January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

But except for that, by the time Shavers was a valuable commodity, Frazier had
faded from the scene.Here is a top ten list I found in a sports almanac
that shows the top ten contenders from Ring Magazine as of January 1, 1975:
(champion Muhammad Ali) contenders-1. George Foreman 2. Joe Frazier 3. Ron Lyle
4. Joe Bugner 5. Oscar Bonevena 6. Ken Norton 7. Jerry Quarry 8. Chuch Wepner 9.
Henry Clark 10. Larry Middleton.No Earnie Shavers on this list? No, he
didn't deserve a ranking at that time.Frazier during the period
preceeding the above rankings fought four fighters on this list, Foreman, Ali,
Quarry, and Bugner. He was not taking it easy. Shavers didn't deserve a fight
with Frazier!I can go through all of the people some here say Frazier
avoided and make cases as to why fights didn't happen. Mostly it is the time
periods involved and whether the public was calling for them and for the most
part, the public wasn't calling for them. Just making a general
statement such as Frazier avoided all sluggers without going over the facts of
each case doesn't prove anything.I don't really want to get into a long
drawn out debate about this again but refute my analysis of the Shavers
situation. I don't think anyone can.|
|6/23/05 01:51:56 PM|Joey|Canada||aol||||10|JOE FRAZIER...let's not allow JOE'S
personal gripe with ALI to tarnish his place in boxing history. JOE was one of
the greats, perhaps not the greatest, but certainly one of the greats. He handed
ALI his first defeat(granted ALI took him on too soon and I feel, did not take
the fight very seriously), fought some top notch contenders(QUARRY, CHUVALO,
ELLIS) and lost the title to one of the biggest powerhouses in heavyweight
boxing GEORGE FOREMAN. The ALI, FRAZIER, FOREMAN combination made boxing what is
was in the 70's. We wouldn't have had the build up to the full circle with ALI
defeating FOREMAN for the title without FRAZIER defeating ALI, FRAZIER being
defeated by FOREMAN and finally ALI defeating FOREMAN. I don't see how FRAZIER
ducked the top shelf fighters of that era. He fought ALI 3 times, FOREMAN twice,
QUARRY twice. All three beat RON LYLE, ALI beat LISTON twice, ALI & QUARRY both
defeated SHAVERS. Let's not base FRAZIER's career on "THE SUNSHINE SHOWDOWN"
with FOREMAN. |
|6/23/05 02:04:46 PM|Angelo|Washington, DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|Kent, let's
try a different approach then. For arguments sake, I'll give you the point that
Shavers "wasn't worthy" of a fight with FORMER Champion Frazier---and besides,
as you said "the public didn't want it." Were Ron Stander and Terry Daniels
worthy of Championship bouts with CHAMPION Frazier? Were these fights the ones
that "everyone wanted to see?" Was Jimmy Ellis "worthy" in 1974, riding an
insane, nearly winless streak into the "Austraillan Dream Match" with Jupiter
Joe? You're better than F. Lee Bailey at making some nice sounding arguments,
so if somehow, someway, you can show that a guy who was 1-4-1 in six fights
deserved a shot at Frazier more than Shavers did, answer this: Was the public
crying out for Jimmy Ellis-Joe Frazier II., "The Rumble Down Under?" Okay, it
was a "tune-up" for Frazier against an Ali clone, we've all heard that. And
there was no Frazier-Norton match because they liked eachother, we've heard that
too. There was no Lyle-Frazier match because, I guess, the timing wasn't right.
Young and Frazier didn't fight because they both loved Philadelphia and
Tastykakes. First, Liston was too old and Frazier was too young, then Frazier
was too young and Liston was too old, just a couple owls who passed in the
night. Jeff Merrit was having a bad hair day. Wilt Chamberlain was a basketball
player, Lucille Ball had a hit TV show and Merv Griffin was gay. And I've
posted before that Fraizer would have lost to Shavers and Lyle---and that was
impulsive. I didn't think it through---it's easy to say Foreman beat Frazier so
any slugger could, but in reality, Frazier WAS an accomplished heavyweight champ
who was durable and who beat some very, very good fighters. So in retrospect, I
might have been wrong to assert that Lyle and Shavers would take him out---but I
stand by the assertion that at least one of these fights probably should have
been made, and that a legacy is incomplete when some bigger names of the era