Ezzard Charles KO 2 Bob Satterfield 1954

He still flattened Michael Moorer who was vulnerable enough. Safe to say that even Moorer had a better chin than Satterfield.

 

GUys, there is no way the Charles that flattened Satterfield was close to his prime .. he was capable of catching an often KO'ed light heavyweight with a nice shot ... he could still be dangerous in spirts but let's get real , he was not the man he was in 49 ... he did not have the legs , the speed or the stamina ...

 

its amazing what a 28lb advantage can do against a former LH.

 

Charles's absolute prime starts in 1948, where is the evidence that he loses the legs, speed and stamina? What was the turning point?
ezzard dropped a few close decisions that could have gone either way - including his last fight with champ Walcott - fighting near exclusively against rated fighters then starts a KO rampage up the ratings again.

In 1953 Charles was THE outstanding contender, almost an uncrowned champion. His timing, legs, speed and stamina were as good as alis were in 1974 at the edge of his prime.

people disagree with me on the subject of charles's peak but if you look at ezzards record at the point of the first marciano fight he had never been beaten decisively since the war apart from that one time with walcott - who some say he may have got the decision against in their last fight. All the fights ezz lost on points between the war and meeting marciano were disputed, even the loss to valdes was close, charles nearly scored a knockout. charles came up against a greater ratio of rated HW fighters after losing the title than he had since entering the HW ratings and wining and defending the title.

 

When he startes fighting toe to toe, using less movement and losing to guys like Rex Layne and Harold Johnson and an ancient Walcott ..

 

No doubt a very good fighter and game as hell as well ... I recently rewatched the first Marciano fight ( as much as I could) and to me Charles was game but Rocky was really so much better .. It is amazing he went the distance as Rocky was just an unstoppable bull .. I don't think any Ez beats Rocky but a 49 model had more movement and could have made it a closer fight .. it addition, in the clips I've seen Rocky took his best shots without blinking .. In my mind no doubt about one thing ... for guys in his weight class ( below 200) very few have a shot against Rocky ... The more I watch I even am starting to think he takes out Dempsey ... I just see Rocky as too stromg, that his crouch would let him get inside, that he may take a better shot, at least matches his stamina and most importantly that he is the much smarter fighter ... Dempsey is more skilled, faster, bigger, better reach, maybe better two handed hitter but if they go Hagler /Hearns I see Rocky taking his head off .. Jack would have to fight an intelligent, controlled fight and I can honestly say I don't know if he was capable of that once his bell was rung ... for all the thoughts about Rocky few mention how intelligent a fighter he was .. a very cool head ..

 

Good fight. Charles was buzzed by a couple hard shots but he showed excellent resiliance and the first time Satterfield made a mistake Charles guaranteed it was his last mistake by icing him.

 

But was Elmer ray, marshall and fitzie fitzpatric who all either beat or came very close to beating a younger charles any better than layne, walcott and johnson? remember charles was 2-2 with walcott (maybe 3-1) and also won the series with layne. charles never rematched johnson otherwise he could have evened the score.

I asked for evidence of charles showing a lack of stamina, loss of timing and legs before marciano and there is none.

 

I have studdied that film also and the conclusion I make is johnson was on another level to valentino. quite easy to look fast against him. The question is was charles any less effective? Its swings and roundabouts.

here is a post by "old fogey" from last year that I subscribe to:

"Charles wasn't all that much more dominant in the late forties than he was in the 1951 to 1954 post-title, pre-Marciano period. In both he had three close decisions. The 1947 fights with Moore and Ray, and the 1949 fight with Maxim were disputed. So were the 1952 fights with Walcott and Layne, and the 1953 fight with Johnson. The big difference is that Charles won 2 of 3 of his late 1940's disputed decisions, getting the nods over Moore and Maxim. He lost all three of his early 1950's disputed decisions, even though the press thought he deserved the fights with Walcott and Layne, and the film shows an extremely close fight with Johnson. One can certainly argue that Walcott, Layne, and Johnson were the equals of, or more than the equals of, Moore, Ray, and Maxim".

 

I don't think there's any kind of case for Moore or Maxim to have beaten Charles. He went 3-0 and 5-0 in their respective series and the best either could manage against Charles was a draw on one card.

The newspapers scored Charles's fight against Elmer Ray in favour of him. This was not the case with Charles's losses to Johnson and Valdes.

 

What I love about Charles is how incredibly calm he is under fire. Watch from 6:05 of the video on the first page. Cold, clinically he's slipping and parrying shots until he puts Satterfield to sleep with one of the most aesthetically pleasing executed combinations I've ever seen. Beautiful stuff. Satterfield was a LHW Mayorga - KO or be KO'd. Even the best professionals can be intimidated by that (Mayorga upset a few opponents that he wasn't supposed to be sharing the ring with). Not Charles though. No wonder he's the only man to go 15 with Rocky Marciano. Can't do that without being completely comfortable in the ring, even under heavy fire.

 

I admire Floyd and feel he actually became a better fighter after his Liston losses and he was forced to fight better guys ... I don't see any D'Amato style fighter other than Tyson doing too well ... Floyd would be difficult till about the fourth ... look at the shots Marciano started to rip at Charles in the fifth ( I think) or so ... some really nasty **** ... and he just kept coming ... I say Marciano by pretty brutal KO ...