Charles was a true sweet scientist

The Defensive Skills of Ezzard Charles

‘Classic’ Stance

             It’s impossible to talk about Charles defence without acknowledging his ‘old-school’ stance. Charles stood very side on to present less of a target for his opponent to hit. He had a slight lean to the right from the waist so as to take the head out off of the center, or the immediate line of attack.

Charles made it hard for his opponent to hit him, by making sure he does not present his his whole body and head as a target. Charles gave his opponent much less to hit, by standing with his lead shoulder closest to his opponent and his rear shoulder on the other side.

The lean

By lowering his head, and bending slightly to the right, he increases the distance that an opponent’s punch has to travel, making it more difficult for an opponent to mount an attack, especially with the fear of being countered. It also meant Charles had more time to see punches coming.

This style is also good in quickening the time it takes to generate power for right hands. This is because the weight is already on the right side and is ready to be shifted forward, by pushing off of the back leg. This is  why Charles was able to throw such quick right hand counters.

Both Charles & the legendary Joe Louis, who were both good at countering with the right, adopted what’s known as the ‘old school stance’. Notice in the video, how with each feint or threat, their preferred reaction is to lean over to the right. This takes them further from the jab, and prepared the right hand counter for take off.

When fighting against Charles who would be doing this, to close the distance, it meant you likely had to risk stepping forward into the danger zone, which was no issue for Charles who was great at countering. Therefore, for many opponents, they would be very cautious about overextending and getting caught on the counter.

Ezzard Charles gave Rocky Marciano all he could handle

Range

      Charles understood that maintaining range was vital in order to have the actions of your opponent under your control. When his opponents started their offence, they were often forced to second guess their decision as Charles was quick to react and increase the distance that your punch had to travel.

Again, with the threat of being counterpunched, his opponents were forced to second guess their decisions, as Charles was quick to react and increase the distance that your punch had to travel. In the video, Jersey Joe Walcott starts to throw a right hand counter. If you’ve seen the ‘Jersey Joe Walcott – Skills’ video, then you already know that this was Jersey Joe’s favourite punch. Yet even when the situation seems to be in his favour (with Charles walking forward, potentially into the right counter), he still has to abandon his plans to throw it. By bending slight forward to take the head off centre, sticking his lead hand out, and leaning back, the target for Walcott is now gone.

Proactive Defence

Ezzard limited the amount of cheap counterpunching opportunities for his opponent, by displaying great defensive precaution when throwing punches. He done this by not leaving his head in the same place after throwing a punch.

In the video, you can see Charles is met with a jab by Bivins to the face, that causes him to bend backwards. This makes it difficult to see a low right to thew body coming. However, Ezzard shows impressive proactivity by parrying the occupying-jab and preemptively blocking the body attack with his arm. Ezzard was aware of the opening he was leaving his opponent, and put in defensive measures.

Bivins was attempting to use a move frequently executed by Charles himself: Show the lead hand to the head, to set up a right to the body. But Charles didn’t allow one of his own moves to be used on him!

Charles fought the great Jersey Joe Walcott 4 times

Parry

                       What’s impressive about Ezzard’s parry, was that he would parry punches with both hands, rather than just one. This made it harder to catch Ezzard out with punches around his parry. However when he did establish a predictable pattern with parries, he would use it to his advantage.

After getting his opponent used to his parries, and encouraging his opponent into a predictable to pattern, he would then quickly change the rhythm and launch a quick attack with his opponent not expecting it.

Smothering

                       Ezzard fought from middleweight all the way up to heavyweight. Needless to say, he was frequently the smaller man. This meant Ezzard had to prevent his opponents from working on the inside, where the weight advantage was most likely going to be most influential.

Ezzard never allowed his opponents to work on the inside. His inside trickery included pinning the opponents glove to their chest, or smothering his opponents his own punches to take away space for them to punch.

When stepping back, and his opponent naturally stepping forward, Charles would then meet them half way by stepping back inside and taking away their room to punch. This was useful when he was under pressure, or needed to readjust.

Glove Trapping

Another form of smothering, on a micro-level-, Ezzard would press on his opponent’s glove to stop them from being able to punch on the inside. In the video, you can see Ezzard prevents Joe Louis from punching on the inside, by pinning and trapping his glove, just before Louis is about to start his offence on the inside. At one point, you can see Louis doing all he can to free his hand, but there’s little he can do, and the opportunities float away.

Ezzard’s defence provided as a platform for offence

Adapting

Lastly, Ezzard Charles, being the sweet scientist that he was, had the ability to adapt on the fly, showing his ability to overcome new challenges. Earlier in the second fight against Marshall.  Ezzard was continuosly hit with lethal left hooks that eventually dropped him. Marshall would back Charles up aggressively, and Charles would move straight back and bend forward at the waist. This caused him to be off balance and move directly into left hooks. Consequently, Charles was dropped by a left hook in the early rounds of the fight.

To counteract this, Charles circled to his left whilst using his jab, to keep checking his opponent when he threatened to come forward, and to move away from the left hook. Marshall’s left hook became gradually less effective as the bout went on. This also allowed him to time his own hooks when his opponent opened up. Eventually, Charles caught Marshall with his own left hook, and knocked his opponent out a few rounds later.

Charles had the heart to go with his skills

Final Note

Ezzard is a perfect example of blending between both defence and offence seamlessly. From subtle tricks such as trapping his opponent’s glove, to more explicit methods such as parrying, it can’t be denied that Charles was defensively diverse.

Ezzard Charles was a true boxing genius. Whether you favour defence more, or offence, it’s difficult to not to appreciate the fight footage of ‘The Cincinnati Cobra’, no matter how grainy or dark the visuals, for he gave us the best of both worlds.

Comment down below on any other skills that Charles exhibited in his career. Let’s talk boxing!