January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

story. For as talented as Patterson was, he had not faced much real heavyweight
competition. Indeed, he had faced only journeymen and light heavyweights in
defense of his heavyweight title. Patterson ducked Sonny Liston and other top
heavyweights for years when he held the title. Patterson spent most of his
career ducking the top fighters off his time never facing Cleveland Williams,
Nino Valdez and Ernie Terrell. He won the vacant title by beating 43-year-old
light heavyweight champion Archie Moore. His title defenses were against guys
like Tommy Hurricane Jackson (career mark 34-9-1). Jackson had been knocked out
in two rounds by Valdez, a fighter Patterson avoided. Yet Patterson struggled
against Jackson in their first fight winning a narrow split decision. He won the
second fight by Tko but Jackson was hardly a worthy title contender as his
record demonstrates. Another one of his title defenses was against Pete
Rademacher who was in his pro debut. Roy Harris was undefeated at the time, but
also unproven. He finished with a career mark of 31-5 and scored only 9
knockouts in his career and was hardly a worthy title threat. Another title
defense was against glass jawed Brian London (more on him later). Tom McNeeley,
the father of Peter McNeeely, was another inexperienced foe sent to the
slaughter. Tom finished with a career record of 37-14. The first time Patterson
met a heavyweight who could punch he was annihilated by Ingemar Johannson and
then again by Liston twice. Joey Maxim a light-heavyweight managed to outbox
him. He was also outboxed by Ali’s chief sparring partner Jimmy Ellis. It’s not
surprising then that Ali could. However beating the overly protected and fragile
Patterson hardly makes Ali great. Patterson weighed in the 180’s and had a very
weak chin. Despite being so protected he still managed to be dropped 16 times in
his career and was stopped 5 times. Jerry Quarry (53-9-4). Quarry
started bleeding during the national anthem because he was so prone to cuts. He
was doing well with Ali in the first fight before he received a nasty gash over
his eye. Ali had the best fight of his career in the second Quarry fight. But
beating Quarry is not that significant after all he was stopped in 7 rounds by
George Chuvalo who was a nothing puncher as well as by Joe Frazier and Ken
Norton, the latter was not known as a huge puncher either. Quarry was down twice
against Memphis Al Jones before coming back to win. Yet Ali could not put him
down in two fights. Joe Frazier also beat him more convincingly than did Ali in
either fight. Quarry lost to Jimmy Ellis, and Eddie Machen both solid if
uninspiring boxers. He had a draw and a narrow win over an over the hill Floyd
Patterson. Quarry had two draws with Tony Alongi who never beat anyone of
significance despite his career mark of (40-2-4). He also drew with Tony Doyle
(40-16). With a spotty record like this it’s easy to see that Quarry was just
another over-rated white hope who lacked both durability and true boxing skills.
Jurgen Blin (31-11-6) One of Ali’s typical career opponents. Not as good
as journeyman such as Joe Bugner or Jimmy Young as Blin lost or drew almost a
third of his fights. He was knocked out in 2 of his next 5 fights after going
the distance with Muhammad Ali. Ali, as usual, did not have the punch to knock
out ham and eggers that other heavyweights toppled with no problem.
Jimmy Ellis (40-12-1) Another fighter with a shotty record. Ellis
weighed only 189 pounds for his fight with Ali. He was outweighed by over 31
pounds and it still took Ali until the 12th round to squeak out a last minute
knockout. Oscar Bonavena (58-9) had a reach of only 73 ½” Bonavena his
stubby little arms was scarcely more than a journeyman who lost every time he
stepped up in competition. He lost twice to Joe Frazier, and lost to Zora
Folley, Jimmy Ellis, Floyd Patterson and Ron Lyle among others. He never won a
fight against a highly rated top contender. Ali struggled and was in poor form
against Bonavena until finally catching him and knocking him out in the 15th
round. But this not before much of the audience decided to head to the exits
early so bored were they with the lack of action in the ring. It is lackluster
victories such as these over journeyman and stumblebums, where Ali struggled
that prove Ali’s record is a manufactured media myth. Zora Folley (79-