Now I really like this fight, and I just sat down and watched it again. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56fBd7nfmUY[/ame] Marshall had obviously won the first fight in 8 rounds flooring Charles 8 times. I'm really focussing on Ezzard Charles here, and how good a fighter he is. Here is my thoughts on it: Round 1: Charles looks quite tentative here as he hovers around on the back foot almost looking like he has a lack of confidence. When Marshall gets close he ties him up quickly and effectively, basically stamping out any in-fighting early. He position's himself well inside with his head and shoulders close to his opponent, to eliminate room for his opponents, but with his hips further back so as to create punching room for himself. In the only effective work in close, Charles lands a lovely right uppercut. As Marshall advances with his hands almost comically low, Charles picks some nice left hook counter punches, which he uses to move away with. He gets dropped when Marshall rushes forward and throws a combination of which a left hook to the body lands, I think Charles may have been slightly off balance moving backwards and the punch may just have knocked him off balance. Round 2: Charles comes out with confidence here. Opening up more, with lovely long left hooks that Marshall does not seem to like. This aggression is stopping Marshall getting anything going, and backing him up. Charles also looks the much stronger man, and is showing it by pushing Marshall back. There is a lovely sequence in this round as Marshall bursts forward with an attack near the ropes. Charles, with his back facing the ropes, steps back slips an oncoming left hook, then pivots away from the ropes. Really lovely, well schooled stuff. And later on in the round Charles bob's under a left hook, takes a step to his right and lands his own right hand counter. Lovely stuff again. Round 3: Here Charles is now looking for Marshall to step forward, as he comes in low, and launch his right uppercut, effectively walking Marshall onto it. And once he gets the uppercut in, he starts to work the long left to the body which lands well. Round 4: Charles gets back to his left jab here, he controls the range masterfully, taking advantage of his reach and taking a step back when need be. The pace begins to slow here, as both men work their jabs and look for openings. Charles, fully living up to his 'Cobra' mantle, throws the jab then bursts over with a straight right, which badly rocks Marshall. Round 5: Building on his success in round 4 with the 1-2, he starts using it in this round. And when Marshall does get into, his preferred, mid-range, Charles landed some lovely crisp right hand counters. And then begins to get back to the jab. He really does a lovely move in this round, as Marshall begins to slip underneath the Charles left jab, Charles throws the jab but turns it into a left uppercut and catches Marshall bending onto it, now that is pure class. This sets up a quick two fisted attack that stuns Marshall and pins him to the ropes. Round 6: Charles again starts with the jab and 1-2. In the finishing move of the bout, he pulls backwards as Marshall advances then slides forward with a left uppercut to the solar plexus, almost splitting Marshall in half. Again class. ----------------------------------------- Charles really impressed me in this fight. In my eyes, he dominated a fighter renowned for his class and craftiness, with his own craft and craftiness. It was a competitive fight but Charles was always ahead in my eyes. I think, because of the Heavyweight footage, we tend to think of Charles more of a classy boxer, rather than the more aggressive version here. But he still has all that technical skills he shows at Heavyweight, he sort of reminds me of a more technical Ray Robinson here, thinking slightly more to set up his attacks, rather than using his jab and faster hands. Still he shows some real classy innovative moves, like that jab-left uppercut and obviously has a very sound basing in all aspects of the game. Lovely fighter IMO. thoughts?
Yep, this is amongst the best filmed fights for me. Charles left a certain impression with his heavyweight displays. He sweeps that away here. Charles is primed, and looks unstoppable. Nice post.
Its one of my top top favourites. He so much more fired up, after that first round he has that 'You'll never beat me' attitude that only the top top fighters have, like Robinson, Duran etc.., the thought that they can walk right through opposition, well nearly. 'Unstoppable' as you say. Charles is much more calculating though with it, sure he is furious at times but it is very much controlled.
Great fight with good inside work from both men. I am a big fan of Charles and I only thought Johnson really outsmarted him from what I've seen. I will rewatch this in a few months. Ezzard was a killer in his light heavyweight days but still had solid fundamentals as shown in this fight. I wish there was much more of him as a light heavyweight(especially the Moore fights) but I'll make-do with what footage there is on Ezzard. He's one of my top favorite fighters.
Yeah, both men, extreme speed with properly controlled technique, there aren't that many like it at the weight.
One thing I've got to say is that ring is THE SMALLEST RING IN THE HISTORY OF BOXING THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN???? What's going on with that It's absolutely tiny - really tiny?? Is that some derogatory battle royal thing being forced on them there or something?? If it is it's obscene - the ref crosses the ring in about 5 steps and then has to turn back to go the other way. I reckon it's a 12 feet square max. The fact that they can fight in such a confined area says a lot for the brilliance of both of them - the margin for error is virtually nothing in so tiny a ring but they do better than most fighters do in 24ft rings
would be really interested to get another person's take in this - it was the first thing that struck me about this fight the very first time I saw it - does anyone else agree that it is an insanely small ring? :huh
Can anybody shed any light on my query above - does it stump anyone else about the size of that ring?? There's barely enough room for the ref in there with them?? Does anyone know what was going on with that??
