Ezzard Charles ability to take a punch

Early career mainly, it came from. He was down 7 times vs Bivins, 8 times next fight vs Marshall. A few various other times too, but later on the trick seemed very obviously tougher.

 

If a fighter was down a lot of times in his career it usualy means that he got up a lot of times as oposed to bein g counted out.

A bit like how, winning the title five times means loosing it four times.

 

Did people not see this?

Ezzard fought the Following Punchers at heavyweight

6'2 218lb Joe Louis- 15 Rounds without being floored # 1 on Ring Magazine all time punchers list

6'2 195lb Elmer Ray- 19 Rounds without being Floored. Ray rated 44 in Ring Magazine all time punchers list

6'4 220lb Johnny Haynes- 9 rounds without being floored. Haynes had a career 86% knockout Percentage

6'3 211lb Nino Valdez- 10 rounds without being floored. Valdez # 1 contender and career 75% knockout percentage.

5'10 185lb Bob Satterfield- Took Satterfields best in 2 short rounds without being floored. Satterfield rated # 58 in Ring Magazine top 100 punchers of all time list

6'3 200lb Colley Wallace- 10 rounds without being floored # 10 rated Heavyweight contender with a powerful right hand

5'11 185lb Rocky Marciano- 15 rounds without being floored. Rated # 14 on Ring Magazine greatest punchers of all time list.

6'0 195lb Jersey Joe Walcott- 36 rounds without being floored. Rated # 66 on Ring Magazine greatest punchers of all time list.

6'1 200lb Rex Layne- 31 rounds without being floored. Layne had a very high knockout percentage in his prime years... "He is a very hard hitter"- Ring magazine 1951 on Layne's power

5'11 175lb Archie Moore- 28 rounds without being floored. Rated # 4 on Ring Magazine all time punchers list. All time knockout King.




Ok folks, now do the math. Thats 175 rounds vs World Class Heavyweight Punchers without being floored. Unbelievable!!


Did he accomplish this great feat primarily because of great defensive skills? I think not. You better have a good set of whiskers too! Charles 1946-1954 certainly had that.

 

I remember reading when I was younger that Charles was in the Army at the time of the Jimmy Bivins and Lloyd Marshall fights in 1943 and was not in training. He suffered half of his knockdowns in those two fights. It should be noted that he reversed those losses after the war. Another gob of knockdowns came late in his career when he was slipping badly. At his peak, Charles was in with a lot of punchers as SuzieQ pointed out and survived them.