How the hell is Ezzard Charles so underrated?

No you dare not!! Bad Seamus!

 

Three wins over someone like Moore would get you a long way even if that's all you had, but he beat every other top LHW and HW until Walcott finally caught up with him with that fantastic left. His run from 1944 to 1951, effectively his prime, might just be the best in boxing history.

So why should that not get him in the top 10, top 5 discussion?

 

-No. 1 all time light-heavyweight
-Top 12 all-time heavyweight
-Top 10 P4P all time

Does that firm it up?

 

1940-09-22 The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, OH) (page 38)
Cincinnati may develop the foremost contender for Joe Louis.

Ezzard Charles, the Woodward High School lad who fights Billy Hoods, Southern light heavyweight champion, Monday night at Music Hall Arena, may be the one who some day may upset the present heavyweight king.

Charles, who is but 18 years old, is already six feet tall and still growing. When he returned from his vacation this summer he weighed 175 pounds, most of it being bone and muscle. For his fight Monday night, which will be his first ten-round go, he will weigh 165.

The local lad is so good that he leaped into national prominence within a very short time. After but two years of fighting he captured the city amateur welterweight title and then leaped into the middleweight division where he gained the national and international crown. Many Chicago and San Francisco managers attempted to sign him as a professional, but he stayed with Burt Williams, the man who started him as an amateur.

Monday night's venture will be the first venture of Promoter Bill Powers and his associate, Charley Dyer, of Elmwood. They plan many innovations such as beautiful usherettes, music, and streamlined fighting. All newsboys will be admitted by showing their badge and handing a can of vegetables to the doorman. This canned goods will be given to the Red Cross.

 

If you're champion after Joe Louis and before Rocky Marciano, you are going to be underrated by the casual fan. And since he didn't have any particular larger than life qualities like Louis and Marciano, he didn't ever catch on with the general public the way they did.

 

Yeah, I remember the first I heard of him was in a little write up in The Ring. The article highlighted “Ezzard Charles Syndrome” and how, essentially, the public viewed him as more of a place holder heavyweight champ. A good fighter, sure...but certainly not in the same vein as the great Joe Louis.

That must’ve been printed in the early 2000’s, when I just started following the sport...so not all that long ago. With time and perspective, and I imagine sites a lot like this one...people (at least real boxing guys) seem to have come to appreciate him for what he was. A bonafide top 10 or 15 all time great and maybe the best Light Heavy of them all.

On a side note, anyone know if there’s any truth to the story that him and Conn mixed it up overseas during the war? That’s a dream fight if ever there was one.