Charles P4P GOAT?

A bit of nitpicking about your points:
-I don't see how Charles "nearly beat" Marciano in the first fight. He never had Rocky seriously hurt or in danger of a stoppage and lost a unanimous decision by a comfortable margin. Charles nearly beating Marciano in there is more dramatization than history.

-Charles only had three wins over Moore.

-the listing of Charles' resume you give is too top heavy division-wise. Gus Lesnevich, Melio Bettina, and Teddy Yarosz surely deserve mentions ahead of the likes of Bob Satterfield and John Holman.

All that said, I don't consider Charles the all-time pound-for-pound #1, but I don't believe there is any good, objective way of discrediting that notion. He defeated some of the greatest fighters of all time all the way from middleweight to heavyweight and was a #1 contender or champion in all three divisions. Charles is a legend and has a legitimate case for outranking absolutely anyone on a pound-for-pound scale.

 

Ezzard Charles had some impressive credentials as heavyweight champ, and they are all the more impressive when you consider that the man was basically a natural lightheavy. Much mention is made of how Charles was frequently put on the deck, but that was in his later years, and at heavyweight. Name any lightheavyweight who would have been impervious to heavyweight punches at ANY stage of their career. I am most respectful of the abilities of Ezzard Charles and would put him at #4 p4p.

 

That is irrelevant and flawed logic, and you know it. It wasn't considered a weak era for that time period, regardless of what your thoughts are regarding the overall skill of the fighters then. They had some of the greatest HW's of the early eras when Greb was fighting, with guys like Dempsey, Tunney, Wills, etc.

:huh Greb was never 185 pounds, bottom line, he was a MW fighting at HW against much bigger men.

You're forgetting that Greb was smaller than Tunney by a decent margin, whereas Moore and Charles were the same size.

 

Agreed.