Is Ezzard Charles a top ten Heavyweight?

I think you can make a pretty good case he was top 10. 8 successful title fight wins is nothing to sneeze at.

He wasnt a spectacular performer but he was an effective technician. Charles got the job done. Not exciting but winning is the name of the game.

Also he gave a prime Rocky Marciano great difficulty in two epic fights after he was past his best.

I vote yes.

 

His record is pretty damn impressive at Heavy, Walcott, Louis, Layne, Maxim, Bivins, Satterfield, Lesnevich and some good contenders like Oma, Valentino but for me at least it's more a case of who is he gonna push out to get into the top 10. He was also didn't have much longevity and lost to quite a few no names. Still top 15 is amazing.

 

charles has deserved god-like status at light heavy but isnt top 10 at heavy.

 

Charles was the best of a great group of fighters who at 180lb plus were better than all the 200 pounders of their era. In the heavyweight division fans get carried away with size but with smaller gloves the speed and ring craft of the 180- 190 pounders proved to be lethal. 220 pounders did not get a look in. These fighters could make Lightheavyweight if the wanted to but it was a non existent division in real terms, the LH title was a mere spring board within the heavyweight division for a crack at the "over all" heavyweight title. a lightheavyweight was still a type of heavyweight.

By our standards Charles, like floyd patterson was a light heavyweight for a very short time. both were the best lightheavyweights in the world by the time they started to beat heavyweights. What troubles me is why is it that only floyd is considered a heavyweight once he began beating heavyweights and charles is not? Both started at 168 lb but neither were shaving until they were 176lb. Best scalps for both were past 180lb.

 

but how long was he a light heavyweight? He grew through the division whilst beating heavyweight contenders and went onto better things. His career did not get going until after the war. As a grown man Ezz fought more heavyweights than anything else. He was a heavyweight.

 

He beat light-heavy Moore three times, and light-heavy Lloyd Marshall twice as a light-heavyweight ... maybe one of his wins over Bivins counts as light-heavyweight too, (but mostly Bivins was well over 180 pounds at this time).

I think his record at light-heavy might get a little over-stated, relative to his wins against heavyweights which are very under-stated.

 

at 178 lb that makes him a light heavy plus 3lb.had he been able to get a shot at either middle or light heavy he'd have won either

 

More often than not he ranks in the 11-15 bracket for me.

 

Choklab, don't start on this "charles was only lhw for 18 months" bull**** again.

I'd say charles is a lock for top 20.

I'm struggling to think of a reason to put him below liston though so he could be top 15 at a push for me.

 

charles was in high school as a middleweight and was a kid when marshall ended his career as 169lb youth at the outbreak of war. ezz put some good wins together pre-war but was a tall kid yet to fill out. No way he was going to win middleweight title at that time.

champ at Lightheavy? maybe if ezz wanted it but he was already looking past that title when he beat heavyweight bivins the first time.

 

when was fact ever bull****? check his weight records.

p.s I agree with your rating of charles at HW by the way.:good

 

46-49 baby. Moore-Bivins.

How anyone can call a fight, where two guys weigh less than 180, a hw fight is beyond me.

 

no title at stake:good

 

Could not agree more.

Charles grew through the division whilst beating heavyweight contenders and went onto better things. His career did not get going until after the war. As a grown man Ezz fought more heavyweights than anything else. He was a heavyweight.
　
In the below article charles is said to be 223lb at age 42 and no mention of being in poor health. No sign of wasting away at that point in his life then?
　

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Greatest lhw resume in history if you ask me.

One of the greatest hw resume's also.