Why did Ezzard Charles not fight for Lightheavy Title?

Though Charles was very good, Joey Maxim was right in there too.

Seems Charles should have had a shot before moving to heavyweight.

 

..charles didn't fight for the heavy title because he couldn't get a shot at it. gus lesnevich was champion and ezzard's managers....the elkus family in cincinnati and local promoters the becker brothers offered lesnevich's people $50,000 (an enormous sum then) to defend against charles, but they turned it down. they thought the title was worth more than that and flat said they knew ezzard would take it from him. instead, gus went to england to defend against freddie mills and lost the title on a decision.

the becker brothers then offered lesnevich $50,000 to fight joey maxim for the "american" light heavy title....which gus' party agreed to...and the match drew just a under $50,000... not even paying lesnevich's gaurantee .so the beckers lost big.

when gus lost the title to mills ezzard's camp knew it would be just more chasing the title and being denied to ezzard moved up to challenge as a heavyweight.

 

ezzard featured in the middleweight ring ratings for one year only in 1941 when zale was champion. By the next year two wins over joey maxim put him in the lightheavyweight rankings even though he was only 168lb.

But Charles had a disasterous year in 1943 and was knocked down 16 times in the only 2 fights he had, he was then absent from the LH ratings until 1946 and was always rated behind billy fox that year who got a shot ahead of him.

1947 was the only year Charles was number one contender to lesnevich- he could have got a shot there but the champion selected his number 4 chalenger instead. Of the 12 times he fought in 1947 only 4 of the opponents Ezzard faced scaled within the lightheavyweight limit when he fought them - the rest all being heavyweights. I dont think it scandelous that a part time lightheavy didnt face the champion the one year he was #1 contender.

Back then a lightheavy was regarded as a small heavyweight. If a small heavyweight was good enough he was big enough and the real heavyweight title was the goal.

 

.......billy fox as the number one contender was a joke. he was a totally mob controlled fighter and his knock out record was was a phony...including the one over jake lamotta which was documented as such,. lesnevich beat him in ten rounds in their first title fight and kayoed him in one in their second.

the fact remains that lesnevich's camp turned down 50 g's because they knew he couldn't beat ezzard. gus went all the way to england to defend against freddie mills, whom he had already beaten......and this is the answer as to why charles never fought for the light heavy title.

 

But thats not gus's fault, he took the number one contender. LaMotta may have thrown his fight with fox but it dosnt mean fox was a bad fighter. If he was that bad he would not have lasted into the 10th round against lesnevich who was good enough to beat mauriello in the same round joe louis did. Despite the suspicions those fight fixing stories did not come out until the 1960's.

freddie mills was a bigger payday than Charles ever could have been. mills was the european version of the world champion so the first lesnevich-mills fight was a unification. Those fights in post war London were huge. Im not saying charles would not have beaten both gus and freddie on the same night, I just understand why it did not hapen. there was bigger fish to fry when charles had one foot in another division.

Oficialy Charles was only number one contender for only one year, no longer than floyd patterson was for all of 1955 so its not that outstanding a contender. Harold johnson was #1 contender for about 3 consecutive years.

 

...i am not denigrating lesnevich. charles would have been #i contender if it hadn't been for the farce of fox having that role. he didn't do badly in the first lesnevich fight...he took a battering before it was stopped. this gave the lesnevich people (joe vella and crew) the chance to make a rematch with fox and the one round kayo.

the facts are...gus's managers flat turned down the 50 grand for a charles match because they KNEW charles would win. they felt gus could beat mills a..(and some reporters thought gus had the edge, but mills scored a knockdown which clinched the decision, whbich was probably fair.

i am not going to write a book length reply to the thread question...why didn't charles fight for the lightheavy title because i have already answered it.

 

because that 50 grand was chiken feed compared to what a mills return in London would make. The mills fight drew 47,000 fans in London -not only is that more people than charles ever drew for a fight, thats also a larger attendance than all but one of Marciano's title fights. It made 300grand and according to jack solomons gus got about half of that.

Mills v Lesnevich was the biggest gate the lightheavyweights drew up till that time. The first fight was a thriller and gus had his nose broken and was behind on points before he knocked out freddie. in 1975 Ali took Frazier in manilla over #1 ken norton because it was a bigger fight, it hapens.

The answer is gus lesnavich already fought his #1 contender twice the previous year and chose to fight his #4 contender for more money than the new #1 contender could draw. Charles was a lightheavyweight for two years he was a #1 contender for that title no longer than floyd patterson was.

 

...i've answered why ezzard never fought for the light heavy title so i don't see any reason for my adding anything.

 

Just read an article today today citing that Ezzard Charles was offered two title shots. The first he turned down as he was not getting paid enough, the second because he was unhappy with the rematch clause (meaning that Lesnevich would earn more money even if he lost the first fight). Although this is the first time I have heard this, Ezzard Charles was quoted directly of explaining why he didn't take them, so despite me not being able to find another source, I tend to beleive this.

Sheds new light on the situation, and Lesnevich goes slightly up in my estimation.

 

"..charles didn't fight for the heavy title because he couldn't get a shot at it. gus lesnevich was champion and ezzard's managers....the elkus family in cincinnati and local promoters the becker brothers offered lesnevich's people $50,000 (an enormous sum then) to defend against charles, but they turned it down. they thought the title was worth more than that and flat said they knew ezzard would take it from him. instead, gus went to england to defend against freddie mills and lost the title on a decision.

the becker brothers then offered lesnevich $50,000 to fight joey maxim for the "american" light heavy title....which gus' party agreed to...and the match drew just a under $50,000... not even paying lesnevich's gaurantee .so the beckers lost big.

when gus lost the title to mills ezzard's camp knew it would be just more chasing the title and being denied to ezzard moved up to challenge as a heavyweight. "


So you state that Lesnevich was ducking Charles because he turned down a $50,000 purse to defend his LHW title yet admit that he got paid $50,000 for a lesser fight against Maxim (with no world championship at stake) that didnt even make enough to pay Lesnevich's purse? Sounds like you just blew your own conspiracy.

You criticise his decision to face Fox (his #1) based on Fox's mob ties and fixed fights but nobody knew this at the time. Had Lesnevich said no he would have looked like he was ducking a dangerous KO artist and certainly would have been stripped for failure to defend (especially if Fox was being moved by mobsters who had powerful ties to the boxing establishment).

 

So whats the upshot here? Who's right?

ALB's account seems plausible enough until i read GPA's account which , again, sounds plausible.

Somebody has to be right:huh

 

The accepted version is that Lesnevich ignored Charles and wanted nothing to do with him, although new (unsubstantiated evidence as of yet) evidence I found (with thanks to Clay Moyle) speaks on the contrary saying Charles was offered two fights with Lesnevich.

I really wonder when they were, my best guess is that the first one is when the Mose Brown vs Gus Lesnevich title bout fell through in Pittsburgh.

 

yes

 

Would be much appreciated.

By the time of Louis' abdication, I get the feeling that Charles was being groomed as the successor, even Louis himself acknowledged Charles as the best Heavyweight around at that point (excluding himself obviously), and that is anyone was going to de-throne him it would be Charles.

I never felt Lesnevich was held in much high regard at all.

 

Didnt joe nominate Walcott and Charles to fight for his title?