Sam Langford by a mile. First, I want to say that I take nothing away from these ATGs. Both Langford and Charles are among the best ever in the sport of boxing and cemented as Top 5 Boxers Pound for Pound. Regarding Ezzard Charles, he defeated many Light-Heavyweight ATGs from Maxim, Marshall, Bivins, and best of all Light-Heavyweight Titan Archie Moore. Nobody knocks out Archie Moore twice at his best weight class except Ezzard Charles. I also forgot to mention that Charles had a brief career at Middleweight where he defeated vastly underrated Middleweight King Charles Burley. Then Charles moved up to heavyweight to defeat old but still game Joe Louis and managed to get a win from the dangerous, slick Jersey Joe Walcott. Even though Charles was not as dominant in heavyweight compared to that of his light heavyweight career, Ezzard Charles is still mentioned among the best heavyweights ever, probably like Top 15 to 20. For Langford, damn!! Where do I even start? The man defeated ATGs from lightweight to heavyweight and still proceeded to knock dude out! Who does that? This guy is THE best weight climber in the entire history of boxing. Don't get me started with weight climbers like Pacquiao. Yes, he is an all-time great but in every weight class he jumped up, he didn't defeat every premier fighter in each weight class he jumped up (like defeating David Diaz at lightweight and I don't think anyone would ever say that Diaz was a great Hall of Fame lightweight) but still managed to be a 5 weight lineal champ, which is impressive and cements his legend. For Langford, every time he jumped up a weight class, he defeats or gave a great argument to win against Hall of Famers ONLY!! At lightweight, Langford outclassed one of the greatest lightweights ever, Joe Gans. Then at welterweight, Langford drew with the formidable weight climber Barbados Joe Walcott in which many believed Langford did enough to win. Next was middleweight and Langford won a decision against the power-punching monster Stanley Ketchel. Also, I want to add that at age 40, Langford went back to middleweight to knock out future middleweight Hall of Famer Tiger Flowers and he did it pretty much BLIND! Then, Langford went up to light heavyweight and knocked out the tough Philadephia Jack'O'Brien. Eventually, Langford reached the highest weight class of heavyweight where he went to war against legendary black standouts like Sam McVey, Joe Jeanette, and Harry Wills (great black fighters that Dempsey ducked). Noticed that every single guy that I mentioned that Langford fought across weight classes are Hall of Famers! If anyone says that Pacquiao is the greatest weight climber of all time, I honestly would laugh as Langford is the true #1 PFP Weight Climber. So long story short, to answer this question, Langford is greater than Charles in terms of accomplishments.
@Sooncreate3 why do you think Langford deserved to beat Walcott? From what I remember the draw seemed regarded as fair from the reports of it
Ugh, some accounts vary from each other. But battling to a draw in a tough fight against one of the greatest welterweights of all time is still impressive.
