Did Ezzard Charles lose something after the Baroudi tragedy?

He became more focused on winning but not hurting the opponent. It happens to mostly everyone who goes through that.

 

I have argued it and surprisingly to me, Mcvey argued that it was not so. It is a fact that he thought about quitting.

In any event, in his biography, the author put forward the argument that he stopped emphasizing punching because of the move up in weight, and not because of the tragedy. I just don't see how it could not have had some permanent effect.

 

Charles was by all accounts distraught over Baroudi's death, but it doesn't seem to have shown up in his performances. His next fight just two and a half months later was a ko win over Elmer Ray - arguably the most impressive stoppage win of his heavyweight career.

According to his manager Tom Tannas, there was a more mundane reason for the change in his style:

Charles was always an aggressive fighter until he became champion, then he got cautious. Ezzard, wanting to protect the crown, was satisfied to win on points.

https://ibb.co/JxsxT86

 

Charles and S Ray Robinson Boom Boom Mancini, Max Baer, Griffith, etc. felt remorse out of the tragedy of taking someone's life in the ring, however it did not hamper the ability to survive and win in the ring it only enhanced the awareness of the dangers in the ring for themselves as well as others. The reality of being so close to death and your fist being the cause is Surreal but self-survival prevails when the bell rings and that is a fighter's natural instincts.

 

After the Baroudi fight Charles had 36 fights before challenging Marciano, he won 31 of them,17 by stoppage one ,[Elmer Ray ko9rd] less than 3 months after the Baroudi fight.
"Hammer-fisted Ezzard Charles racked up a knockout over Elmer Ray today and called for a shot at light heavyweight champion Gus Lesnevich. The fast moving Charles banged the aging Ray right out of heavyweight boxing with a left hook at 2:43 of the 9th stanza." -United Press."

His only losses during this period were to Walcott x2,Valdes,Layne, [debateable] ,and Johnson.
I see nothing in his resume to indicate the tragedy affected his performances.
Nor do I see any indications that deaths of opponents affected,Minter,McGuigan or Griffith.

 

Ezzard,maybe a few fights after the match holds his punches when eh could just press the finish button,but with that stoppage power and that encouragement from the parents of Sam Baroudi,he probably just left that more cautious trait,but didn't pull his fists as much, especially since he was said to hypnotize himself before fights.