Ezzard Charles

2013-05-29T20:10:42Z

Evndrbsn: /* Professional Career */

[[File:Ezzard Charles vintage photo 10x8 jpg.jpg|left|thumb|350px]]
[[file:Ibhof-logo.jpg|thumb|right|Class of 1990 Modern Category Hall of Fame bio:[http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/modern/charles.html click]]]
[[File:WBHF Logo.jpg|right|thumb|200px|World Boxing Hall of Fame Inductee]]
<boxer>009012</boxer>
'''Managers''': [[Charles Dyer]], Bert Williams, [[Jake Mintz]], and [[Tom Tannas]] (1953) 
'''Trainers''': [[Ray Arcel]], Bill Gore, Chickie Ferrara, Charley Goldman 
'''[[:Category:Ezzard Charles Gallery|Ezzard Charles Gallery]]

== Amateur Achievements ==
*Reportedly had an amateur record of 42-0.
*1937 [[Diamond Belt]] Welterweight Champion.
*1937 Ohio [[AAU]] Welterweight Champion.
*1938 Diamond Belt Welterweight Champion.
*1938 Ohio AAU Welterweight Champion.
*1939 Diamond Belt Middleweight Champion.
*1939 [[Chicago Golden Gloves|Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions]] Middleweight Champion, defeating [[Pete Hantz]] in the final.
*1939 National AAU Middleweight Champion, defeating [[Leroy Bolden]] in the final.

{{start box}}
{{succession box |
before= [[Cornelius Young]] |
title= [[Chicago Golden Gloves Champions|Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions]] Middleweight Champion |
years= 1939 |
after= [[Joey Maxim]]}}
{{succession box |
before = [[Bradley Lewis]] |
title = [[United States Amateur Middleweight Champions|National AAU Middleweight Champion]]|
years = 1939 |
after = [[Joey Maxim]]}}
{{end box}}

== Record Issues ==
The previously published 1940 record for Charles is inaccurate, evidently because his first manager, Bert Williams of Cincinnati, padded it with fights that did not occur. Checks of two newspapers (''The Cincinnati Enquirer'' and ''The Ohio State Journal'' of Columbus, Ohio) by historian [[Herbert Goldman]], using the facilities of the Library of Congress and a Cincinnati newspaper by Jack Kincaid, found the following fights untraceable:

* Eddie Fowler, Portsmouth, Ohio, May 10, 1940.
* Pat Wright, Middletown, Ohio, May 17, 1940.
* John Reeves, Columbus, Ohio, June 12, 1940.

Other untraceable professional fights:

*Al Woodridge, Portsmouth, Ohio, February 26, 1940. This was reported as an upcoming amateur bout in the February 24, 1940 edition of ''The Portsmouth Times'', and the bout is listed as an amateur contest by The Cyber Boxing Zone.
*Jimmy Brown, Reading, Pennsylvania, March 20, 1940. This bout was not reported in ''The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' (search by Luckett Davis).
*Bradley Lewis, San Francisco, California, June 24, 1940. This was actually an amateur bout that occurred on April 13, 1939.

Even in 1940 and 1941, Charles's record still listed these untraceable fights, although the details given were varied and conflicted from one telling to another. It seems best to omit all of these fights from Charles's record, at least until they can be verified.

==Professional Career==
*Defeated [[Joe Louis]], [[Teddy Yarosz]], [[Charley Burley]] twice, [[Lloyd Marshall]] twice, [[Oakland Billy Smith]] twice, [[Jersey Joe Walcott]] twice, [[Jimmy Bivins]] three times, [[Archie Moore]] three times, [[Jimmy Bivins]] four times, and [[Joey Maxim]] five times.
*Put his boxing career on hold while serving in the U.S. Army in 1944 and 1945.
*Was ranked as the #1 light heavyweight contender by [[The Ring Magazine|''The Ring]] in [[The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: 1947|1947]].
*Knocked out [[Sam Baroudi]] on February 20, 1948. Baroudi died from injuries sustained in the fight.
*Defeated Jersey Joe Walcott by a fifteen-round unanimous decision on June 22, 1949 to win the vacant [[National Boxing Association]] World Heavyweight Championship.
*Defeated Joe Louis by a fifteen-round unanimous decision on September 27, 1950 to gain universal recognition as [[World Heavyweight Champion]].
*Made eight successful title defenses.
*Lost the title to Jersey Joe Walcott by a seventh-round knockout on July 18, 1951.
*Attempted to regain the World Heavyweight Championship three times, losing once to Walcott in 1952 and twice to [[Rocky Marciano]] in 1954.
*From 1955 until his retirement in 1959, Charles fought twenty-three times and only won ten of those bouts.
*Charles died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, on May 28, 1975. Charles said he first noticed the ailment in 1955. "After a guy hit me, I didn't seem to be able to get away," he recalled. "I didn't have the same coordination."

==Awards & Recognition==
*''The Ring'' named Charles [[Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year|Fighter of the Year]] for 1949 and 1950.
*Inducted into ''The Ring's'' [[Ring Magazine's Boxing Hall of Fame|Boxing Hall of Fame]] in 1970.
*Inducted into the [[World Boxing Hall of Fame]] in 1983
*Inducted into the [[International Boxing Hall of Fame]] in 1990.
*''The Ring'' named Charles the 11th [[Division-By-Division - The Greatest Fighters of All-Time|greatest heavyweight of all-time]] in 1998.
*''The Ring'' named Charles the [[Division-By-Division - The Greatest Fighters of All-Time|greatest light heavyweight of all-time]] in 2002.
*''The Ring'' ranked Charles 13th on the list [[The 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years]] in 2002.

{{start box}}
{{Succession box|
before=[[Joe Louis]] Retired|
title=[[World Heavyweight Champion]] [[NBA World Heavyweight Champion]]|
after=[[Jersey Joe Walcott]]|
years=1949 Jun 22 – 1951 Jul 18}}
{{Succession box|
before=[[Joe Louis]] Retired|
title=[[NYSAC World Heavyweight Champion]]|
after=[[Jersey Joe Walcott]]|
years=1950 Sep 27 – 1951 Jul 18}}
{{end box}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Ezzard}}
[[Category:World Heavyweight Champions]]
[[Category:American World Champions]]
[[Category:United States Amateur Champions]]
[[Category:Chicago Golden Gloves Champions]]
[[Category:Diamond Belt Champions]]
[[Category:Cincinnati Golden Gloves Champions]]
[[Category:World War II Veterans]]
[[Category:IBHOF Members]]
[[Category:World Boxing Hall of Fame Members]]
[[Category:African American Boxers]]
[[Category:The Ring Magazine Champions]]

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Ezzard Charles