January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

hetoric---the idea that Frazier "did America a favor" by beating Ali. Why?
How was it a favor? Did the Red Sox "do America a favor" by beating the
Cardinals in last year's Series? Look, we all have favorite teams and favorite
athletes. It's nice if your favorite wins and stings if a team or athlete you
dislike beats your favorite. But it's just old, some would say racist rhetoric
to believe that Frazier was fighting for white America and Ali was fighting for
black America. I don't buy into that. It isn't fair to either of them.
Frazier was fighting for himself and his family, not America. Those who wanted
to see Ali lose got what they wanted. Of course, it burned them to no end when
three years later, Ali was back on top of the world by defeating the
"unbeatable" guy who dropped Frazier six times in five minutes.|
|6/25/05 05:47:36 PM|Gino M.|San Leandro, CA||gmast49@juno.com||||10|Saying that
Frazier did America a favor by beating Ali is silly. At no time in history was
Joe ever even 1/1000th as popular as Muhammad. Measured economically, Ali's
fights brought in much, much more business to the USA. Ali single-handledly
enlivened boxing and made it a sport EVERYONE paid attention to, more than any
boxer since Joe Louis. Now if you still think Ali was a draft dodger, then you'd
also have to condemn about 30 million American men who also did what they could
to get out of military service during Vietnam. I was in the First Marines in Da
Nang, and I now wish to HELL I hadn't served. But if you base your opinion
on which fighting style or personality you like better, then you can try to
attach that to which guy is "better for America", but good luck. What is doing
the USA a favor, anyway? Now we definitely know that just by being alive and
pollinating hundreds of thousands of beautiful Italian young women, our own
Massimo has done a HUGE favor to ITALY!!I strongly suspect that most of you
guys who discredit Patterson or consider him mediocre were not alive as adults
when he fought and don't really grasp the whole boxing scene in those days.
Right, Kent? The heavyweight division was at one of its low periods, maybe in a
let down to the great Marciano Era. There were some good fighters like Folley,
Machen, light heavy Archie Moore (although about 45 years old) and others, but
none with star appeal to bring in the numbers for big profits. Boxing has always
been a promoter's sport and always will be. Patterson measured up as one of the
better ones for quite a while and was fortunate enough to become champ. By
the way, Kent, could you please explain what ducking a fight or fighters really
means? We need to know that the process of putting together a big fight,
especially a championship fight, is a lot more than 2 guys signing a contract
and showing up in their trunks. You need backers, you need a venue, you need an
expectation of people coming, you need a card, your main event fighters must
have some drawing power, and you need poisitve press coverage. You need a
license for the fight and you need 2 kids who can get licensed. You need
physicals for each kid, and they have to pass. You need to find a time when
other things going on will not steal away your crowd. You need to "make a fight"
with guys who will be interesting to watch, if you're a good promoter. In many
cases, you'll have a rising young kid and you want to find an older opponent who
will put up a good fight but probably lose, to boost the kid. Whether we like
'em or not, promoters work hard. Somebody's got to make money for boxing matches
to be put on. So it's oversimplified to think one guy is chicken about
fighting other guys, or wants only easy opponents, or even wants guys who will
throw a match. Sure, sometimes those things happen, but there's a LOT more going
on. Is that fair to say, Jimmy? |
|6/25/05 07:19:15 PM|Kent|Murrieta, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|Angelo, I am
not saying you don't know boxing. On the contrary I think you know a lot about
boxing and that is why I am surprised you don't recognize Ellis 2 as a tune up
for Frazier. Ellis, in his last chance, fought well, better than he did verses
Frazier in their first meeting and I agree with Bob B that Ellis was still a
better comododity than Young in early 1975 but later made people notice him with
his decision over Lyle in 1975 and again in 1976.Lyle to this day thinks