Who Was The Hardest Puncher Marciano Met?

Ray is also a good KO.

Ray was 37 years old but had a 17 lb advantage and had not been stopped in his previous 50+ fights in over half a decade, he was the #2 HW in the wolrd. He had just went the distance twice with Walcott in close fights and once with Charles in a disputed win. Charles put him out for the count with what was described as a single left hook.

Again another instance of Charles getting a unique stoppage/KOs over a much larger contender. You can nitpick but size discrepancies such as this resulting in any type of stoppage win for the smaller man are rare. Nevermind Ray and Baksi were not only much bigger but quality rated fighters, and that it was Ray's first KO loss in 50+ fights in 5 years or Baksi's only stoppage loss of any kind in his long career.

 

How many times was Baksi stopped?

Charles' omission from the RING list.

 

More vivid descriptions of Charles vs Baksi:

"it was apparent when Goldstein' stepped in that the lumbering Pennsylvanian had been beaten into bloody helplessness."


"was staggered several times by Charles' "repeater" left hooks"


[url]http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/3206936/[/url]

 

-Baksi was 26 years old and would fight for 6 more years. The beating Charles gave him ended his run as a top contender but he would still maintain his durability to the end, going the distance with hard punching Bob Baker in his final fight.

-Baksi tried to quit because of the cut but was denied. He was stopped for being "bloody and helpless"

-No. Beating the hell out of younger man with a 32 lb weight advantage to force the only stoppage loss of his career does.

-You don't even seem to know anything about Charles, you are just repeating what others are saying.

 

How many fighters had previously staggered Baksi and beat him bloodly and helpless, forcing a ref stoppage?

Give Charles credit for stopping a guy nobody else could in over 70 fights. Baksi also won the early rounds by mauling and hammering Charles body. So some toughness from Charles to come back and do that to the bigger man.

 

I thought I was on your ignore, what happened with that?

This the typical shallow troll argument we see on these boards so much. Keywords like "washed up" "never good" and "shot" just being thrown in to deny credit without any substance to it. Charles himself had over 60+ fights at this point, it was normal for World War II era fighters.

Baksi was good, he was the top 5 RING contender going into 1948 before this fight. Long time top 10 contender, picked up some good wins, one of the more durable HWs in history, huge man for his time, and apparently a great body puncher.

Can you offer a counter article that claims Baksi wasn't rocked by Charles power? I have posted two articles that confirms this.

Deliberate misquoting as well, as I didn't say this victory alone makes Charles a great puncher. I just said it helps his case.

 

I could understand the need to deny Charles of his Baksi stoppage if it was something like Ali/Cooper stoppage where he just slashed up the eyes of a known bleeder. But judging from the reports it sounds more like a Pac/Cotto stoppage minus the early knockdowns.

And again, given the size discrepancy and it being Baksi's only stoppage loss of any kind gives it a special appeal.

 

Baksi was not a shot fighter. He was coming off some big wins in Europe where he made over $72,000 in stadium fights just in 1946-47 alone. He was in his prime and a big deal on the world scene.

 

I don't really want to get too deeply into these controversies, but studying Baksi, he was clearly a top contender.

He was ranked in Ring Magazine's yearly rankings six times between 1943 and 1951.

He defeated 7 fighters who at one time or another were ranked in the top five heavyweight contenders in the yearly ratings.

When he fought Olle Tandberg in July, 1947, he was the 5 to 1 favorite and was expected after winning to meet Joe Louis for the title in September. But he lost that fight on a decision.

Until I began reading up on that fight, I thought Baksi just blew it, but apparently it was an extremely controversial decision, which is why Tandberg didn't get the shot at Louis. Louis would not fight until his December match with Walcott.

How controversial was it? Well, in an almost unique admission, Tandberg was quoted by UPI as saying, "I didn't believe I had won the fight. I thought I was too much on the defensive in the closing rounds."

The Charles fight was an elimination for a title shot. I think Baksi was at the peak of his career, and his record certainly supports him being a very tough opponent of the Uzcudun or Chuvalo stripe.

 

RING FEB 1948 has Baksi as #5.

This was well after Tandberg and before the Charles fight.

:good

 

I'm pretty impressed he slaughtered you and your still breathing