January 2002 - March 2004 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

medical degree or one in speech pathology. Many of my Southern California
friends -- including a man who sparred with Joe Louis in 1943 in Los Angeles --
knew Archie well for decades and testified to me he was extremely punchy.
Period. Let me give you a classic example of aphasia. Someone with
aphasia might walk across a room, put his hand on the doorknob, and then stop to
think. He has forgotten that one little bit of information on the doorknob
needing to be turned to the left (or right) and pulled. He may stand there half
an hour, struggling unsuccessfully to remember. Or he might appear normal except
for losing the ability to recognize faces, including his wife's and children's
faces. Or he might be able to speak and make sense in what seems a normal way,
but not understand any words he hears. Or vice versa. These are mostly temporal
lobe aphasias. Frontal lobe aphasias might involve increased or uncontrolled
aggression, like picking fights with strangers. There are thousands of reported
aphasias. Former boxers have them. Read the literature. OK, the great
Ron Lyle. He lost to Foreman, Quarry, Ali and several relatively obscure
fighters. One of his last fights was a 1 round KO he suffered to Gerry Cooney.
Lyle was a big puncher and a journeyman at best. Through the 60s and 70s and
80s, guys like Lyle were opponents. He had a nice record at 48-5 or so, but
where is the greatness? I already explained in detail that Wilt
Chamberlain was the most famous and respected basketball player of his time, and
maybe of any time. He was certainly not "unappreciated". Being liked is
something entirely different, and it's true he had many detractors. No
one here mentions Ernie Terrell, a good fighter. The finest and most
realistic boxing movie of all time is "Fat City", based on the novel by John
Gardner, and starring Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges. I liked "Raging Bull" but
thought the boxing scenes were unrealistic and made too mythic. La Motta and
Vale and Robinson were hitting each other so damned hard time after time
that no one would have been able to take it. The cinematic tricks of slow
motion and other stuff distracted me, too. Who would you folks say is
the best pound-for-pound right now? I'm not sure. I might go with Roy Jones, Jr.
I might go with Oscar De La Hoya. It's a shame Feliz Trinidad won't come back
for a payday or two, but healthwise it's a smart decision. Does anyone
remember 60s heavyweight King Fletcher, who finally died of a boxing defeat? How
about Amos (Big Train) Lincoln? Or George (Scrap Iron) Johnson? How about
Alejandro Lavorante, who also died in the ring? To whoever wrote that
fighters earn their way into the rankings, please contact me. I have a
collection of mint condition robes every heavyweight champion since Jim Jeffreys
wore into the ring, and because you're a friend, I'll sell them to you for only
$5,000 each. Now I must hurry to a neutral corner and wait for the
referee to count our sadly misinformed friends out. |
|9/3/03 08:40:30 PM|Charley Powell|Los Angeles||Realtime.comWith a name
like||||10|With a name like Tubby, do you have to be a big asshole too?|
|9/3/03 11:31:33 PM|Tubby Breslin|Fullerton,
CA||bearstubastanchu@aol.com||||9|OK, so we're calling names now. Charlie Powell
doesn't leave a valid e-mail address so there's no way so far to contact him. Is
he the same Charlie Powell who was a phenomenal athlete from Logan Heights in
San Diego? The one who Muhammad Ali KOed in 3 in Pittsburgh on January 24, 1964?
You can read more about this Charlie Powell in
www.sandiego.sports.org.athletes_breitbard.asp and also
www.esportsinstruction.com/charliepowell.html. Now this Charlie may feel
insulted because I said Archie Moore, his lifelong friend from San Diego, was
punchy. Or because I implied Charlie himself would be punchy, as a former boxer.
Out of respect to Charlie and his achievements, I apologize. There is a
brutality about boxing, though, that none of us can deny. It does injure people,
and seriously. I'm glad young people are going more into other sports now,
whereas once many of them saw boxing as their only opportunity. I'd like to
talk about something else. The sport of boxing and boxers changed radically and