Word: ezzard
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...take solace from the fact that they once held the most coveted title in boxing. Three of the ex-champs since Joe Louis are dead: Rocky Marciano was killed in a plane crash in 1969, Sonny Liston died of an overdose of drugs in 1970, and in 1975 Ezzard Charles succumbed to the lingering muscular disease that killed baseball's Lou Gehrig. Louis and the other five surviving champions have coped with life without the title in a variety of ways...
...Died. Ezzard Charles, 54, hard-luck heavyweight boxing champion from 1949 to 1951; after a seven-year bout with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative muscular disease; in Chicago. A superb tactician, Charles took the heavyweight crown from Jersey Joe Walcott in 1949, but even then he faced an uphill battle for popularity. It became steeper when he ended a comeback try, outpointing the aging Joe Louis in 15 rounds in 1950. Knocked out a year later by Walcott, Charles made several comeback attempts before slipping into obscurity and penury...