Fight:17108
Ezzard Charles 163 lbs beat Billy Bengal 161 lbs by UD in round 10 of 10
- Date: 1941-02-10
- Location: Music Hall Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
- Referee: Earl Butler
Charles Is Unbeaten In Fourteen Pro Bouts
by Andy Gilligan, Cincinnati Enquirer, February 11, 1941
Winner of all 14 of his professional bouts, Ezzard Charles, Cincinnati middleweight, is expected to face his stiffest assignment Monday night, February 10, when he opposes Billy Bengal of Detroit.
Charles, Woodward High School student, has won half of his professional bouts on knockouts, including his last three. These were against Charley Jerome, Young Kid Ash, and Jackie White. Of his 14 victories, Marty Simmons fared the best, for he went the entire 10 rounds.
The Cincinnatian is looked upon by veteran fight critics as a coming great, and his bout with Bengal is the first of a lenghty program Bert Williams has mapped out for his protege.
Although hardly known in local ranks, Bengal is among the ranking middleweights. He includes wins over such men as Nate Bolden, George Burnette, Eddie Carroll, and Joe Sutka. He has won 48 of 54 bouts and owns a string of 34 knockouts.
Charles Weathers One-Count Knockdown To Gain Easy Verdict Over Billy Bengal
by Andy Gilligan, Cincinnati Enquirer, February 11, 1941
Ezzard Charles made his first excursion to the canvas in professional fighting last night, dazedly dropping for a one count in the seventh round from a short, overhand right to the jaw, but the Cincinnati middleweight redoubled his fire to easily score a unanimous decision over Billy Bengal of Detroit, in a ten-rounder in Music Hall Sports Arena.
Bengal after being lanced and bloodied with larruping lefts and rights for six rounds, brought the crowd of 1,500 to its feet by flooring his foe with the first punch of the round. It was the lone knockdown.
Referee Earl Butler, confusedly holding Charles's gloves when Ezzard bounded up, momentarily checked Bengal's wild rush to "finish off" the stunner.
However, Charles, stung and hurt, did not need the inadvertant assist. He pursued the Detroiter and pounded with angry lefts to the midriff and looping rights to the mush.
"Ezzard the Wizard" continued his fulisades in the eighth and tenth, almost jarring the visitor into submission in an all-out finale to win his sixteenth straight professional bout and to capture all the rounds except the seventh.
Up to Bengal's "one punch" seventh round, Charles took the offensive continually, spearing his foe's face into a smear of claret with whipping rights and reddening Bengal's body with left thrusts.
The 23-year-old "veteran" Bengal, whose real name is William Mazgal, "rode" the majority of Ezzard's walloping, pedaling the foursquare of the ring and making his schoolboy opponent miss a large percentage of shots.
Charles, who declared "this was my toughest fight" and Bert Williams, his manager, expressed willingness to give Bengal a return tiff. Bengal and his pilot, Mel Richards, said they "would like to come back."