January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

the land where crocodiles play saxophones -- this semi-conscious nether world
every boxer knows. It takes strong will and determination to keep going and not
let yourself slip under, right, Massimo? The urge to give up and sleep can be
almost overpowering, when you are more exhausted than most human beings can
imagine. Champions are strong-willed people or they don't last as champions.
There is very little significant variation between the physical elements
such as skull size and thickness, etc. That's not it. Neither is a strong, thick
neck. Just watch some of the great thin Mexican fighters who will not be knocked
out if you hit them with a baseball bat. The power of suggestion is the main
thing going on when a fighter believes he will lose, or can;t win, or cannot
possibly beat a given opponent. Patterson had a bad case of this against Liston,
as who wouldn't? Tyson built a career on it. So did Ali. As the mind goes, so
goes the body. How come nobody ever says anything negative about Jerry
Quarry here? I she supposed to be some kind of saint? He was a stupid fighter
and had a mean streak. He picked fights outside the ring all his life, and
enjoyed beating people up. I dare anybody to admit that or deny it. If Jerry
hadn't been white, he would not have had the same career and neither promoters
or fans would have been so interested in him. Again, koo koo, beat it. |
|10/8/03 06:13:48 AM|Paul|Sydney, Australia||PlMls4@aol.com||||10|Koo Koo, lots
of people think that Liston was slow only because they saw him against a young
Cassius Clay. Against Clay, everyone looked cumbersome. Liston certainly didn't
look slow against Floyd Patterson who, I remind you, was trained by Tyson's
mentor (Cus D'Amato). Patterson lasted 126 seconds in the first fight and 130
seconds in the second. In that era, Liston was more feared than Tyson ever was
in his prime. Although I think that Tyson would probably have beaten Liston, I
don't think the result would be a 'given'. Liston was capable of intimidating
Tyson, just like Holyfield did before his first fight with 'Iron Mike'. At the
press conference Holyfield glared at Tyson and said, "You don't bother me one
bit." Holyfield wasn't intimidated and this spooked Tyson and Holyfield won the
fight before it even began. Liston was more capable of intimidating Tyson than
Tyson ever was of intimidating Liston. And that brings us back to the weakness
that stopped Tyson from being one of the greats: he was a mentally weak bully.
(His other weakness is that he is unable to absorb punishment.) After the
Douglas fight, Tyson discarded the bobbing head and body movement and thereafter
he became an easy target to hit. By the way, Big Mel, cruel demean those who
speak them more than the person targeted in the attack. Monuments are never
built for critics. (P.S. Massimo - I enjoy your comments and your sense of
humour). |
|10/8/03 07:12:33 AM|Angelo|Washington, DC||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|The huge
money fights of today are making it difficult for any of the current fighters to
achieve immmortal greatness. In my opinion, a guy like Tyson simply hasn't
fought enough. Having one fight every 18 months to 2 years, no matter how good
you are, doesn't work. Larry Holmes was a great champion because he defended
the title so many times (and it didn't hurt that most of these fights were on
network television for the whole world to see). Look how many times Muhammad
Ali fought after winning the title (both after Liston and after Foreman). Now,
managers are scared to death that having a guy fight too many times will spoil a
big payday against a certain contender, so the waiting game is on all the time.
It's why we never saw Lewis-Bowe, a natural fight that would have been that
generations Ali-Frazier. Back in the 70's, the fights were made quickly and
there were lots of them, for every contender, every champion. Now, Tyson won't
even fight often because he might lose! What a bizarre system. |
|10/8/03 09:52:08 AM|Massimo|Rome||8||||10|Paul-Thanks for the beautiful
words ! What do you mean when you say that Tyson can't absorb punishment ? I
think he can take a punch, as I have discussed before. Anyway, I think a
1958/1962 Liston would have beaten a prime Tyson thanks to his chin and thanks
to his long and powerful left jab. For beating Liston you need a genial