January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

Ali, Holmes and Norton. |
|1/17/05 12:10:40 PM|Angelo|DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|Tyrone---aren't you
from Shavers birthplace, Mobile? I know he moved to Ohio at some point (and
now, I think England?), but isn't he Alabama born?|
|1/17/05 01:50:41 PM|Massimo |the city founded in 753 B.C. and burned in 64
A.C.||4||||10|Angelo-I have never seen the Ali'-Shavers fight, but I
have seen the first Spinks fight in 1978 and Ali' was only a shell of the great
champion ( maybe the greatest ever) he used to be. I don't know, Ernie fought
Ali' in 1977, and I wonder how good Ali' was at the time. Was still better then
Carnera ? The Ali' who fought Smoking Joe in Manilla would have beaten Tyson,
Lewis and Holyfield in my book ( but what book ?).|
|1/17/05 05:17:23 PM|Angelo|DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|Massimo: The Ali who
fought in Manilla certainly would have beaten Tyson, Lewis and Holyfield---maybe
on the same night! You're right though---his skills had slipped badly even when
he fought Shavers. But still, Shavers showed a lot by learning to pace himself
and actually box 15 rounds against the old master. Interesting to note that in
the Spinks rematch, Ali lost a lot of weight, got his legs back and gave a
boxing clinic one more time. He was at a very competitive weight against Larry
Holmes---but it was smoke and mirrors---Ali took a bunch of diet pills to shed
the weight to get down to around 218, but he was a very weak 218. I think in
his last fight, against Trevor Berbick, Ali weighed around 230 and though he hit
harder, he had nothing left. Berbick was kind and said that Ali's punches were
harder than Holmes, but he was just being respectful. Ali was done and he knew
it. |
|1/17/05 05:52:45 PM|Lebron James ( a bum ? )|Roma||4||||10|Angelo-Ali'
weighted exactly 236 1/4 against Berbick. The second Ali'-Spinks fight was
essentially a boring one, but yes, Ali' did clearly better than in the first
one. Today I have been reading a few papers about the Parkinson ( but I don't
think this makes me the n.1 expert in the wordl, and not even in Europe)and
I found out how terrible this illness is. I feel very very sorry for what
happened to Ali', he certainly didn't deserve it and I hope that a miracle (
SCIENCE) will happen. Good luck Muhammad !|
|1/17/05 07:21:15 PM|Kent|La Habra, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|What is
amazing about Ali was that even with very diminished skills, in his last match
he still made a close fight of it with a top ten contender in losing to Berbick,
who was the first fighter to go the distance in a title fight with
Holmes.Still, Ali had no business being in the ring in this fight and I
think it contributed to his condition now (see below).Angelo, yes Jerry
came from far behind to knock out Zanon in 1977 but he was a shell of his former
self who bailed himself out with his power against a weak chinned opponent.
Again, I will say that after taking too much punishment against Frazier
in 1974 and Norton in 1975 that Jerry didn't belong in the ring after this
point. He may have only been almost thirty in years, but he was a shot fighter
and if he had retired, he might be with us today. |
|1/18/05 01:51:32 AM|Noam|same||same||||10|I watched one of Ali's daughters (the
non-fighting one) being interviewed on television recently. She insisted
that her father's Parkinson's Disease is not the result of his boxing career.
According to her, he would have got it whether he boxed or not.While it
is true that this ailment can strike anyone - pugalists or otherwise (eg
President Reagan) - it is difficult to resist the belief that boxing was the
essential factor in his illness today.Perhaps, if he hadn't fought, the
illness might not have hit him until his fifties or sixties. But the beatings he
took around the head in his fights, as well as sparing when he refused to wear
head protection sometimes, had to have done some lasting damage.The
slurring of his speech was evident even on the night he beat Foreman. That
ringside tirade he delivered after that fight showed signs of speech damage, and
was certainly different to the earlier Clay after the first Liston