Ezzard Charles or Muhammad Ali, who had the faster hands prime for prime?

Not sure as most of Charles' actual prime isn't filmed. From what is on film however, it's clearly Ali imo; and I've seen comparisons between Ali and Robinson's jab where Ali's was quicker. That's crazy hand speed for any weight, let alone a proper heavyweight.

P4P its 100% Ali and in actual terms it's probably Ali as well.

 

At heavyweight it would be Ali. Charles was still pretty damn quick.

 

I really couldn’t say for sure. Both had extremely fast hands.

 

Hmmm....not sure, but Charles speed is underrated.

 

I think it's evident that Ali is clearly faster than Charles on tape.

Charles is a much more technically correct puncher but speed, I don't think it's close enough to be genuinely debatable. As @George Crowcroft said earlier, Ali's jab is measured as faster than SRR's and then when you factor moving around and a longer reach/distance to target, the speed is speeding expeditiously.

 

Relative to peak Ali:

1. On a P4P basis vs any version of Charles = Ali is my guess

2. In absolute terms vs the Charles most have seen clear footage of from his HW contests = Ali

3. In absolute terms vs a peak LHW Charles = uncertain because of the lack of quality footage, but my guess is Charles. Here he is vs Lloyd Marshall, the quality isn't great, but you get a feel his hands were faster than when he was up at HW -

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Shiiiit

Somehow I misread the title as Chambers vs Ali and snickered, voted, then realized my mistake.

 

Ezzard Charles seemed to be ahead of his time.