Clearly past-prime. Still capable of giving a tough fight to anybody weighing around the lhw-cw limit. 1954 Ezz - Holyfield of Lewis' fights. Or possibly Tyson fights. 1948 Ezz - Holyfield of Qawi 2 fight. Or something like that.
Still a hell of a fighter pushing Marciano all the way in those fights. His legs reactions and workrate not quite once what they were, but still a hell of a fighter no doubt. Anyone talking about his 'demise' is probably unaware he deserved most the decisions he actually lost
Relatively comparable to Frazier's Manilla, but lesser by virtue that Charles was an inferior fighter at HW. A last hooray type stuff. Unfortunately it was the last Charles could muster as lasted the full distance with Marciano but basically became absolutely ruined after that fight. Being a bit of a grinder like Marciano can sometimes undermine your own oppositions value/worth. I think a case can by made about Tyson and some of his opposition in the same sense. People just look at the records and see how Charles was past it and shot afterwards so he must have not been much resistance. Walcott retired, Layne was concussed and shaky afterwards, etc.
Fighters having their last title shots tend to be in top form for their title shot and not really be in the same shape for 2 bit contender/gatekeeper fights after. They know they won't get another shot at the title, have used up all their desire and just don't have the fight in them anymore.
Not peak, but still a damn fine fighter. A kind of last hurrah situation, whereby a fantastic pro is determined to pull out one great last performance...which he did... Of course, the great irony is of course that in the rematch, when he was not the same fighter, he actually came closer to being the first man to EVER reclaim the title than he did in the first bout...
He was a fine, great fighter with balls the size of watermelons...he rock and rolled with marciano for 15 rounds..it impresses the hell out of me. The pre-Sam Boroudi version of Charles must have been almost at a SRR level of greatness.
Yep, and fighters too young can often lose the desire and confidence after getting a reality check when being built up too fast. There's argument of whether they would have ever panned out as you need toughness to overcome, but with a more confidence boosting managing it's hard to insist they wouldn't have fulfilled some of their potential.