How much did the disease effect Ezzard Charles boxing record? Was it really a factor during his boxing career?
I remember seeing a TV slot in the late 60's showing EZZ in a wheelchair in a ring. They spoke about the disease in general and his suffering in particular. It broke my heart then as well as right now.
He did appear physically completely shot around the late 50's, almost an entirely different man. Fighting at a pace of 12 times a year despite being in his mid 30's just wasn't a very good decision by him, especially after those grueling wars with Marciano and a savage KO loss to John Holman. I doubt it was the effects of the disease though, but the hundred fights that he had fought.
Somewhat off-topic but anybody know from which fight this picture was taken of? This content is protected
I remember that real well..shots of Ezz in that wheelchair interspersed with great action shots of him..it was haunting to me..
That picture is from my favourite fight Charles-Marciano 1 - and it was taken in the 15th round at the moment Charles' back touched the ropes for the first time in the previous 14 and a half rounds - incredible considering the ferocity of the fight - plus the ballooned face is evidence of the threshing machine it had been through over the course of tht fight - I would say he definately left a peice of himself in that ring tht night
It's more likely that his boxing career was a factor in him developing the disease (causes of ALS are unknown) rather than the disease effecting his career. He declined rapidly from 1954 onwards, he'd been in a lot of hard fights and was 33 years old. He wasn't ever really going to recover from the first Marciano fight ... . just 3 months later he's in the ring with Marciano again. In 1955 he fought another eleven fights.
I thought so as well. Here is another color picture: This content is protected Charles left everything in the ring I would say. A compilation of highlights I made of the fight: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjJBizFnb4[/ame] 10:30 12:25 seems to be the exact moment. It's a shame we don't have all 15 rounds of the fight.
