting back. The murderous punching Oakland Billy Smith dropped Charles as well, yet Charles got up and thrashed him. And he set things right the following year in a rematch.

Considering whilst he was diseased and shot to ****, he got up 11 times. You're starting to get my point.

Speaking of which, my point is more than that Charles has an underrated heart, it's more that imo Charles has a case for one of the greatest hearts of all time, and certainly has a case for top 5 at HW. And to be completely honest, I couldn't give two ****s how unpopular that opinion is.

God bless, you all.

Edit: Ezz was dropped by Oakland Billy Smith. Another showcase of heart.
Ezzard Charles vs Oakland Billy Smith 2

 

Don't worry about it man, he's my favourite fighter ever. In fact my tag line is a play on his nickname. I'd try this one of you want to find out more about Ezz.

Ezzard Charles, the Cincinnati Cobra, The Baddest LHW of All Time... Educate Yourself

 

Don't worry about it man.

I agree he's very underrated among the average boxing fan, but guys who look deep into boxing's history tend to pay him his dues. I think my picks for most underrated fighters of all time would go Holman Williams, Frank Klaus, Leo Houck, Tony Canzoneri and Luis Rodriguez ect.

He actually started as a FW in the amateurs... And still ended up HW champion with 8 defences, beating Louis and Walcott.

Anyone who can near shut out Louis, Moore and Burley, out-slug and thrash Lloyd Marshall, Joey Maxim, Jimmy Bivins and whilst smaller than all of them (except Marshall) and can KO Moore in a single punch, whilst Marciano, Patterson and Ali couldn't, is definitely one of the greatest fighters of all time.

Before Walcott 1, he never clearly lost a fight he didn't avenge or that has an astrix. Only Bivins and Marshall beat him clearly, and he was badly injured for the Marshall fight.

The Baroudi loss didn't seem to effect him anywhere near as bad as Campbell did for Baer. In Ezzard's next fight he stopped Ray cold, although he didn't admittedly start going the distance more. Baer on the other hand went awal and was losing to guys who he should've crushed like bugs.

Although it should be noted that 3 reported deaths were due to Baer.

 

I'm a James Toney guy as well.

 

What?