January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

saw a film of Louis demolishing Carnera, which was almost as bad a mismatch as
Ali-Wepner, or Holmes-Cobb. Louis was a scary fighter, silently gliding forward,
that expressionless, almost sleepy look on his face, then calmly walking away,
as if in his garden, after flooring someone. He was as completely as
unpredictable as Ali, like a chess master setting a sinister trap, then
springing.Tony Galento said he "felt like the referee was hitting me too," which
is the way Carnera must have felt. Some might have been ~as~ accurate, and as
good with combinations as Louis, but it'd be a short list, and no one could
finish a man like Louis could. Of all the fights I've seen, few were as good at
cutting off the ring, either. For heavyweights, I'd put Dempsey, Marciano, and
Frazier in Louis's class in that area. Of course, the question of how he'd do in
the 60s and 70s is always out there. He'd have done fine, though he wouldn't
have annihilated most of the men of that era the way he did virtually all in his
own time. There are top contenders, let alone champins, in the 60s-70s who would
have made mince meat out of many of Louis's opponents - an awful lot really
~were~ bums of the month.Kent -SI doesn't have back copies
online, so maybe I'll check the library. That was at just about the end of his
career, so I imagine Jerry was already feeling many symptoms of his impending
condition, just as a person does, if they're observant and truthful, way ahead
of a heart attack. I think Cobb and Homes was even worse than Ali and Wepner,
and should have been stopped as early as the end of the fifth round. Of course,
some good came out of it - we never had to listen to Howard Cosell broadcast a
fight again!|
|9/2/03 04:22:40 PM|Massimo|Rome||.com||||10|Roadscholarette-Thanks ! I saw
all the Ali'-Wepner fight and, without a doubt, Ali' completely outboxed Chuck.
But I have read that Wepner was in the top 10 at the moment of the fight !!! How
is it possible ? He didn't deserve to be ranked in the top 10. He was just a
brave fighter ! I think Louis beat some good fighters like Buddy Baer, Lou Nova,
Max Schmeling, Max Baer andmaybe Tony Galento ( the guy could punch...)and a
lot of bums !|
|9/2/03 07:01:26 PM|Tubby Breslin |Fullerton, CA ||bearstubastanchu@aol.com
||||10|Hello, all you boxing lovers! In one of my previous careers, I was a
speech pathologist and therapist. One of the areas of this profession is working
with people who have aphasia, or brain damage related to communication. This
damage can take almost an infinite number of forms, many very subtle. It can
also unfold very slowly, or after a delay. When the human brain is assaulted by
blunt (like boxing punches or baseball bat or stone) or piercing (knife, ice
pick, screwdriver) injury, it is always damaged. There is no escaping it. The
extent of the damage depends on many factors. The bottom line is that any boxer
who has had even a few pro or very active amateur fights has already begun to
incur some brain damage. Those with 20, 30, 40 or more fights have
proportionally more damage. This applies to Jerry Quarry, Muhammad Ali, and
every other former boxer, no matter how undamaged he may appear. Archie Moore
and Sugar Ray Robinson were both notoriously punchy, although when seen briefly
on TV, the damage may not have been obvious to all. It wasn't obvious for many
years with Joe Louis, either, until he was a drooling old man in the Las Vegas
casinos. If you watch any former experienced boxer, you will see some signs, if
you know what to look for. This is an unfortunate but undeniable fact.
Today in the newspaper, Warren Sapp, a former NFL lineman and All Star
who weighs 350+ pounds and stands 6'7", is quoted as saying he is "confident" he
could defeat Mike Tyson in the boxing ring. Sapp holds a championship in a
competition combining karate, tae kwon do and other martial arts. Of course, if
he were allowed to kick and so forth, he probably would win. But if boxing rules
only were enforced, I have no doubt that Tyson would cut Sapp in two with his
first body punch. Anyone agree? Let's make a plea here. In any group of
boxers, such as the heavyweight division at any time in history, there are
excellent, good, average, weak and poor fighters. In our discussions, Ali,