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m On Second Thought Charles Has Too Much Imagination By BARNEY NAGLER NEW YORK, N. Y., May 28.— The facts of Ezzard Charles physical equipment have never been challenged by fight men. He He has has long long been been re- m He He has has long long been been re- regarded as a wonderfully equipped fist fighter, complete as to power, poise, punch and «-physique. He should have been the world champion, and was, albeit for too brief a period, and come June 17, in the Yankee Stadium, hell try to retrieve the title, now possessed possessed by by Rocky Rocky possessed possessed by by Rocky Rocky Marciano. Charles is, and has always been, a proper subject for clinical appraisal and thinking fight men never fail, at the drop of a question, to speak up on the subject. All that is required is one leading question. It was tossed in the direction of Johnny At-tell, the old managerial pro, today and he went for the bait. Has Charles any chance of winning back the championship? "He has all the equipment," Attell said. "He can punch and he can box. He is getting in shape, I understand, and all things being equal, he should give Marciano a real fight for it. But he wont win." AttelTs appraisals of f ighiing flesh on the hoof are worth a great deal because he has been working: the stockyard of slam for a lot of years, more perhaps than he cares to remember. He has managed many fighters, including Bummy Davis when the Brownsville boy was rough of fist and mean of ring manner. Attell put Bummy in the forefront and kept him there for a time. He performed this task so efficiently, it eventually won him a brief tenure as Mike Jacobs matchmaker. _ Whenever Attell speaks it is wise to listen. On matter pertaining to boxing, that is, and those who heard him express an opinion on Charles chances against Marciano, asked why lie believes that Marciano will whiplash Charles? "The fellow has too much imagination," Attell insisted. "The other fellow auVt no dope," a listener suggested. "I know," Attell said, "but he uses it another way. He doesnt imagine his opponent is the roughest thing around. He jumps, thinks of himself as a born puncher, and thats the: way he works at it. He just keeps plodding away. Charles is different. Before a fight, he frets about it. He thinks about his opponent and it doesnt help him when he gets into the ring." "You mean," the listener asked, "its like Kingfish Levinsky, when he. went in there with Joe Louis. He was imaginative?" "It wasnt like that," Attell corrected the one. "Levinsky wasnt imaginative. He looked upon going in with Louis like he was going in against a firing squad. Its different with Charles. He just pictures the fight too much, day by day, thinking about it all the time, worrying himself sick doing his best. The result -is hes all tied up before he gets into the ring."- "He was real good against Louis and hes made some real good fights recently, knocking out that Satterfield and Coley Wallace." "In both those cases Charles was struggling to get back in the picture," Attell said. "He was in there with guys who were struggling themselves and he wasnt called upon to do too much thinking. Take his fight with Walcott, the second one. If ever a guy had everything going for him, it was Charles. I dont mean the officials, or anything like that. I mean, he had all the equipment. "It comes the night of the fight and hes clearly the best fighter, but he pulls up in the last rounds and lets Walcott make it close enough for them to give It to him. Walcotts still the champ and Charles hasnt got the title. Thats the way it ended." "You mean then that Charles doesnt have a chance at all?" "Everybodys got a chance going into the ring. Any guy thats in there in good shape and that can fight even a little bit gets a chance to win his share. Charles is more than that, a real good fighter. Only thing is he may lose this one before he gets in there, thinking, -about -it,? - „ -
