Ezzard Charles

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by werety, Oct 12, 2007.


  1. werety

    werety Active Member Full Member

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    I see him mentioned a lot on the forums but i really don't know much about him. Could anyone fill me in on why he's considered the greatest lhw of all time. Who did he beat? What was his style like? And most importantly, if I wanted to see how skilled he was at lhw what are some of his best prime performances I should watch?
     
  2. dmt

    dmt Hardest hitting hw ever Full Member

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    you should see his fight with Lloyd Marshall at light-heavy


    Charles is considered so great because despite being a natural light-heavy, he competed against the best heavyweights and held his own. He had several wins vs hall of famers- 3 vs Archie Moore who would go on to dominate the light-heavy division as champ for 10 years, 2 vs Charley Burley who was an avoided fighter that no one wanted to fight including (possibly) Robinson and Cerdan, 4 vs Jimmy Bivins; one of the best light-heavies ever, r5 vs Joey Maxim a light-heavy champ, one vs an aged but still solid Louis, and two vs Walcott. He gave Rocky Marciano, the only unbeaten champ, his toughest fights. Plus he has two wins over Marshall who may make it as a hall of famer this year
     
  3. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    The think about Charles is that he was good at everything. He could outbox master boxers like Moore and Burley and outslug heavyweights like Walcott.
     
  4. DaveTheWave

    DaveTheWave Man Extraordinaire Full Member

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    Ezzard whipped Moore 3 times, as stated previously, but it wasn't close until the final fight when Moore hurt Charles, but Ezzard came back from the brink of a KO to hurt Moore and KO him. I have alot of clips of him, and the full Pat Valentino fight. He did everything well.
     
  5. werety

    werety Active Member Full Member

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    Okay thanks a lot i'll try to watch that fight just need to find it. Those are some really impressive wins at lhw though.
     
  6. Joe E

    Joe E Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Watch the Bob Satterfield fight too.Watch the Left Hook from Hell.
     
  7. TIGEREDGE

    TIGEREDGE Boxing Addict Full Member

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    he really is a double weight world champion. **** the bull**** stats.

    unlike ray leonard he gave rematches to his great opposition. so he must be rates above him
     
  8. TIGEREDGE

    TIGEREDGE Boxing Addict Full Member

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    my top 4 p4p

    robinson
    duran
    armstrong
    charles
     
  9. Minotauro

    Minotauro Boxing Addict Full Member

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    A highlight of Charles
    [yt]fY4Woi4LYjI[/yt]

    And here is his third with Layne
    [yt]k4Hp6HgDPbk[/yt]
     
  10. red cobra

    red cobra Loyal Member Full Member

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    Ezzard Charles was indeed a great fighter. I know that Louis was basically done as a fighter at the time, but I love to see the film of Charles-Loius. Charles was at his peak then, and did a masterful job of outboxing Louis. I think he went into decline from that point on, however, although he pulled it together pretty good to put up such a great fight against Marciano the first time.
     
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  11. Marciano Frazier

    Marciano Frazier Well-Known Member Full Member

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    Although he was never actually allowed to fight for the light heavyweight title, Charles beat three men who held it at one time or another. His overall record against former or future world light heavyweight champions, in fact, stands at 10-1! He also beat numerous other dangerous and highly avoided black fighters all the way from middleweight and heavyweight, guys who, like Charles himself for much of his career, were denied title shots, but who were legitimate elite fighters in their divisions, such as Charley Burley, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall, Elmer "Violent" Ray, etc. And Charles' heavyweight accomplishments are very impressive in themselves as well- he pretty well ran through a very solid group of contenders, soundly outpointed an old-but-still-very-capable Joe Louis, split a four-fight series with the brilliant Jersey Joe Walcott, and, while his career was starting to slide, he gave Rocky Marciano hell for 15 rounds. Charles' resume on the whole is one of the greatest in the history of the sport. Unfortunately, about the prime performances, though, there is very little surviving footage of Charles in his peak light heavyweight days.
     
  12. mcvey

    mcvey VIP Member Full Member

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    I reckon youve capsuled that pretty well
     
  13. dmt

    dmt Hardest hitting hw ever Full Member

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    :good
     
  14. Rumsfeld

    Rumsfeld Moderator Staff Member

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    I was actually watching parts of Charles-Walcott II & III last night on ESPN Classics.

    The man knew how to fight.