Ezzard Charles vs Bernard Hopkins and James Toney

What weight?

 

You know what, this thread just got me thinking, charles is a beast h2h at middleweight!

For one charles has the best victory at the weightclass out of these 3. Altho hopkins beating tito and toney beating nunn are two awesome great victories.

I've never considered ranking charles as a middleweight before but it could be worth considering.

 

He doesn't have enough weight to his resume at Middleweight. Although hes lightyears ahead of Kelly Pavlik for instance.

I don't think hes a beast H2H, I think he can beat some greats pretty well but others whoop him bad.

 

I'd take him over both I reckon, defo over Toney. He'd probably get a few big shots off Toney and then adapt and outbox him with that jab and footwork

 

Yeah I do agree the mw history is immense, truly immense. Do you think he's even top 25 at the weight?

H2h at mw I don't see many people being a clear favourite over him, but there would be a few.

At lhw I think i'd favour him over anyone in history.

At hw he isn't so great h2h.

 

top 25 is about right IMO

Agree with it all really

 

Charles is top 15 middleweight for me. Roy Jones is frequently rated about as high and has no reason to rank above Charles as i see it. Two wins over likely top 10 Burley, a win over HOF'er Yarosz, nice wins over Christofordi 2x and Basora. His only loss at 160 are to Tunero and Overlin, who he also has a draw against. Honestly, his top wins are better or at least on par with several top 10 middleweights, even if he doesn't have the depth they have.

Anyway, id expect him to beat both these guys at the weight, though they're certain to give him problems, Hopkins more so I think. He beats them both rather easily at 175.

 

:good

 

Yeah Lufcrazy. Charles was somewhat of a phenomenon at 160 for such a young fighter mixing in a fine division

 

It's crazy to think that to a casual fan charles is just considered as a small heavyweight who beat a shot louis and got knocked out by jersey joe and rocky.

In reality his best work was done from 160-175 imo even tho he never won the belt there.

Aside from the one forgetable year charles had (i think he lost both fights and got dropped a lot of times) he was, as you say, a phenom in then days.

 

AT 170 CHARLES TOO MUCH FOR BOTH THOSE GUYS, HIS PUNCHES WERE CLEAN AND PURE AND i BELIEVE HIS LEG SPEED ESPECIALLY AGAINST THE SHUFFLING HOPKINS WOULD PREVENT HIM ENGAGING I TRENCH WARFARE.

 

yep, indeed,

 

Charles easy over Toney, little togher with Ex. But still all Charles. It`s easy to forget just how good he was... He gave Marciano hell, at heavy ! And he was no damn heavyweight... Fast, sharp slashing puncher, fantastic condition. He`d out work, out hustle and out punch the both of them. Maybe even stop them, he was a different fighter after Baroudi... He didn`t go all out for th KO. Prime Charles, bad news for both...

 

I think Charles would stop both of those guys, he beat better men