Look, let us not get carried away. Both Dick Tiger and Rubin Carter were terrific fighters. But, both of them were natural MWs. At MW, Tiger was definitely an all time top 10 great and maybe you could make a case for Carter to be in the list too. Ezzard Charles was on the cusp of HW/LHW. Today, I guess, he would be a natural Cruiserweight. Many think that he was the greatest LHW ever, though he never won the LHW world title. Even at HW, he would be somewhere near the top 15. Good as they were, I see no way Tiger or Carter could have beaten Charles. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Charles would have stopped both of them.
Prime for prime Charles stops both too big, powerful and far too good of a boxer. A young 160 Charles would be interesting he still easily beats Carter as Rubin wasn't really that special. However the Tiger fight would be close Tiger was very strong at 160 and had a great chin I think Ezzard would get a close decision but its no guarantee Tiger was a beast at middleweight.
At middle or just above Charles was beating guys like, Jose Basora Booker Beckwith Kid Tunero Anton Cristoforidis Teddy Yarosz Charley Burley Joey Maxim and drawing with Ken Overlin, Charles beats Carter and Tiger too,imo. Liked your post.
True, but at the same time, he was getting beat up by guys like Lloyd Marshall and Jimmy Bivins and getting dropped multiple times by both of them. And in general, he seemed to get dropped/hurt more often at this stage in his career than in his peak as a light-heavy. Without having seen Charles fight as a middleweight, it's tough to call. He obviously had a lot of talent/skill even at this stage of his career, if he was beating the guys that he did. But if there was any question at all about Charles' chin and/or defense at this stage of his career, that opens something of a window for Tiger to exploit.
