January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

status went down, the general feeling was Jerry had exposed his inexperience and
if someone had said, "hey we should put him in with Joe Frazier." I think
people would had thought that it didn't make sense as Lyle had lost to Quarry
who had been beaten before by Frazier.Same with Shavers, he had been
knocking everyone out but there were no big names on his resume until 1973 when
he knocked out Jimmy Ellis. Even his knockout of Jimmy Young in the same year
didn't bring him more notice as Young had not emerged as a contender
yet.Again I will mention that in 1974 Shavers didn't deserve any big
money fights as he had lost to Quarry in December 73, lost to Bob "Who"
Stallings, and had a draw in a rematch with Young.As I have said
numerous times, Lyle and Shavers are much better known now, after the fact, then
they were before about 1975, when Frazier had, except for his one last chance
against Ali, had faded from the scene.If Joe had anything left in
say, 1976, then he would have had to fight the fighters you mentioned as the
public would have called for those. As it was, Frazier had a one shot
deal to fight Foreman a second time but no one really took him seriously by this
time and he had little left in another loss. But if Frazier avoided punchers,
then why did he fight Foreman twice?Also going back to an earlier time
in Frazier's carrer. If Joe always took it safe, then why did he fight Oscar
Bonevena a second time? Their first fight was hardly an easy fight for Frazier
as Bonevena had knocked Joe down twice and Joe rallied to barely win a split
decision and some people thought Bonevena won. So the second fight was hardly a
for sure Frazier win going into the fight.|
|6/24/05 11:50:46 AM|Angelo|Washington, DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|Kent: But
this misses the point. Ron Lyle was no better known in 1975 and Young was no
better known in 1976 and Ali gave them TITLE SHOTS. The public at large hadn't
heard anything about Jimmy Young until Cosell introduced him the night Ali gave
him the chance at the title. Ditto for Lyle. How well known was Joe Bugner when
Frazier was fighting him? Was the public screaming for him to fight Bugner? How
is it that there's a really good reason for why Frazier missed all of these
guys, but hardly any of them missed eachother, and they were all fighting in the
same years, all ranked in the same years? I've said it before---I'm not
suggesting that Frazier ducked these guys or had any fear of them---he got in
with Foreman twice and beat Ali and yada yada yada. But his management steered
him away and that compromises his greatness. If a college football team plays a
brutal schedule and finishes with a couple losses, and another team plays cream
puffs and goes undefeated, I respect the team with the tough schedule more.|
|6/24/05 01:10:32 PM|Kent|Murrieta, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|Angelo, it
not that Frazier's management steered him away from certain fighters. It is he
had less fights in him than other fighters because of his style.After a
certain point in his career, Frazier would be taking maybe two or three fights a
year when someone else had five or six.Frazier had wins over Ali,
Quarry, Ellis, Chuvalo, Machean, Bonevena, Mathis, Bugner, B Foster, and Doug
Jones, not a bad group of fighters. Frazier, at his very best, would
have been hard to beat by anyone in history. He is an all time
great.Angelo, I can see why you think Frazier shouldn't be ranked as I
high as I think he should be but at least the idea that he avoided all pure
sluggers is put to rest as like I said, we can go through Foreman's record too
and say the same thing, using the same faulty logic but it doesn't make it
true.Foreman never fought some very hard hitters but not because he was
avoiding them, it was because they were not big money fights, for the most part.
Sound familar? Also, has anyone ever thought that the opposite could be
true. That in 1975, when Lyle was given a title shot verses Ali, that Lyle's
management didn't want to put him with Frazier because they were working on a
deal to fight Ali?|
|6/24/05 01:37:54 PM|Gerry|Cleveland||jerjets11@yahoo.com||||10|Some good topics
on here recently... Some Ali fans remain critical of Frazier, who some have