January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

journeyman who twice went the distance with Ali. Ron Lyle (43-7-1).
Lyle, perhaps a bit like Max Baer, was a big strong puncher but a crude boxer.
Jimmy Young, a smallish heavyweight who had only 13 wins in their first meeting,
twice outboxed him. A loss to Young was Lyle’s last fight before meeting Ali.
One can now see why Ali took the Lyle fight, once he realized the dangerous
hitter lacked boxing skills he figured he would be no problem for an experienced
fighter such as himself and he was right. Anybody with some skill could beat
Lyle. He was outboxed by the smaller Jerry Quarry and besides losses to Ali and
Foreman was knocked out by Lynn Ball who had only 14 pro fights. Gerry Cooney
also dusted him in one round. Beating a fighter like Lyle was a rather hallow
victory because of his lack of real boxing skills. The fact remains as to why
Lyle was granted a title fight off a loss? Only because he looked so raw and was
so easily outclassed by a journeyman boxer that it was figured to be another
easy opponent for Ali. Why do men of logical reasoning fail to see how carefully
handpicked Ali’s opponents were? Where is the criticism? Worshippers cannot see
through the glitz and the myth. But a wise, clear-eyed historian can.
Chuck Wepner (35-14). Is one beginning to see a pattern here? Most of
these guys Ali beat had a lot of losses. They were stiffs. Wepner had no boxing
skills. He was a bowery bum plain and simple. He was stopped in 6 rounds by
brittle chinned Duane Bobick four fights after going to the 15th round with Ali.
Before fighting Ali he was stopped by Buster Mathis, Jerry “Tomato Can”
Tomesetti, a young wild George Foreman, an old decrepit Sonny Liston, Joe
Bugner, and Jerry Judge. He also had point’s losses to Bob Stallings (6-5), Jose
Roman (20-5-1), and Randy Neumann (career record 31-7). That a longshoreman like
Wepner could knock Ali down and make it to the 15th round with a quality
heavyweight champion defies belief. George Foreman had a grossly padded
career record of 76-5. He was a wild, swinging amateurish caveman if ever there
was one. George, his feet stuck in the mud, struggled with every clever boxer he
faced. He made his career by beating up on nobodies. George opposition was so
bad on the way to the title he didn’t fight any has-beens, just never was’s.
Just look at some of these opponent’s. Roberto Davila (16-15) barely broke .500.
He went the distance with Foreman. Levi Forte (19-21-2) also went the distance
with George. Gregario Peralta, who weighed less than 200 pounds, gave George
fits in two fights. The only significant fighters he beat were a fat, out of
shape Joe Frazier and a glass jawed Ken Norton, who as previously noted lost to
every puncher he faced. Foreman was also outboxed in his career by journeyman
such as Jimmy Young, Tommy Morrison, Shannon Briggs and Axel Schulz; the latter
was robbed of the decision. Ali won this fight because he cheated by
using loose ropes. Have you ever watched this fight on film? It’s ridiculous how
loose those ropes were. Ali was able to pull back so far on the ropes it’s
laughable. The ropes were fixed by Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee and this is well
known. Foreman, a slow handed, one-dimensional puncher with no stamina at all
was easily beaten because Ali was able to survive the early rounds because of
those loose ropes. Foreman, a free-swinging amateur, virtually collapsed from
exhaustion in the 8th round. Ali could have pushed him over and he wouldn’t have
got up he was so tired. Those are the facts. Foreman did not have the energy to
fight past 5 rounds. To think he could last 25 rounds with a real tough fighter
like Jim Jeffries gives me the shivers. Ruddi Lubbers (29-8) was knocked
out in early rounds by such household names as Domencio Adinolfi, Mike Shutte,
Gordon Racette as well as Alfredo Evangelista. He is one of the worst fighters
Ali ever fought and looks pathetic on film. But somehow he manages to go the
distance with Ali over 12 rounds. A fighter like Lubbers would have been lucky
to survive 2 minutes with Joe Louis. Bob Foster (56-8). Not much to say
here other than he was a light-heavyweight who lost to every single heavyweight
he faced. Billy Conn and Archie Moore at least defeated some heavyweights.
Floyd Patterson (55-8). One of the few fighters that Ali faced who
actually had good boxing skills and a good record. But there is more to the