Style wise, who would you compare Ezzard Charles to?

[warp1432]

I don't know much about Charles besides he has a fantastic resume and is regarded as the best light heavyweight of all time despite the fact he never won a title there (which is mind boggling to me). I've seen him briefly in a Jersey Joe Walcott highlight video, but not well enough to know his style.

Who would you say he resembles style wise? Video is appreciated too.

[cotto16]

James toney got alot of his moves such as the shoulder role of charles, Bernard hopkins also studies alot of charles fight footage as does mayweather

[TheGreatA]

I'm not sure if I'd compare him to anybody.


Short highlights from 4:05 onwards.

[Southpaw16BF]

Ezzard Charles was one hell of fighter, and when the greatest fighters of all time get talked about he always come's in my mind. No dout

.Best 175 of all time, but was denied his shot.

.Helds wins over Charley Burley x2, Archie Moore x3,Joey Maxim x4, Jimmy Bivins x4, Jersey Joe Walcott x2, Lloyd Marshall x2, Joe Louis, Rex Layne x2, and Gus Lesnevich.

. Made 8 defences of heavyweight crown, in which he gave Joe Louis his second loss. Very underrated reign, due to always being in Louis shadow.

.Beat Virtually every 175'er he faced.

.Gave a prime Rocky Marciano all he could handle twice , and was on he was to stopping the Rock the second time , due to a deep cut on nose, before being ko'd in the 8th.

.Never avoided anyone.

In his personal life, always a very quiet character, who wound't say much, after winning the heavyweight title was asked feel any different he replied ''Nope''.

.After killing Sam Baroudi, was never quite the same and some say lost hunger and killer instict, and became more of a boxer due to it.

Amateur Achievements
Reportedly had an amateur record of 42-0
1939 Diamond Belt Middleweight Champion
1939 Chicago Golden Gloves Middleweight Champion
1939 National AAU Middleweight Champion

Also

.Was named by Ring Magazine fighter of the year 1949 and 1950
.Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
.Named By Ring Magazine Greatest LHW of all time in 2002.

Here are some of his stats i found also
Name: Ezzard Charles
Alias: The Cincinnati Cobra
Birth Name: Ezzard Mack Charles
Nationality: US American
Birthplace: Lawrenceville, GA, USA
Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Born: 1921-07-07
Died: 1975-05-27
Age at Death: 53
Stance: Orthodox
Height: 6′ 0″
Reach: 185
Managers: Charles Dyer, Herb Williams, Jake Mintz, and Tom Tannas (1953)
Trainer: Ray Arcel, Bill Gore

[Southpaw16BF]

Here's a of few videos of him

Ezzard Charles Greatest Hits
Uploaded by chinoir509

Ezzard Charles Vs Joe Louis 1951
Uploaded by chinoir509

[LondonRingRules]

Originally Posted by TheManchine

I'm not sure if I'd compare him to anybody.
.

** True greats like Dempsey, Louis, Ali, Robinson may have styles that can be generally described, but they have a special way they go about their business that is mental and difficult to label other than great.

There is precious little footage of Charles of his LH days, and as far as I know zip for his middleweight days. He always reminded me of Michael Nunn, Nunn lacking the punch of course. Nunn had the talent and frame to move into LH with great success, but he got into the nose candy and is barely talked of anymore.

Popkins and Toney may have studied him like Tyson studied Jack Johnson, but stylistically they are and never were anything like him.

Young Donald Curry had the footwork and fundamentals down along with the big power that Charles had, but in the welt, not the middle division. Damn shame he got too big for his britches because of titles and publicity that Charles never was graced with early in life. The closest sylistic example of Charles that I can think of in any of his welt fights up to Honey where he was dead at the weight and from which never recovers fully.

What is the oldest footage of Charles available to the public? Could Charles/Burley and Moore be squirreled away somewheres with Greb, Attell, and some public appearances of Peter Jackson in his fine street attire?

