Ezzard Charles vs Freddie Beshore

Ezzard Charles retained the National Boxing Association heavyweight championship by stopping Freddie Beshore in the fourteenth round at Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York, on August 15, 1950. Referee Barney Felix ended the scheduled 15-round contest at 2 minutes 53 seconds because of the dangerous swelling of Beshore’s right ear. There had been no knockdowns. Charles weighed 183 pounds, and Beshore weighed 185 pounds. At the finish, Felix had the champion ahead by 12 rounds to two, judge Anse Carroll by 12 to one and judge Leo Stachowiak by nine to three. The official figures confirmed that Beshore’s resistance had been stubborn but seldom effective.

The match had been delayed for nearly six months due to concerns over Charles’s health. The fighters originally signed on January 27 for a February 28 meeting, but Charles suffered a rib injury, and the contest was moved to March 29. Further examination revealed that the injury had bruised heart muscle, resulting in an indefinite postponement. After several medical examinations, Charles was finally passed fit on July 5, and the championship match was rearranged for August. Beshore, ranked ninth among the heavyweights by The Ring, entered as a durable challenger rather than a serious favourite. Charles was quoted at odds of 3-to-1 to win by knockout.

Beshore attempted to compensate for his inferiority in speed and skill by remaining close to the champion. He crowded Charles, held when the opportunity arose and sought to make the fight a physical contest at short range. Charles was unable to establish the smooth boxing which had distinguished his best performances at light-heavyweight and heavyweight. The champion nevertheless did the cleaner work, meeting Beshore with short rights and left hooks and striking repeatedly to the body when the challenger leaned forward. Beshore absorbed the punches without going down and continued to press, but his rallies were occasional and rarely sustained. Nat Fleischer later described the contest as decidedly one-sided apart from those brief efforts by the challenger.

As the rounds passed, Charles accumulated points rather than producing a decisive attack. Beshore’s awkward holding and persistent forward movement interrupted the champion’s rhythm, while Charles sometimes remained at close quarters longer than was necessary. The fighting lacked clean, extended exchanges. Beshore was badly punished inside but refused to retreat, living up to his reputation for toughness. Charles’s punches gradually marked him, and the challenger became increasingly battered and bloodied, although he remained upright and continued trying to force his way into range. Charles was well ahead on every official card and faced no danger of losing the title on points.

The chief concern during the later rounds became Beshore’s right ear. Repeated blows caused it to swell severely, and by the fourteenth it had become greatly enlarged and discoloured. United Press described the injury as resembling a large purplish bulb attached to the side of his head. Beshore still refused to yield and had not been knocked down when Felix intervened with only seven seconds remaining in the round. The referee considered the condition dangerous and stopped the contest despite the challenger’s continued willingness to fight. The crowd, dissatisfied by the absence of a conventional knockout and believing Beshore capable of completing the final round, booed both Felix and Charles. The medical appearance of the injury, however, gave the referee sound reason to act.

The public response reflected the limited interest which had surrounded the match; only 6,298 paid to attend, producing receipts of $28,666. Contemporary reports identified both figures as the lowest for a heavyweight championship contest since Jack Dempsey had won the title 31 years earlier. Charles possessed considerable skill and had beaten Jersey Joe Walcott, Gus Lesnevich and Joey Maxim, but he had not yet gained full public acceptance as Joe Louis’s successor. Beshore, though tough and willing, lacked the reputation needed to attract a large crowd or create much expectation of an upset.

Charles did not attempt to disguise his dissatisfaction afterwards. He admitted that he should have moved more and that he had not boxed well. The judgment was fair. He had controlled the contest, won nearly every round and inflicted enough damage to force a proper stoppage. Still, his work had been less fluent than expected, and he had allowed Beshore’s crude persistence to produce an untidy fight. The victory preserved his championship and cleared the way for his September meeting with the returning Joe Louis, but it did little to improve his drawing power or silence those who questioned his standing. Against Beshore, Charles had been thoroughly superior without being impressive, while the challenger’s principal achievement was to remain on his feet through almost 14 complete rounds of steady punishment.

I see this as one of those fights that explains why Ezzard Charles was respected by fighters more than the public loved him. He was a proper technician who had already beaten men such as Archie Moore, Charley Burley, Joey Maxim and Jersey Joe Walcott. However, heavyweight crowds still compared everyone with Joe Louis. Against Freddie Beshore, Charles won almost every round and still left the building to boos.

Beshore was tough but limited. He planned to crowd Charles, hold him close and stop him settling into that smooth rhythm. It worked in the sense that the fight became ugly, but it never made Beshore competitive. Charles landed the cleaner shots inside, worked the body and punished him steadily without ever finding the dramatic finish people wanted. There were no knockdowns, and the official cards had Charles miles ahead when referee Barney Felix stopped it at 2:53 of the fourteenth.

The stoppage was correct. Beshore’s right ear had swollen into a grotesque purple lump, and courage is no reason to let a man suffer permanent damage. The crowd booed because they wanted blood or a clean knockout, not because Beshore had any chance of winning.

Charles admitted afterwards that he had not boxed well, and I agree. He dominated without looking impressive. That was the problem with his reign: he was an excellent champion performing in the shadow of a legend. Six weeks later he beat Louis himself, but even that never completely won the public over.