Rocky Marciano vs Ezzard Charles 2

Brockton’s Rocky Marciano retained the heavyweight championship of the world by knocking out Ezzard Charles in the eighth round of their return contest at Yankee Stadium, New York, on September 17, 1954. The end came at 2 minutes 36 seconds after Charles had been knocked down twice in the round. Marciano, weighing 187 pounds, made the fourth defence of the title he had won from Jersey Joe Walcott two years earlier and advanced his unbeaten record to 47 victories. Charles, the former champion, weighed 192 pounds, approximately six pounds more than for their first meeting three months before. Referee Al Berl counted him out.

Their first contest, on June 17 at the same ground, had lasted the full 15 rounds. Charles became the only opponent ever to carry Marciano through the championship distance, losing a unanimous decision after giving the champion one of the most demanding fights of his career. Charles had boxed well in the early and middle rounds, but Marciano’s pressure and heavier blows gradually wore him down. The performance earned Charles an immediate return, although Marciano entered the second meeting as a firm favourite. The champion’s record stood at 46–0, with 40 knockouts, while Charles brought considerably more professional experience: 85 wins, 11 defeats and one draw.

Charles began the rematch with more aggression than he had shown at the start of the first contest. He landed a left hook to the body during the opening round and used his quicker hands to score cleanly at close quarters. Marciano pressed forward in his customary crouch, but Charles met him with short punches and took the round through the greater accuracy of his work. The early exchanges were rougher than those of their June contest. The men clinched almost immediately and frequently fought with their heads close together, where Charles’s uppercuts competed with Marciano’s wider, heavier swings.

Marciano took command in the second. He drove Charles backwards with punches to the body and then landed two powerful right hands to the head, the second dropping the challenger. Charles rose quickly and appeared to have recovered his senses, but Marciano attacked with both hands in an effort to finish matters. Charles covered, slipped several blows and returned enough punches to survive the round. The knockdown nevertheless changed the course of the contest. Charles became more guarded afterwards and was less willing to lead, while Marciano continued to advance and gave him little time in which to settle behind his jab.

The third, fourth and fifth rounds followed a similar pattern. Marciano crowded Charles, drove punches into the body and swung rights towards the head whenever the challenger moved away from the ropes. Charles remained the more polished boxer and occasionally interrupted the attack with a sharp uppercut or left hook, but he was unable to hold the champion at long range. Marciano’s lunging approach made the jab difficult to establish, and much of the fighting took place at close quarters. The champion was warned for rough use of the glove and twice continued punching at or after the bell. The work was untidy, but its effect was plain. Charles was forced to defend for long periods and threw fewer punches with each succeeding round.

After five rounds, Marciano was comfortably ahead. Referee Berl had him leading by five rounds to one, while judges Frank Forbes and Artie Aidala each had the champion in front by six rounds to one when the fight ended. Charles, however, found an unexpected opening late in the sixth. As the men emerged from a clinch, Marciano suffered a deep split through the left nostril. Accounts differed over whether the injury was caused by a punch, an elbow or contact between the two men at close range, but the damage was severe. Blood ran freely down the champion’s face and could not be completely controlled by his corner.

Charles immediately understood the wound’s importance. In the seventh, he directed his punches towards Marciano’s nose, hoping either to increase the damage or compel the referee and ringside physician to intervene. Marciano continued to advance, but the injury placed him in a position he had seldom encountered. He was clearly winning the fight, and Charles had been weakened, yet the championship could still be lost through a stoppage. The corner applied medication between rounds, leaving the champion’s face smeared and bloodied. There was also damage near Marciano’s left eye as Charles continued aiming for the injured side of his face.

Marciano came out for the eighth knowing that delay favoured the challenger. His corner had urged him to work on Charles’s body, but the champion instead attacked the head with both hands. Charles attempted to box away from the assault and continued looking for the damaged nose, but his legs no longer carried him clear with sufficient speed. Marciano drove him backwards through the weight and frequency of his punches before a heavy overhand right sent Charles to the canvas. The challenger rose, but he was badly shaken and had little opportunity to recover.

Marciano resumed the attack immediately, throwing lefts and rights without concern for his own injury. Charles tried to retreat and protect himself, but another succession of blows forced him down for the second time. He came to rest on his knees and was unable to rise before Berl completed the count. Only 24 seconds remained in the round. Marciano had secured the knockout that his damaged nose had made necessary, while Charles, after beginning well and briefly bringing the championship within reach, had finally been overcome by the champion’s pressure and punching strength.

The victory was Marciano’s 41st inside the distance and his fourth successful defence of the heavyweight title. Charles had again demonstrated his skill and courage, but the additional weight he carried for the rematch appeared to reduce the mobility that had served him so well in June. Marciano was ahead decisively before suffering the nose injury, yet the wound turned an increasingly one-sided contest into one of the most dangerous moments of his championship career. The Ring magazine subsequently selected the match as its Fight of the Year for 1954.

I’ve always thought that Marciano was far more than the crude brawler some make him out to be. He wasn’t pretty, but he understood pressure, distance and how to make every punch hurt. Ezzard Charles was the superior pure boxer and had already taken Rocky the full 15 rounds three months earlier, something nobody else managed.

Charles started well again and caught Marciano cleanly, but the second-round knockdown changed the argument. Rocky got close, worked the body and made Charles fight at a pace that gradually took away his legs. The punches weren’t always tidy, and Rocky sailed close to the wind with his rough work, but Charles could never get enough space to settle behind that educated jab.

Then came the split nose in the sixth. Whether a punch, elbow or head caused it, the damage was horrific. Charles rightly targeted it, and Marciano knew the fight might be stopped.

What followed tells you everything about Rocky. He didn’t panic or look for sympathy; he went out in the eighth and finished the job, flooring Charles twice before the count-out. Charles was a great fighter and deserves enormous respect, but Marciano’s engine, strength and refusal to accept defeat broke him down. That wasn’t luck. It was a champion solving an emergency under pressure.