Charles vs. Holman II

Charles' last stand.

He ran out of gas badly in the first fight and got stopped late. Charles summoned the final remnants of his strength and ability to pull this one out. I believe this was the last win Charles ever had over a rated contender. Not long after this, he lost to Hurricane Jackson and that was basically the end for him.

 

you notice a huge difference in physical decline from this fight in 1955 compared to his fights in 1953 and 1954. Still, a shot ezzard charles managed to pull it out vs a ranked 6'3 200lb puncher. Impressive.

interestingly enough I had a long fight report from an Old Time Boxing historian who was part of Ezzard Charles camp. His name wishes to be confidential but he does post here once in a while, you can find him over on Boxrec as "Jaclem." Unfortunetly, I lost that fight report. But he saw the fight live, and he had Charles winning the Jackson rematch by about 3 points..He had notes from 1955 scribbled on a piece of paper that he sent to me by email..I believe some of his notes were "Charles worked his body very well, right hand hurts Jackson in 10th, etc"

 

He'd completely lost his legs by this stage and had lost them for the main part when he fought Marciano.

 

Charles legs looked good to me all the way through Round 6 in the first Marciano fight in 1954. In the early rounds he was really up on his toes moving well. His legs looked great against Layne, Brion, and Johnson and Satterfield in 53-54 too. Of course His legs were defintley not what they were back when he was in his prime in 1946-1949. I thought when he fought valentino his legs/footwork were at there peak physically, but they were still quite good in 1952-1954. That first Marciano fight ruined him physically.

 

Watched this fight not too long ago. John Holman was a mammoth of a man who arms looked liked they hung below his knees. He obviously gave Charles problems, but Charles rallied in this fight and got a good win.

 

Thanks for posting this seen it before but always good to see Ezzard Charles fight.

 

I can only imagine what Charles looked like when he took on Donnie Fleeman and George Logan in 1959, that must have been a SAD painful sight to see.