January 2002 - March 2004 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

genetic, so no doubt other members of his family have them too. They move at
different rates in different people, and since being a boxer clearly makes them
worse much faster, his must have had the pace of a snail. His left eye was bad,
but he was getting them in his right too. Even when the fight started in
Manilla, Ali was just a blurry haze. He was legally blind in the left eye after
the fight, and even after several weeks, the left eye was still bad enough that
he couldn't have legally driven at night. He used to memorize eye charts when
tested, and used his footwork to subtly try to stay in a position that didn't
isolate the right eye so much, when looking for right hands. This was also why
he didn't fight in California, since they have more stringent eye
exams.In '75, he had surgery, but in order to have completely normal
vision, he had to wear contacts, which he wore when he fought Foreman the second
time! This isn't legal, of course, and one of the lenses shifted slightly while
he was in the ring, which made things worse than having none at all.Now
I love Joe Frazier, one of my very favorite fighters, but I've got to tell him,
that was nuts! A person's eyes are to be guarded at all costs!|
|8/29/03 08:29:30
AM|Roadscholarette|Chicago||roadscholarette@hotmail.com||||10|Ed -My
post on Frazier's eyes has a typo. I say he used his footwork to keep the burden
off his ~right~ eye as much as possible, when looking for right hands, and I
meant to say his left eye.Brown and Ali? I can believe that. I'll bet it
started out like pretend play, silly stuff, and Ali was willing to let it stay
at that level, but Brown decided to push the envelope, and finally Ali had to
teach him a lesson.The average guy has been in fights, and watches
boxers doing the same thing, and doesn't always see the difference. This happens
in all sports, of course, guys thinking, "That doesn't look hard - I could do
that!" It seems to happen more often with boxing though, and I can't fathom why,
in the toughest sport there is, by far.With this sort of attitude, I
imagine a guy already accomplished in sports could feel even more that it wan't
"that hard." Speaking of real life vs the ring, I saw an old clip with
Archie Moore once, where he said that a one sided ring win still left the winner
as battered as a one sided loss on the street left the ~loser~. Interesting!|
|8/29/03 09:26:19 AM|Angelo|Washington, DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|I agree
that a round-by-round prediction is a stretch (my analysis of a possible Holmes-
Frazier fight) but I just generally think Holmes would be the fast starter, the
middle rounds would be a time when the tide started to change, Frazier would
come on in the late rounds, but fall a little short. I base this on general
patterns of these guys' key fights. It's fun to think about, even if it's
impossible to know. In my opinion, people who've never boxed or just boxed
recreationally (myself included), can learn the fundamentals and be in good
condition---but the worst pro boxer in the world would run circles around the
best schooled, most in-shape non-boxer. Simply put, real boxers spend countless
hours understanding and practicing how to throw lethal punches in combination.
The speed of most pro boxers and the physics of their punches would make an
idiot of me and other guys who love to watch and love to put the gloves on to
mess around. Also, pro boxers know how to move to take a punch/absorb
punishment. You can take an "average" retired professional fighter---maybe a
guy who boxed amateur for a few years and pro for 7 or 8 years----a guy who
never made it to a title fight, but maybe lost to a few contenders but made a
good show of it. Someone like this, at 50 years old and retired, would destroy
a 30 year old non-boxer in the best shape of their life. On the topic of
great fights, how about Holmes-Norton? You watch the 15th round and you realize
that they were true warriors that night. Norton might have stumbled badly
against the big power punchers, but he was amazing against good boxers who
weren't known for the power punch. If Norton got into the rhythm of a fight and
didn't have fear of getting knocked out, his confidence would grow round-by-
round. Holmes had to dig deep to hold on for that win. After watching Norton-