I am sure this has been done before, but its on my mind. These are two guys that I deeply love and respect, and I think they are both in their own way underrated. Charles more so, maybe because part of his career was at LHW, maybe because he followed the great Joe Louis, or maybe because he had a true fighting man's record where he has a lot of losses, especially on the back-end. Hard to say. But a guy who beat Louis, WalcottX2, MooreX2, BivinsX4, MaximX5, Lesnevich., Ray, Satterfield, Layne...that is as good as any record. Even starting to show signs of ALS, he still gave Marciano two of his tougher contests. Marciano has his segment of detractors, I think because they don't like the "0". But you can put as many asterixs as you like, it stands for itself. I am fascinated by the guy, not because he was undefeated, but because of how he developed his own way of fighting to compensate for his short reach--training the tremendous stamina, coming in low, and then letting go with two-fisted barrages that didn't end until his opponent lay wrecked on the canvas. It is notable that none of his opponents had anything but good things to say about him. So, instead of giving my opinion, I am just going to put it out there and enjoy the answers. Much appreciated.
I once read in A.J liebling's '' The Sweet Science'" that both Marciano and Charles were examined by a noted psychiatrist during training camp before their second fight, and his comments really stand out. He claimed that Marciano had the most essential characteristic of a fighter, that being presence of mind, something so important that its absence is catastrophic to a Boxer. More specifically, he said that Marciano could concentrate immediately on a situation without anything holding him back. Charles's mind on the other hand was sometimes a hindrance to him, something was holding him back. The psychiatrist called Charles '' a dreamer'", and that in his dreams, he was an unstoppable force that defeated his opponents in one fell swoop with total abandon. However when he would go in the ring, all that spontaneity would disappear and Charles's inhibitions would take control over him. He not only had to fight Marciano, but also himself at the same time. The same psychiatrist had also predicted that Marciano would beat Charles in about the 7th or 8th round, which is exactly what happened. It's impossible not to think of the Sam Baroudi incident after this, it affected Charles to the point that he almost stopped fighting, it took Baroudi's family to urge him to continue his career. Charles's ''dream self" could very well have been himself back in Light Heavyweight before he took a man's life, when he was almost considered a boogeyman at his division. Charles had all the ability in the world to beat Marciano, but he was holding himself back, it's very possible that if Charles had moved up to Heavyweight before the Baroudi incident, performed just as well in his career as he did in reality up until the Marciano fight, he could very well have beaten him. However, no such version of Charles exists, even at his Heavyweight best, he had lost that presence of mind that he once had. So if I were to pick, I would say Marciano still beats a ''Prime'' Heavyweight Charles.
Charles to me didn't have a long prime because after Baroudi, I think it messed with his head. Later on, it's not clear exactly when he developed that dreaded disease he died from. Regardless, I still go with Rocky. Many hate on him because he was undefeated and beat "old men", but he beat who was there and did everything he needed. He had rock hard determination, chin, conditioning, and a big punch. That's hard to beat over 15 rounds. Charles even earlier in his career was a bit of a plodder. I also don't think he had the chin Rocky did. In a 15 round fight Rocky KO's him sooner or later.
Prime Ezzard Charles is the guy that beats Burley and Moore 3 times. I'm missing other HOF or other ATGs here but I don't think he was amazing as a HW unlike when he was on LW.
