Ezzard Mack Charles was born on July 7, 1921 in Lawrenceville, Georgia, United States. He was the only son of William and Alberta Charles. His father worked as a janitor. When his parents divorced, Charles relocated with his mother to Cincinnati, which became his adopted hometown.
He completed two years of high school before dropping out to make the ring his career.
Charles's boxing career began at age sixteen. Lightning hand speed and deadly accuracy quickly earned him the nicknames the "Cincinnati cobra" and "the hawk. " A sparkling amateur career resulted in a 42-0 mark, with two national Amateur Atheletic Union middleweight titles in four years. Charles never lost an amateur tournament, capturing two Golden Glove titles and two Cincinnati city titles, and knocking out Canada's amateur champion in two rounds. Charles turned professional in 1940. He won twenty straight fights over the first eighteen months of the decade before dropping a ten-round decision to ex-middleweight champion Ken Overlin. His early career was interrupted by World War II, when Charles enlisted in the U. S. Army, serving from 1943 to 1945. Charles was arguably the best light-heavyweight ever. He defeated future light-heavyweight champions Archie Moore (three times), Joey Maxim (twice), and Anton Christoforidis (once). But when Charles became the premier light-heavyweight contender, champion Gus Lesnevich ducked a title bout with him. Unfazed, Charles moved up in weight class and eventually became the heavyweight champion, holding the title from 1949 through 1951. As a light-heavyweight, Charles was known as a knockout artist--a style of fighting that he changed after February 28, 1948, when Charles beat challenger Sam Baroudi so badly that the other fighter died; after this Charles became more of a ring technician than a power puncher. Charles was so shaken by this death that he initially considered retirement, but Baroudi's father convinced the fighter to continue. Charles returned to the ring but donated the purse from his next fight to the late boxer's family. In later years critics complained that Charles lacked the "killer instinct" needed to put fighters away, which was a particularly painful criticism for him to accept. Charles never moved very far into the heavyweight class: in ten of his thirteen title fights, he was outweighed. The six-footer generally weighed in the 180's for his bouts. The most he ever weighed for a title fight was 192 pounds; the least was 180, just five pounds above the heavyweight minimum. He routinely fought and beat men who outweighed him by as much as fifty pounds. After winning twenty-eight of twenty-nine postwar fights, Charles won the National Boxing Association heavyweight crown, a title left vacant by the retirement of Joe Louis, with a fifteen-round decision over Jersey Joe Walcott on June 22, 1949. When Louis mounted a comeback, Charles successfully defended the title on September 27, 1950. However, the victory wound up as a split decision for Charles, whose career was defined by his opponent. Charles went on to fight Walcott three more times for the title, defending his title in 1951 and losing the belt and a rematch in 1951 and 1952. Charles fought twice more to regain the heavyweight championship, but he came up short both times against the only undefeated champion in heavyweight history, Rocky Marciano. Marciano "decisioned" Charles in fifteen rounds on June 6, 1954, and knocked Charles out in the eighth round three months later. Marciano, who took on all comers in winning forty-seven straight fights, later said these were two of his toughest victories. Charles was among the busiest of heavyweight champions: only Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and Larry Holmes won more title fights; only Floyd Patterson and Jersey Joe Walcott lost more title fights. The four showdowns with Walcott make the record, which still holds, for the most heavyweight title fights to have been fought by the same two men. Charles, whose skills had clearly eroded, kept fighting until 1959. He lost thirteen of his last twenty-three fights, winding up his career with a mark of 96-25-1, with fifty-eight knockouts. Charles retired briefly in 1956, but came back within two years. His final bout was a defeat at the hands of an unknown, Alvin Green, on September 1, 1959. Twenty-one years later, an ailing Charles was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. Charles continued to live in Cincinnati. After leaving boxing, Charles fell on hard times. Two years after his retirement in 1959, Charles announced he had no money left from the $2 million in purses he had collected in the ring. "I was saving for a rainy day, and it's a flood, " said Charles. Charles returned to the ring as a professional wrestler, and later worked as a greeter at a nightclub and a coordinator of youth boxing in Chicago. But in February 1966 he was struck with Lou Gehrig's disease. His health deteriorated slowly until he was eventually bound to a wheelchair. He died in a Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago.
Charles defeated numerous Hall of Fame fighters in three different weight classes. He retired with a record of 95 wins, 25 losses and 1 draw. In 2002, Charles was ranked #13 on The Ring magazine's list of the 80 Best Fighters of the Last 80 Years. In 2006, Ezzard Charles was named the 11th greatest fighter of all time by the IBRO (International Boxing Research Organisation).
Quotes from others about the person
"Instead of being hailed as the heavyweight champion of the world, [he] became known merely as the man who beat Joe Louis, destined forever to become an antihero to one of the most popular names in all of sports, " commented boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar.
"Nobody gave any credit to Ezzard. . People just didn't want to see Louis lose. It wasn't Ezzard's fault, " observed Rocky Marciano.
He was married and had three children.
