January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

fought and pretend that the effect to his health are not related. He is the way
he is because his handlers never met a dollar they didn't want. Really, for the
life of me how can some of you people defend all the tough fights Ali had and
ignore what happenned to him as a result of those fights. It seems like you are
blaming Frazier because he was not mismanaged like Ali was|
|6/27/05 06:07:43 PM|Fan|Fandom||Fan@Fandom.com||||10|You damn right Ali was
mismanaged. He had no control over his finances or his schedule, he was always
a cash-cow for someone else. Frazier might not have had the wit and verbal
skills of Ali, but in some ways he was much smarter.|
|6/27/05 08:23:32 PM|Noam|same||same||||10|ForestI can't recall anyone
defending Ali's management and I agree with you on that aspect. I believe that
Ali had damage even by the Foreman fight and his speech was slurred at ringside
afterwards. It should have ended there.I've long harbored the belief
that Dundee, in particular, let him down for allowing it to go on as long as it
did. I also believe that Ali's doctor should have stepped in much earlier than
he did. Ferdie Pachecho hung in there past the point of no return with Ali's
health. Ali also let himself be managed poorly with finances. At one
stage he was told that his entourage was ripping millions off of him and Ali
replied, "If they are stealing it, then they are doing it because they need it."
In essence, Ali allowed it to happen. However, Ali's management issue
doesn't take away from Frazier's failure to fight certain punchers and that hole
in his resume must ultimately impact on his standing in boxing history, in my
opinion anyway.To rank fighters from the same and different eras, we
must compare the fighters they fought and didn't fight, the style of boxer they
fought well against and the style they didn't, and whether they can take a hard
punch and whether they can't.I believe that Ali had the best jaw ever
and that was his great strength as a fighter (and his great weakness for his
health). If Ali had Frazier's management, he'd probably be healthier today but
his legend would not be so great.However, if Frazier had Ali's
management, what would have happened ? His health would be worse off, for sure.
But he would have had many more fights and many more losses. His legend would
never have been as great as Ali's, no matter who managed him. He simply didn't
have the tools physically to be as great as Ali.In my opinion, Joe's
biggest weakness was Ali's biggest strength - his jaw. Joe was vulnerable to
hard punchers, as we saw early against Bonavena and then had it shown proof
positive with his demolition against Foreman.Which brings me back to
the recurring theme......Frazier avoided big punchers whenever he could. Forest
says that this was smart management and, of course, he is right. But it also
meant that he didn't fight all the viable contenders of his era and for that
fight fans are entitled to detract points from his legend.|
|6/27/05 08:37:03 PM|angelo|dc||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|Noam: Ditto. Forrest:
Ali's legend was built on all those incredible fights and they took an
unfortunate toll on him, if this is what has caused the Parkinsons. Frazier is
better off---but he cannot enjoy the accolades because he did not accomplish
what Ali did. In a lot of ways, I think everything Ali did after Manilla was
unneccessary---sure, beating Shavers was nice, winning the title a THIRD time
was nice---but the loss to Spinks, controversial wins over Young and Norton and
losses to Holmes and Berbick were not good for Ali or his reputation. Had he
quit after Zaire, he'd probably still be in the public eye today, at fight cards
TALKING, not just an onlooker. Had he quit after Manilla, I don't know how his
condition would be---except I think he'd be better off than he is now. But his
career was simply amazing and that's why he gets all the praise from me, and I
second guess Joe---he did NOT take on the caliber of opponents Ali did and sure,
he was smoked twice by Foreman. |
|6/28/05 12:46:21 AM|Noam|same||same||||10|Massimo - you wrote that Linde was
the smartest guy who ever lived for inventing the air conditioner. I just heard
that you guys are having a heat wave in Roma. Now I understand why you said