January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

I read through the letters posted, there are lot's of "Boxing Minds" out there.
I have a dilemma for you to consider. In several industries, you can take
average material and make a champion out of it. For example, a professional
song writer can take average talent and drop a well written song in their lap
and get them to the top of billboard charts (an example would be the fine
writing that Neil Diamond did in 1966-67 for The Monkees)....so here's my
question. Given an average fighter (say a contender, but not a champion), and
given the best trainers in the world, (if they teamed up), could they make a
champion out of the average fighter. In other words, if this average fighter
had the desire and all the best boxing minds in the world at his disposal, could
he be developed into a champion. Better yet, lets say he only has to focus on
one champion to beat - so he and his world class training team could focus on
the reigning champions shortcomings… I understand a trainer has to have
“something” to start with, even to consider championship honors, in this case
they do, an average heavyweight. I was going to list some possible match-ups;
like a 1975 Wepner vs. 1973 Foreman—but I found myself thinking of all of
Wepners shortfalls (slow, prone to cuts, etc.) and I stopped considering the
influence of the best boxing minds in the world (who would promote Wepners
positives, and focus on Foremans shortfalls). Wepner may not have been the
best example to use, but his level of contention is what I’m referring to, not
the top level contenders. Top contenders, like Bonavena, Lyle, Shavers,
Quarry, & Chuvalo, could have easily been champions—in many cases, the only
difference was a “disputed” decision. So….not considering the top level
contenders, could a finely picked team of Trainers, Technicians, Physicians from
around the world turn a Chuck Wepner class fighter into a Champion? My
thoughts& and prayers go out to the Quarry family. Sincerely, Slade.|
|6/22/06 07:17:39 PM|Kent|Murrieta, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|Welcome back
Slade, no I don't think you could take a journeyman and make him a champion but
of course anything can happen in a fight but the odds would be against
it.Interesting that you mentioned Wepner of 1975 verses Foreman of 1973
as Wepner did fight and lose to a young Foreman on his way up and big George
improved after they first had met.|
|6/22/06 10:31:59 PM|Jim Amato|Ohio||jimsboxing@zoominternet.net||||10|First of
all, sorry to hear about Mike's passing. He hung tough with the best of them in
his era. Jerry was one of my favorites. Always came to fight. I
think this is a great tribute site. |
|6/23/06 08:37:39 AM|Bob Bumbera|NC||renfbera@aol.com||||10|My sincere
condolences to the Quarry family for the loss of Mike. A very tough man who
gave it all every time.|
|6/23/06 10:39:37 AM|mark|uk||mark_sargeant2003@yahoo.co.uk||||10|This weekend
sees two of the best potential heavyweight challengers fight each other as
Calvin Brock takes on Sultan Ibragimov. However, combined the two have wins over
just Jameel McCline, Etienne and Lance Whittaker-obviously they haven't been
pushed too much so far and I'm not sure whether either deserves a title
challenge yet.Another excusable rant is against the rankings system
which sees challengers undeservedly fighting for titles. I know that Oleg
Maskaev fought very well indeed to blast Rahman out and has a win over Sinal Sam
but the first was over 7 years ago and since he has been blasted out by Oliver
McCall, Lance Whitaker, Kirk Johnson, David Tua and Corey Sanders. Not exactly a
glorious career. At the moment the best heavys and champions should be fighting
each other to help gain credibility.|
|6/23/06 05:37:35 PM|Ray|Las Vegas||********||||10|It was 37 years ago tonight
that Joe Frazier defeated Jerry Quarry in MSG in NYC. I was at that fight I was
convinced that Jerry would win coming of his big win over Buster Mathis 3 months
earlier.It's funny it does not seem like 37 years ago. it seems like
yesterday. My condolences to the Quarry family|
|6/23/06 08:51:17 PM|Phil|MO||********||||10|My sincere condolences to the