Ezzard Charles

• Born: July 7, 1921
• Birthplace: Lawrenceville, Georgia
• Died: May 28, 1975
• Place of death: Chicago, Illinois

Boxer

Best remembered for taking the world heavyweight title from popular champion Joe Louis and almost beating Rocky Marciano, Charles was also a middleweight champion and was considered by some to be one of the best light heavyweight boxers of all time.

Early Life

Ezzard Mack Charles (EH-zahrd) was born in Lawrenceville, Georgia, to Alberta and William Charles. After his parents divorced, Ezzard Charles moved to Cincinnati at the age of nine to live with his grandmother and his great-grandmother, a former slave. Deeply religious women, they inculcated faith and humility in Charles. A visit to Cincinnati by Cuban boxer Kid Chocolate led Charles to consider boxing as career. Admiring the boxer’s sharp suits, the eleven-year-old Charles realized that fighting would be a good way to earn money. He began boxing when he was fourteen. Managed by Bert Williams, Charles continued attending high school and also worked in a clothing store owned by Max Elkus, who later replaced Williams as his manager.

Life’s Work

Charles won a number of amateur welterweight and middleweight titles and, with an impressive record of forty-two winning bouts, turned professional in March, 1940, while still at high school. Over the next two years he lost only two fights and beat the feared Charley Burley twice. Charles was an acknowledged middleweight contender, but he was unable to secure a title fight against champion Tony Zale. He moved up to the light heavyweight division in late 1942 and fought three top Cleveland heavyweights, including Joey Maxim, who later overcame Sugar Ray Robinson.

Charles was drafted in 1943. He had only two professional fights while he was in the Army. In January, 1943, an unfit Charles lost on decision to Jimmy Bivins, who became heavyweight champion when Joe Louis enlisted. In March, 1943, Charles was knocked out by the light heavyweight Lloyd Marshall.

Charles returned to the ring in 1946 and won three bouts with legendary fighter Archie Moore as well as three rematches with Bivins. Having defeated every light heavyweight, Charles was now a serious contender for the title. However, at a bout in Chicago in February, 1948, Charles knocked out a young boxer named Sam Baroudi, who died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Distraught, Charles almost quit fighting, but Baroudi’s family urged him to continue, and he donated the purses from this and his next fight to them. Moving up a division, in June, 1949, Charles defeated Jersey Joe Walcott to take the National Boxing Association world heavyweight title, left vacant when Louis retired. In the same year Charles married Gladys Gartrell. The couple had two daughters and a son.

On September 27, 1950, at Yankee Stadium, Charles challenged Louis, who had been compelled to return to the ring by financial problems. Charles won on points in fifteen rounds to become the undisputed heavyweight world champion. However, beating an idol did not endear him to the public. Charles defended his title four times, but in July, 1951, he was knocked out in a bout against Walcott.

Charles attempted to regain the world heavyweight title three times, the first boxer to do so. He lost a rematch against Walcott in June, 1952, but in June, 1954, at Yankee Stadium, the boxing world witnessed one of the great fights of all time when Charles took on Rocky Marciano. Although he lost on points, Charles was the only boxer ever to last fifteen rounds with Marciano, then in his prime. In the September rematch, the fight was almost stopped when Charles split Marciano’s nose but continued until Charles was knocked out in the eighth round.

In December, 1956, Charles announced his retirement from the ring. Money problems forced him to return in 1958, but he finally retired in September, 1959. He tried his hand at several jobs, including professional wrestling. In 1967, Charles moved to Chicago, where he worked for the city’s Youth Welfare Commission. Like many African American boxers of the time, Charles enjoyed jazz and had played bass at Birdland. He also starred in a film, Mau Mau Drums (1960), though it was never released.

Several years after his retirement, Charles was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Boxing probably helped delay the progression of the disease, but his fatigue and lack of coordination became evident in the latter years of his career. When Charles became paralyzed from the waist down, the boxing community organized an event to pay for his medical bills. Muhammad Ali and Rocky Marciano attended the benefit, which raised around fifteen thousand dollars. Charles died in the hospital at age fifty-three, and he was buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

Significance

Overcoming poverty and racism in his childhood, Charles succeeded in becoming one of the top boxers of his time. Out of 122 bouts, Charles won 96, 58 by knockout, and was nicknamed the Cincinnati Cobra for the way his body coiled before striking. In a time of larger-than-life boxing stars, Charles was an introvert who never got angry in the ring. This did not make for exciting fights and led him to be underrated, despite his obvious talents. Charles was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1970 and the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.

Bibliography

Grace, Kevin, and Joshua Grace. Cincinnati Boxing. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia, 2006. This well-researched book discusses Charles’s life and times and assesses his boxing career.

Heinz, W. C. “The Strange Career of Ezzard Charles.” The Saturday Evening Post 227 (June 7, 1952). A substantial article, with information about Charles’s background and speculations as to why he was an underrated fighter.

Sugar, Bert Randolph. Boxing’s Greatest Fighters. Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2006. This book by a boxing reporter provides a brief biography and detailed coverage of Charles’s boxing career.