Joe Louis vs Ezzard Charles

Joe Louis returned to the ring after an absence of more than two years and found Ezzard Charles too quick, too accurate and too resourceful over 15 rounds at Yankee Stadium on September 27, 1950. Charles, already recognised by the National Boxing Association as heavyweight champion, gained the wider recognition that had previously been withheld from him by winning a unanimous decision before 22,357 spectators. There were no knockdowns, but Louis finished with both eyes cut and one almost closed. Referee Mark Conn awarded Charles ten rounds to five, while judges Frank Forbes and Joe Agnello scored respectively 13–2 and 12–3 for the champion.

Louis had retired in March 1949 after holding the championship for nearly 12 years and making 25 successful defences. Charles subsequently defeated Jersey Joe Walcott for the vacant NBA title and made three defences before agreeing to meet the former champion. Louis’s serious income-tax liabilities helped bring him back, although the public still treated the match as a genuine attempt to recover the championship. At 36, he entered the ring weighing 218 pounds, the heaviest of his career, while Charles was listed at 185. Despite the difference in age, activity and speed, Louis was made a two-to-one favourite. Many spectators believed that one properly delivered right hand would restore the old order.

Charles began cautiously, circling away from Louis’s right hand and refusing to remain directly in front of him. Louis advanced behind his jab, but his feet moved more slowly than they had during his championship years, and Charles was able to step aside and counter before the challenger could set himself. The champion used a quick left jab, struck to the body and followed with short rights to the head. Louis continued to apply pressure, but he was reaching with his punches and frequently found Charles gone by the time the right hand arrived. The opening rounds established the pattern of the contest: Louis moving forward, Charles making him miss and answering with the cleaner blows.

Louis produced his first important attack in the fourth round. He caught Charles with a left hook and followed him towards the ropes as the crowd rose in expectation. For a short period the champion appeared shaken, and Louis was able to bring his right hand into play. Charles remained composed, held when necessary and moved away before Louis could sustain the attack. It was one of the few occasions on which the former champion’s punching carried its old authority. Once the danger had passed, Charles resumed his work at long range and again began beating Louis to the punch.

Through the middle rounds Charles increased his command. He jabbed Louis’s face, moved to either side and drove rights through the challenger’s guard. When Louis came close, Charles tied him up or struck with short punches before turning away. Louis remained dangerous enough to command respect, but he delivered his attacks one punch at a time. The combinations that had overwhelmed earlier opponents were absent, and he was unable to cut off the ring against a man 33 pounds lighter. By the eighth round, Charles held a substantial lead. Louis’s face was beginning to show the effects of the champion’s repeated jabs and counters, while Charles remained mobile and in control.

There were no fouls of consequence, and neither man went to the floor. Charles nevertheless inflicted steady damage. Cuts appeared above Louis’s eyes, and the swelling gradually reduced his vision. The former champion continued to stalk his opponent and still tried to place the right cross behind the jab, but Charles usually saw the blow coming. He made Louis reset his feet repeatedly and then scored while the heavier man was preparing to punch. The crowd continued to encourage Louis whenever he drew near, but the bursts were brief, and Charles invariably regained command.

Louis had another measure of success in the 12th round, when a left hook checked Charles and allowed the challenger to press forward. Again Charles recovered without being dropped and prevented Louis from following with a decisive right. By then, Louis needed more than a rally to win the contest. His eyes were badly marked, his punches had lost speed, and the effort of pursuing Charles had taken much of his remaining strength. Charles’s corner, aware of the size of his lead, instructed him after the 13th round to take fewer chances.

Charles continued to score in the final two rounds without exposing himself unnecessarily. Louis pressed on, but there was no late revival and no uncertainty when the final bell sounded. The Associated Press gave Charles 12 rounds, Louis two and called one even, a judgment closely matching the official verdict. Louis had lost for the first time since Max Schmeling stopped him in June 1936 and for the only time in a contest carrying the world heavyweight championship.

The paid attendance produced a gross gate of $205,370, while the CBS radio and television rights brought a further $140,000. Louis received $100,458 and Charles $57,405. The challenger said afterwards that he was through with boxing, although the limited return from the contest and his continuing tax debt soon forced another change of mind. Charles’s victory settled the more immediate championship question. By defeating the retired titleholder in the ring, he gained recognition from the New York State Athletic Commission and The Ring, as well as the NBA recognition he already possessed. Whatever uncertainty had surrounded the succession after Louis’s retirement, there was none about the result at Yankee Stadium: Charles had defeated him clearly, not by avoiding a contest, but by controlling it from beginning to end.

Joe Louis was still the biggest name in boxing, and that counted for plenty before the first bell. People remembered the man who had ruled the heavyweights for nearly 12 years, not the 36-year-old returning after more than two years away. Charles had beaten Jersey Joe Walcott and defended the NBA title three times, yet many still regarded him as merely keeping Louis’s belt warm.

What followed was a lesson in timing and positioning. Charles gave away more than two stone, but he made the difference meaningless. He stepped around Louis, beat him to the jab and landed his right hand before moving out of range. Louis kept coming, but his feet could no longer carry him quickly enough into punching distance. He still hurt Charles briefly in the fourth and again threatened in the 12th, but he could not put combinations behind those successes.

I’ve seen that look in experienced fighters: the mind recognises the opening, but the body responds half a second late. Against an ordinary heavyweight, Louis might have survived that. Charles was no ordinary heavyweight. He was a master boxer who understood exactly when to punch, clinch or turn his man.

The scorecards of 10–5, 12–3 and 13–2 were entirely fair. Charles did not defeat the great Louis at his peak, but he thoroughly defeated the man standing before him. That victory made him the rightful heavyweight champion, whether the public was ready to accept it or not.