January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

was a pitifully slow starter who could be walked over by a real power puncher.
Foreman nearly literally killed him---and that was probably enough to scare the
daylights out of his handlers and keep him in with washed up Jimmy Ellis instead
of power punching contenders like Lyle. We've been over the timing of it and
it's true that "Lucky Joe" was either on the way up when others were on the way
down (like Liston) or on the way down, when others were hitting their stride
(like Shavers) but again, it's simply incredible that these guys all fought in
the same era, all fought against eachother, and Joe was missing in action,
taking on Terry Daniels and electing to sign for rematches against guys he had
already knocked out instead of trying his hand at knockout artists. |
|5/12/05 10:47:49 PM|Noam|same||same||||10|Joey, you've given a very sensible
summary, and thanks. There's a couple of things I'd pick up
on....Firstly, in his book, Frazier said he didn't fight Norton because
there was no money in it. That's a lame excuse, too, in my view. Even if he was
friendly with Norton, Ali fought Ellis and they were very close as well. Neither
excuse cuts it with me.Anyway, thanks again. |
|5/12/05 11:49:59 PM|Kent|murrieta, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|Joey,
recently we had a long extended debate about Joe Frazier's ablility as a fighter
and I was one of the leaders of the pro Frazier side. I don't want to
get in that again so I guess it is up to you.|
|5/13/05 02:46:48 AM|Noam|same||same||||10|Joey - the archives have the debate
all recorded and, with all due respect to Kent, who is someone I do respect, it
wasn't one of his finest moments. He captained a ship that is now sleeping on
the bottom of the ocean gathering rust and barnicles.Kent - some of your
explanations and excuses regarding Frazier's failure to fight some of the guys
we mentioned bordered on the farcical and absurd. You are normally a rational
guy but I suspect you got so hyped up that you lost all perspective and
objectivity.I don't won't to put you through that again because that
ship of yours has so many holes in it that it can't ever be refloated and the
Dead Parroters used all your life rafts. |
|5/13/05 04:22:38 AM|Massimo |Roma||4||||10|Tyson ducked Foreman when George was
already washed up ( it means "finito", "mal ridotto", "un rottame", "pronto per
la pensione", "pronto ad appendere i guantoni al chiodo"), while Frazier fought
Foreman again in 1976 at a time when Giorgio was still an ass kicking guy. And
Joe fought him having serious eye problem. I think this shows he was no chicken.
You don't get up six times against Foreman if you are a chicken. I'm sure that
if Lyle had beaten Ali' in 1975, Joe Frazier would have fought Lyle for the
title instead of Ali' and then Foreman for a second time. But, on the other
hand, to be honest, I don't think that Joe was that kind of guy who was always
looking for trouble and looking forward to try his hand against the most
dangerous guys. He needed a good reason to fight a dangerous guy, he didn't
fight him to have fun or to prove himself. If he had had the chance to choose
(or pick, I mean "scegliere") between George Foreman or Clifford Etienne for a
title fight, I think he would have chosen (or picked, I mean "scelto") Clifford.
|
|5/13/05 08:36:42 AM|Joey|Canada||aol||||10|GUYS; You've all made some very
valid points. Sometimes we can be blinded by the past(talking about myself). The
first time I saw Frazier fight was on a televised bout with George Chuvalo.
Being a Canadian, I was of course pulling for George but at the same time I was
very impressed with Joe Frazier's performance. He stopped Chuvalo big time and I
thought to myself this is the best heavyweight I've seen since Ali! The
heavyweight tournament was on that same summer. I liked Ellis and Quarry but
neither of them seemed to be in Frazier's league. I actually thought that Jerry
won the Ellis fight but either way you cut it, I think it was close. The first
Ali/Frazier fight, I felt, could have been better but I consider it to be the
best of the three, simply because neither fighter was in a damaged state.
Frazier was at the top of his game, Ali was back into the game. I don't think