Great fight! Charlie Powell vs Norkus

Interesting. I was following Charley Powell back in late 50's, early 60's from afar.

Charles Elvin Powell (April 4, 1932 – September 1, 2014) was an American professional football player.

Powell was born in Texas. He and his younger brother Art Powell, a NFL wide receiver for the New York Titans and Oakland Raiders in the 1960s, grew up in the Logan Heights area of San Diego, California.

Powell played professional baseball and football as well as boxed. His greatest success was as an NFL player and a boxer, even boxing against Muhammad Ali.

High school
Charlie starred in football, basketball, track and baseball at San Diego High School. In 1950, as a 6'-3", 230-pound defensive end and offensive end, with tremendous power and speed, he was named the California high school football player of the year. In track, he ran 100 yards in 9.6 seconds and threw the shot put 57 feet 9¼ inches. In basketball, he was a second-team all-league center. As a high school baseball player, he hit balls out of San Diego Balboa Stadium. He turned a down an offer of a tryout by the Harlem Globetrotters.

Baseball career
After high school, Charlie was recruited by Notre Dame and UCLA to play football, St. Louis Browns baseball owner Bill Veeck, who had acquired the legendary pitcher Satchel Paige from the Cleveland Indians, signed the power-hitting outfielder to a professional baseball contract. He was sent to the Stockton Ports, a Class B minor league team.

Football career
But after playing pro baseball in the summer of 1952, Charlie suddenly abandoned his pro baseball career and signed a pro football contract with the San Francisco 49ers. At 19, he became the youngest player in NFL history. In his first game, he started against the NFL champion Detroit Lions and had multiple sacks against QB Bobby Layne totaling 67 yards in losses.

Powell played five seasons in the NFL for the 49ers (1952–53 and 1955–57) and two for the Oakland Raiders (1960–61) in the AFL.

Boxing career
Powell was also a professional boxer. In March 1959, on television, he knocked out Nino Valdes of Cuba who was the number 2 ranked heavyweight fighter in the world at the time. He fought Muhammad Ali (who was then known as Cassius Clay) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh on January 24, 1963. Ali knocked out Powell in the third round, as Ali predicted before the fight. He finished his pro boxing career with a record of 25-11-3. In his career, Charlie also fought Floyd Patterson, losing to him in 6 rounds.

Retirement
Powell is a member of the Breitbard San Diego Hall of Fame. He was last known to be living in the Pasadena, California area.

Death
Powell died on September 1, 2014 at age of 82 after living with dementia for several years

 

Two mediocre 50s fighters. Norkus had a glass jaw and cut easily

Powell was very green here, only his 11th pro fight with no amateur experience. Powell became much better 4-5 years later

In fact Powell easily outpointed norkus in the rematch 4 years latee

 

Good info.....as usual.

 

Charley Powell NYTimes obit.
Lots of tidbits of info.
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/...ndout-regardless-of-the-sport-dies-at-82.html

 

"The thing about glass jaws"

Is that Norkus was stopped 6 times in 52 fights.

Powell was stopped 8 times in 39 fights.

Which one had the glass jaw?

And glass jaw or not, Powell stood up to Nino Valdes' punches and KO'd him.

It is fair to say both men were second-tier contenders at best.

Just on Powell, it just shows that being "big and athletic" certainly doesn't prove you are that good of a fighter. He simply looks clumsy and not all that coordinated in the footage I have seen of him, and obviously very vulnerable to a good punch.

 

Valdes showed up in by far the worst shape of his career vs Powell. I mean it was Kirk Johnson harpoon whale esq.

Valdes weighed in an astonishingly obese 244lb vs Powell.

Valdes in his prior weights weighed 217, 214, 211, 209, 206 and his fighgs afterward 211, 217, 210

Based on the fight reports I read...Valdes gassed badly. Wonder why?

At age 34, he was definitely starting to hit the cliff in 1959.

 

Third Teir contenders at best. Especially Norkus, he was no world beater

Powell at his best was better than norkus for sure

 

Norkus may not have been a fringe contender at best, but he certainly was in a lot of good fights, it seems. His first fight with Nardico is considered something of an underground classic, and this fight with Powell wasn't far behind.

Powell did pretty well for himself in boxing given that he came to it late and was playing pro football at an exceedingly high level simultaneously for at least part of his career.

 

He was. But he hit a cliff in 1959. Happens in your mid 30s. Valdes would still hit very hard but his reflexes were eroding.

What about Valdes weighing 244 for Powell while every other fight in his career he was under 220? Talk about being out of shape

Valdes Still had enough left in the tank to slice up Brian London a year later and stop him. Valdes never had any problems stopping those weak hitting Euros

 

Charles weighed 191lb vs Nino. A 5lb difference than the Charles who fought Marciano.

Valdes weighed in 244lb vs Powell, a 30-35lb difference than his recent and subsequent fights of weighing around 210-215lb

Clearly, your example is a **** poor one.

And you have no evidence Charles experimented with a strength coaching telling him to put on “extra” weight for Valdes. Classic choke making up information