Died on this day: Ezzard Charles
Now that we have a “small heavyweight” as a champ, it may be time to remember one of the best of that bunch. The great Ezzard Charles died on a day like today in 1975. Born in Lawrenceville, Georgia in 1921, Charles followed the path of many other African-Americans in those years, going from the […]
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Now that we have a “small heavyweight” as a champ, it may be time to remember one of the best of that bunch. The great Ezzard Charles died on a day like today in 1975.
Born in Lawrenceville, Georgia in 1921, Charles followed the path of many other African-Americans in those years, going from the deep south to the industrial north and relocating to Cincinnati, Ohio at a young age. He was an outstanding amateur who won the Chicago Golden Gloves and the national AAU middleweight championship after a 42-0 blitzkrieg of a campaign, and then jumped to the pros in March 1940 with a third-round knockout over Melody Johnson at 160 pounds.
The “Cincinnati Cobra” outgrew the division ten fights into his career, but continued fighting in the 160-165-pound range as a light-heavyweight for years, often being outweighed by as much as 15 pounds by his foes.
In spite of scoring some of his most extraordinary wins at 175, Charles never received the opportunity of fighting for the world title at that division, in which he is nevertheless considered perhaps the finest pure boxer ever. Wins over the likes of Archie Moore, Charley Burley, Joey Maxim, Jimmy Bivins, Lloyd Marshall and many others were not enough for him to gain access to the coveted world title clash. And after the death of Sam Baroudi in 1948 after being stopped by him, Charles hit rock bottom and considered quitting boxing altogether.
But ten fights later, and already fighting as a small heavyweight, Charles received the opportunity to face Jersey Joe Walcott for the vacant NBA heavyweight belt left behind by Joe Louis. In a beautiful display of footwork, skills, wit and power, Charles became the heavyweight champion of the world on June 22, 1949, and went on to make eight defenses of his belt against the likes of Walcott (rematch), Maxim, Gus Lesnevich, a badly faded Joe Louis, and others. Finally, in 1951, his third bout against Walcott ended with Charles losing his belt after being stopped in seven rounds.
He would lose again to Walcott in a rematch, but he continued fighting for eight more years, defeating Cesar Brion, Rex Layne and Bob Satterfield before losing back-to-back title bouts against Rocky Marciano in 1954. He would amass a 10-13 record after those two bouts in what was the last stretch of his career before calling it quits in 1959.
After his ring days were over, he worked as a wrestler and did several menial jobs before falling victim to Lou Gehrig’s Disease and becoming wheelchair-bound in the last years of his life.
Charles died in 1975. He had been named The Ring’s Fighter of the Year in 1949 and 1950, and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1990.
Diego M. Morilla has written for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.
The post Died on this day: Ezzard Charles appeared first on The Ring.