BoxRec

this is a rare fight to get. and there are only 2 rounds of the fight on tape i believe . i finally got it and watched it. It happened for the vacant title in 1949.

it only showed rounds 14 and 15

my thoughts:

it was a very tactical boxing match between two master boxers in the 2 rounds i saw. i couldnt understand why the crowd booed so much. It did lack aggresion and was by no means a dempsey vs firpo but they should have appreciated this two boxing match that had two all time great ring technicians. its actually not boring watching ring technicians show u boxing at its best. it did lack some aggresion though. i noticed in the 2nd fight, they slugged it out and landed a lot more big matches. the 2nd fight was prob the best to watch because it was the most aggresive.


- I thought ezzard looked great. this fight took place in 1949 so he was just about around his peak. He was a lot more fluent on his feet and was even fighting on toes in the 14th and 15th round. charles love to fight on his toes but he didnt dance around. he simply stayed around the same place but shuffled and moved back and forth. but charles wasnt a runner. he was a ring technician who liked to stand in there and work. charles had a really nice jab in this match and he outboxed walcott in the 2 rounds i saw. he mixed up his combinations well and looked very unpredictable with his arsenal of punches. it seemed like every time walcott would go on the attack, charles would be one step ahead and would already have counterpunches ready for walcott. it forced walcott to back off and be reluctant to go be agressive and switch to defensive mode. charles fought smart, he didnt get conned into any walcotts tricks nor get confused by them.

the only big punch of the fight was at the end of the 14th round, walcott landed a sneaky right hand that nearly floored charles.

- I thought walcott looked good. he had a very powerful jab, and some of the punches he did land they hurt charles particulary one right hand which buckled charles knees and charles had to hold on to prevent from falling. walcott showed he had a great arsenal of punches that he could from all different angles and it would make him very confusing because u have to worry about getting caught with sneaky punches when hes doing his shuffle. and however he simply was not aggresive enough. he did not let his hands go. he was more content on doing his shuffle and other cute tricks rather than letting his hands go. walcott didnt realize he has a lot more power than he thinks. in the 14th, at one moment walcott throws his hands in the air and starts to do these cute shuffle tricks and the crowd starts booing. in the 15th, walcott prob knew he was behind on points, yet didnt attack charles. he just continued doing his tricks and boxing. he defintley should have been more aggresive. however some of the tricks and shuffled he did were fantastic to watch. I noticed that when walcott let his hands go, he had success vs charles. in the 2 rounds i saw, he didnt let his hands go enough.

But nonethless, a very tactical match it seemed between two master ring technicians






post fight interview:


reporter asked "ezzard how u feel"


ezzard responded very mellow and humble " i feel nice thanx, i feel alright" nothing enthusiastic about it, it was just anothers day of work for ezzard. classic ezzard demeanor right there, hes a hard guy to figure out.


reporter asked "did walcott hurt u at any time"


ezzard "well no i mean he threw a couple nice left hooks, ya hes a real hes a real nice fighter"



reporter asked "do u think u fought ur game ezzard"?

ezzard replied very mellow "well i really didnt plan any fight, i just fought the way i figured he would fight tonight. i would like to give thanx to my sparring parnter and the fellows who kept me along in winnig this fight tonight"


reporter "well ezzard how bout defending the title now"

ezzard responded in his usual way "well with any time with anybody to be quite honest"


reporter asked "is this the biggest thrill of ur life"


ezzard replied( not smiling but being his polite calm respectful self said in a normal tone) "well ya i havnt really experienced in a career from it, its just another fight. im just glad I won."



ezzard charles is such a nice classy guy whos hard to figure out. something will always be mysterious about ezzard charles.

the next morning after he won the title, his trainer woke him up and asked "feel any different today?" ezzard replied "nope".

i wonder how u viewed ezzards personality when u talked with him jaclem??

Thanks, I haven't seen that fight yet. Seems pretty hard to get.

I like Walcott, but I especially like Charles. As you say, he was a technician, the true definition of the word. He worked in a small circle in the centre of the ring, jabbing and potshotting effectively. He is definitely an underrated puncher, and at light heavyweight he was certainly not glass-jawed. Charles was what you'd call 'textbook'. He, like Marvelous Marvin Hagler, was everything you'd expect a real boxer to be. Professional, hard working and by-the-book.

I would say he is the best light heavyweight of all time. Archie Moore, Roy Jones, Michael Spinks and Bob Foster follow.

I could be wrong here, but I believe ESPN had it on not too long ago. It wasnt the whole fight, but it was a half an hour highlight reel of it. It showed action (some brief) from each round. Very good fight.

sockdollanger wrote:I could be wrong here, but I believe ESPN had it on not too long ago. It wasnt the whole fight, but it was a half an hour highlight reel of it. It showed action (some brief) from each round. Very good fight.

yea thats what i thought, but since then they have shown 3 episodes about charles-walcott fights and they showed the 2nd, 3rd, 4th fight but not the 1st. so i think i really didnt see it. i maybe wrong but i think those are the only 2 rounds of walcott-charles I on film but i defintley could be wrong. it seems like a rare fight to get.