Rocky Marciano vs. Ezzard Charles
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| Date | June 17, 1954 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Yankee Stadium, New York City, New York, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Title(s) on the line | NYSAC, NBA and The Ring undisputed heavyweight championship | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tale of the tape | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marciano won via 15 round UD | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rocky Marciano vs. Ezzard Charles, billed as Battle of Punching Champions, was a professional boxing match contested on 17 June 1954, for the undisputed heavyweight championship.[1][2]
The fight was held at Yankee Stadium in New York City and went the distance with Marciano winning on points through a unanimous decision.[3][4][5][6]
Charles had previously held the heavyweight title, from 1949 (following Joe Louis' retirement) to his loss to Jersey Joe Walcott in 1951. Marciano won the title the following year in 1952. Charles went on to win a title eliminator over Bob Satterfield in January 1954 before facing the champion in June. It was Marciano's third title defense.
Charles was attempting to become the first man in history to regain the undisputed heavyweight championship.
Marciano was guaranteed 40% from the ticket sales revenue and Charles was guaranteed 20%.
The fight
Rounds 1–4
The first four rounds of the first Marciano–Charles bout revealed Charles's superior technical expertise. Marciano was outfought and outmaneuvered in these early rounds. Charles threw body shots at Marciano with great success; he also opened a two inch long and one inch deep cut over Marciano's left eye.[7][8] Marciano's cut man Freddie Brown, who later worked for Roberto Durán, would comment that he could not remember treating a cut worse than this one.[9]
Rounds 5–9
In the fifth round, Charles surprisingly became defensive and stopped dictating the pace of the fight. In the early rounds, Charles had thrown body punches at Marciano with great success; by the fifth round Charles was no longer throwing these punches. Without making any effort to protect his eye, Marciano carried the fight to Charles, went on the offensive, found his rhythm, and seized the initiative in the fight. By the end of round 9, Marciano's face was a crimson mask, and yet he had managed to land so many punches on Charles that he was ahead in the scoring.[9][10][5]
Rounds 10–15
By the 10th round, Marciano was clearly ahead and yet he kept fighting as if the decision was in doubt, and kept trying for a knockout. Charles managed to stay on his feet while withstanding Marciano's punches, but his face gradually started changing for the worse. His right eye closed, his lower lip was split and swollen, and a blood clot appeared on his left jaw.
At the end Marciano won the fight with a unanimous decision (scored 8-5, 9-5 and 8-6 in favor of the champion).[9][11]