For the heavyweight title...
On this day in 1951, Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott met for the second of their four career fights. Two years prior, Charles had won a unanimous decision over Jersey Joe to win the heavyweight title vacated by Joe Louis. He had since defended that title six times, including a victory over Louis that silenced the doubters and made him the undisputed heavyweight champ. In this bout, Charles was again dominant over Walcott, knocking him to the canvas in the ninth with a flurry of punches that Jersey Joe never shook off. Later that year, Charles and Walcott would wage their third battle, and this time Jersey Joe would emerge with the title after a seventh-round knockout. It was Ring Magazine's Fight of the Year in 1951. Originally I had written in here that Walcott had lost the title to Charles in the fourth bout a year later (something I sincerely believed - although I guess that's no excuse - you ARE allowed to doublecheck this shit) but in fact he outpointed Charles in a controversial decision.
March 7, 1987 - Mike Tyson v. James "Bonecrusher" Smith
Twenty years ago today, Iron Mike polished off the second leg of his heavyweight title unification tour, winning the WBA belt from Bonecrusher Smith in an uninspired 12-round UD. Smith (the only American heavyweight titlist in history to have graduated from college) had won the WBA crown just three months prior with a first-round knockout of the gloriously fat Tim Witherspoon. Of course, with Tyson on the hunt. Bonecrusher wasn't apt to hold that crown for long - in this particular bout he seemed more interested in holding on for good life, a strategy that got him two points deducted for excessive clinching. With his man running and hiding, the Brownsville came out in Tyson at times, but that only seemed to strengthen Smith's resolve not to play with fire. He went the distance, a callow distinction, and with the inevitable decision Tyson was two-thirds of the way to his birthright.
2 Comments:
May I point out a factual error. In the fourth fight between Walcott and Charles, Walcott won a controversial decision to retain the title. Most at ringside had Charles winning but Walcott got the nod. Walcott would go on to lose the title by a brutal but thrilling one punch KO to Rocky Marciano. Charles would provide Marciano two of his toughest title defenses but Ezzard never regained the crown. (Floyd Patterson was the first to do that).
Thank you Kurt. That's a big one. I'm going to edit it right now. I suspect that my dad just refused to ever acknowledge that Walcott won that fight, and it infected my subconscious.
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