[Southpaw16BF]

Originally Posted by LondonRingRules

** True greats like Dempsey, Louis, Ali, Robinson may have styles that can be generally described, but they have a special way they go about their business that is mental and difficult to label other than great.

There is precious little footage of Charles of his LH days, and as far as I know zip for his middleweight days. He always reminded me of Michael Nunn, Nunn lacking the punch of course. Nunn had the talent and frame to move into LH with great success, but he got into the nose candy and is barely talked of anymore.

Popkins and Toney may have studied him like Tyson studied Jack Johnson, but stylistically they are and never were anything like him.

Young Donald Curry had the footwork and fundamentals down along with the big power that Charles had, but in the welt, not the middle division. Damn shame he got too big for his britches because of titles and publicity that Charles never was graced with early in life. The closest sylistic example of Charles that I can think of in any of his welt fights up to Honey where he was dead at the weight and from which never recovers fully.

What is the oldest footage of Charles available to the public? Could Charles/Burley and Moore be squirreled away somewheres with Greb, Attell, and some public appearances of Peter Jackson in his fine street attire?

Hmmm, to be onest i see more similariteis to Hopkins fighting like Charles than i do Nunn.

Charles was 6′ 0″ orthodox fighter with a 73“ /185cm reach, were Nunn was 6′ 3″ southpaw, with a really long reach.

And if you look at tapes of both, Nunn fights alot more at range, due to his height, and at times always seemed to make the mistake of having his head up in the air, (especailly against James Toney), were Charles always seemed to have a little crouch, and would use his right hand as a shield and just drop the left a little bit low, which alot of the old school fighters did etc Ray Robinson, Joe Louis.

So i think if you look at some of Hopkins recent fights i think he compare's to Charles alot more than the 6''3 southpaw Nunn does.

[LondonRingRules]

Originally Posted by Southpaw16bf

So i think if you look at some of Hopkins recent fights i think he compare's to Charles alot more than the 6''3 southpaw Nunn does.

** Such nonsense. Charles never hung around midrange for an entire fight against a monster like Pavlik.

The Wink fight he's forced to change style because of Wink's unexpected aggressiveness that forced an actual fight out of the old man. Charles prefers the outside clearly in every fight I've seen and sets up as much as able with basic boxing and movement, not running to the ropes for a nap and then wrapping up middles for a little love. He has a long lean body type like Nunn, and my friend, boxers refine their moves and styles in front of mirror images. Same style southpaw or orthodox.

Charles carried a bigger punch, thus having more options, and being gravely ignored, makes a bold move into the heavy foray, doing the final refinement of inside skillset to handle big boys when they get rough with him. Popkins never had any confidence in his game to move up until he was forced out of the division by Taylor, and even then has only challenged a single career LH almost as old as him. Ain't comparable as Popkins was very aggressive early in his title run. Maybe Charles could've been, but against guys like Moore and Burley, and many others, you couldn't just wade in like Popkins was doing against journeymen types contenders.

Nunn also moves up from his natural middle beginnings with arguably a HOF career, 58-4 with only one KO loss and two splits across the pond in the other guy's home, an indication of the excellence of Charles say if he chose to ease out his career with easier fights in the LH division as he developed into a coke dealer.

I used Donald Curry as an example of what a younger Charles might have looked like, a top p4p classic boxer/puncher fighting from the orthodox stance that you seem to need. The difference listed in reach between Nunn and Charles is only 7cm per box rec, not even 3" and indicative of the extra 2" of stature Nunn has over lanky Charles.

[Mr Man]

Difficult to say really. You'll see a bit of Charles in a lot of fighters such as Toney and Hopkins.

One thing that I'm 100% sure of is that he has one of the greatest resumes of all time. He is an easy pick in my personal list of top ten all-time fighters.

[Miburo]

Toney and Hopkins both have a bit of him in them. I would say that while Toney is stylistically more similar to Walcott, the angle of his right hand is closer to the way Charles threw it.