January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

fight all Jerry did was march forward and pound his left hook into Mathis's
belly. It was without a doubt one of Jerry's easier fights. Poor Buster, he
could not win for the sake of losing. Midway trough the fight his boxing trunks
split up the middle and his backside was exposed. Suprsingly, his cornermen had
an extra pair of trunks and slipped them over the torn trunks a few rounds
later.Sometime later I learned the reason why Jerry had an easy time
with Mathis. Buster was terrified of Jerry. A few weeks before their fight
Buster came to Quarry's camp at Grossinger's for a pre-fight physical with the
press in attendance. Mathis tried to pull an "Ali". Mathis started chucking and
jiving, and he expected Jerry to play along. Jerry got into Mathis's face and
told him something to the effect, "get the fxxk out of here or I will kick your
ass right now". Mathis was never any good after that.|
|3/23/05 02:59:30 PM|Forest Ward|New York
City||raymccormack2003@yahoo.com||||10|One more item I forgot to mention
regarding Quarry-Mathis. After the fight I am in the subway going home and guess
who I see? Joe Frazier and Yank Durham. I ask Joe, "What are you going to do
against Quarry"? Joe replies, "I am not going to run from". It was a great
night|
|3/23/05 03:07:01 PM|Howard C.|Louisville||howardc@louisville||||10|Forest, I
appreciate the story and enjoyed reading it, but I don't get it with you saying
that Mathis was terrified of JQ. How do you know that he was terrified ? Did he
show it on his face or did he tell someone he was frightened ?Sometimes
a story begins as an unfounded but juicy rumour and then it slowly snowballs
into fact as people repeat it. But many can't tell the difference between
nervousness, which all boxers experience, and genuine terror.I thought
Frazier was a bit unkind to Mathis, and the opponents Mathis fought, when Joe
belittled them in page 57 of his autobiography, "Mathis ? Oh, yeah. He's the one
who fights those guys that get carried in on crutches."Later, at page
61, Joe said, "as a fighter I always suspected he (Mathis) was operating with,
as they say, a defective ticker - no heart."It would have been better
had those unkind things been left unsaid. In my mind, anyone brave enough to
voluntarily get in the ring with heavyweight monsters, as Buster so often did,
doesn't deserve that said about him. I can't think of any justification for
saying it, especially since the fight happened decades ago. By all
reports Buster was an exceptionally nice man. Most who met him were very
complimentary of him. Sadly, he has passed away and he has no right of
reply.I'd like to wish everyone on this site a happy and safe Easter. I
don't know what you guys are doing, but I'm knocking off work early.
This time of year is all about resurrection. So I suppose hope still
springs eternal for some parrots hanging upside down from perches. Angelo -can a
dead parrot be resurrected ? Only joking, guys. :))))) |
|3/23/05 04:20:05 PM|Fan|USA||n/a||||10| It is refreshing to hear recollections
about Jerry Quarry for a change. Isn't that odd for a Jerry Quarry site? In
the past, various posters have made reference to one fight or another, there is
usually no follow up. I saw many of the big fights at MSG too. It was a great
period to be a fan. Johnnie Addie's "let's meet some of the boys" was classic,
and fans got to see many, many contenders, champs and former champs in the
flesh. No fight night was ever better in that regard than Jack Dempsey's 75th
"birhtday party" at the Quarry-Foster fight. I suspect Forest was there
too. Mathis was very fast for a big man, and certainly brave enough to
just get in the ring, but I remember Jerry predicting an easy victory and
stating that Mathis "had dog in him". The fight confirmed that assesment,
however cruel it may sound now. |
|3/23/05 04:47:26 PM|Tape Trader|Land||no||||10|Mathis-Quarry. Only copy is in
the hands of Mathis' family. They won't release it because Buster was a
complete disaster that night.|
|3/23/05 05:03:58 PM|Forest Ward|New York