A deeper dive on Ezzard Charles' greatness.

@George Crowcroft, you said that I better save you Ezzard Charles, here we are finally. This one's for you buddy. No need to say anything else, let's just jump into it.

Ezzard Charles, just like Emile Griffith, was thrown to the wolves early. After going 17-0, Charles lost to the #1 rated Middleweight in the world, Ken Overlin. As difficult as Ortega and Moyer were for Griffith, they certainly were no Overlin. But Charles still gave a hell of an effort, losing the decision only by 1-3 points. Then the madlad defeated the #5 rated Light Heavyweight Teddy Yarosz, only 5 months later. Then he defeated the former NBA Light Heavyweight Champion, my fellow Greek countryman Anton Christoforidis/Αντώνης Χριστοφορίδης, the GOAT Greek by some distance. We're inept of world class talent, I know.

Then he drew with the #2 Light Heavyweight in the world, former conqueror Ken Overlin, and in fact, one of the scorecards had it for Charles while the other 2 had it a draw, meaning he might have even deserved a win here. Then, after a close Split Decision loss against the #4 rated Middleweight Kid Tunero, Charles defeated the great Charley Burley twice, back to back. Then he would beat future Light Heavyweight contender Booker Beckwith, and would knock out the #5 rated Middleweight Jose Basora in 5, prior to twice outpointing the future Light Heavyweight Champion Joey Maxim. He would then get outpointed by the #1 Light Heavyweight contender, Jimmy Bivins, before getting stopped in the 8th by the #5 rated Light Heavyweight Lloyd Marshall, not winning a single round until the stoppage due to a hip injury.

This is where Charles got scary after officialy going to Light Heavyweight. After destroying some unranked fighters, he would win practically every round against the #1 Light Heavyweight, and future champion of the division, the all time great Archie Moore, who had the best Championship reign the division would ever see. Then the #4 rated Lloyd Marshall would get knocked out in the 6th, and Ezzard Charles had his payback on the man responsible for his worst defeat. He would then soundly outclass the #5 rated Oakland Billy Smith and Jimmy Bivins, yet again avenging another defeat, before rematching them both twice and knocking them out in less than 5 rounds each in less than a month's time span. This winning streak continued with yet another win over the great #2 rated Light Heavyweight Archie Moore, as well as a 5th round knock out against the #10 rated Fitzie Fitzpatrick. Absolutely monstrous stuff.

He would then lose the decision against the #2 rated Heavyweight Elmer Ray, in a fight he should have won handily. Back to Light Heavyweight, poor #7 rated Lloyd Marshall wouldn't go past the second round, and Fitzpatrick would only go 4 this time. And then, the great Archie Moore, who was in his prime, during a time in his career where he would always find a way to defeat an opponent who had previously beaten him, got knocked out cold in the 8th. Making Charles the only man Archie Moore just could not overcome no matter what he did.

And then, tragedy would strike Ezzard Charles, as former Middleweight contender Sam Baroudi would die by his hands. Charles was never the same fighter after this, he would even consider retiring from the sport until Baroudi's family convinced him to continue. But no amount of convincing could bring back Baroudi, or the Charles of old. A destructive and dangerous part of Charles died along with Baroudi that day. More on that later.

#2 rated Heavyweight contender Elmer Ray would get knocked out in the 9th this time, Charles most likely didn't want to be in the wrong side of a gift decision again. Then Charles would once again defeat Jimmy Bivins, who was now one of the top contenders in the Heavyweight division, and would drop the formerly #5 rated Heavyweight Joe Baksi out of the rankings entirely, making Charles the #2 contender in the glamour division of the sport.

#5 rated Heavyweight Joey Maxim would once again come up short against Charles, and so did the #1 Heavyweight contender, Jersey Joe Walcott. Former Light Heavyweight Champion and #1 contender in the same division, Gus Lesnevich, whom Charles sought out to beat for so many years, wouldn't go past 7. #8 rated Pat Valentino would fall in 8, and then one year later, Charles would finally become a Champion, and would be the man who would finally dethrone the greatest Champion the sport has ever known, the admittedly well past his prime Joe Louis.

Charles would then proceed to defeat the #5 rated Light Heavyweight Nick Barone, the #9 rated Heavyweight Lee Oma, the #7 rated Heavyweight Jersey Joe Walcott, and the #3 rated Heavyweight Joey Maxim. He would then get knocked out in the 7th round in his third fight with Walcott, in quite possibly the best KO ever captured on film. This didn't stop Charles however, #6 rated Rex Layne would get stopped in the 11th, Maxim would get outclassed again for the 5th time, and former Heavyweight contender Joe Kahut would fall in the 8th.

The Heavyweight Champion Jersey Joe Walcott would once again defeat Charles, and so would previous victim Rex Layne, in a fight that was somehow scored with 7 even rounds. Charles was clearly passed his prime at this point, but he did manage to gather wins over the #7 rated Cesar Brion, #8 rated Tommy Harrison, Jimmy Bivins and Rex Layne once more. He would then lose to both the #1 rated Heavyweight and #1 Light Heavyweight, Nino Valdes and the excellent Harold Johnson. He then managed to knock out both the #10 rated Colley Wallace and #9 rated Bob Satterfield, prior to losing to The Champion, Rocky Marciano.

Let's get back to what I said about Charles never being the same afer Baroudi. Prior to his rematch with Marciano, both he and Marciano were visited by a noted psychiatrist during training camp. And this is what he had to say about both Charles and Marciano.

''Marciano has presence of mind. That is a most important thing- a most decisive factor in the ring. Absence of mind is most devastating to a pugilist. Marciano has the ability to concentrate immediately on the crisis. He is not calculable. His concentration is intense. Unlike Ezzard Charles, Marciano has no inhibitions. Charles is the dreamer type.

'' Charles is a dreamer. In his dreams, he is a mighty, invincible fighter, who sweeps all before him in a reckless, savage destructive fashion. In the ring, however, he loses the spontaneity he has in his dreams. It was almost a miracle, that Charles had gotten as far as he had in the ring. Can a miracle happen again ? Yes. If Charles can wipe out his inhibitions in a frenzy- for just thirty seconds- if he is as spontaneous as he is in his dreams, he might knock out Marciano or anyone else. He would be irresistable. He would be like a tiger fighting for his mate. If the dream man can loose the tiger from within him, then Marciano had better watch out. There are several mental blocks, however, that have held back the tiger. Charles is an intelligent, cultured, well mannered, sensitive person. He intuitively resents that part of his primitiveness which he loathes at times in other fighters. Because of this conflict, Charles is neither a primitive slugger nor is he a classic Boxer. He is part puncher and part Boxer.

And there you have it. Charles had all the ability in the world to beat Marciano, but the Baroudi incident changed him. If Baroudi hadn't died, maybe the legend of Charles could have grown and Marciano's would had fallen. But that was not to be the case, this version of Charles would not beat Rocky. But he did come close to stopping him in the second fight due to the cut. Charles would then beat the #9 rated Charley Nokus, and would go 1-1 with the #4 rated John Holman, prior to losing twice against #3 rated Tommy Jackson. It's most likely that his Lou Gehrig's disease had already been affecting him. He would then lose to the #9 rated Young Jack Johnson and 8 of his next and last 12 fights.

Definitely a top 5 ATG for me.