January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

night.I've always told Wepner that the fight that should have been made
was him and George chuvalo. Fortunately,in hindsight for Wepner it didn't
happen. Chuck was made to order for Chuvalo, and Chuck might have gotten
seriously hurt. Wepner tells me his best fight was against Manuel Ramos. I was
there it was a good fight the decision could have gone to Ramos, it was that
close. I told Wepner that I thought his best fight was against, guess who?
Forest Ward. Ward was a sensational amateur from Brooklyn. Everyone thought he
was destined for great things. That fight was the turning point in Wepner's
career. Wepner knocked down Ward in the 2nd round. In the 4th round Wepner was
getting pounded and a bloody mess, the referee asked Wepner if he wanted to
continue (and Wepner was not knocked down or given a standing 8 count. Wepner
said yes and Ward collapsed from exhaustion, I believe in the 6th round. This
fight was on the undercard of Mathis-Woody, and Chuvalo-Ramos.|
|11/27/03 07:31:43 PM|Paul|Sydney||PlMls4@aol.com||||10|Evren, boxing isn't a
great big sport here, so our successes have been modest compared to bigger
countries. But we've done all right. Putting aside Kostya Tsyzu and Anthony
Mundine who now have world titles, our more recent ones were Jeff Fenech (three
world titles in different divisions) and Jeff Harding (1989 light heavy champ
twice). Fenech has gone on to bigger and better things - very wealthy and a
rising fight trainer; but sadly Harding has hit the bottle and been in the
slammer. I met Harding once and he was a good guy, but very quiet, reserved,
almost simmering. Aboriginal Lionel Rose was another who won a world title (beat
Fighting Harada). I was extremely fortunate two years ago to mix socially with
Rose after a boxing night in Sydney. He is a very nice guy in every sense and
also a very humble man. Rose lost his title to a great fighter named Reubin
Olivares. Johnny Famacheon won a world title in London. He was a superb boxer
with great skills. He fell on hard times 10 years ago when hit by a car and he
is now in a wheelchair. Jimmy Carruthers and Vic Patrick won world titles
earlier. The former operated a fruit juice shop in Sydney in 1979 and I met him
there once. That was a great privilege. Unfortunately he has passed on. Les
Darcy is acclaimed as probably Australia's best fighter who never won a world
title. He went to America and died of blood poisoning from a bad tooth. Actually
our best race horse - Phar Lap - went to the States and died of blood poisoning,
too. We've had some good fighters. Kostya Tzysu, of course, is from Russia, but
he lives here now and is very popular. He is a wonderful advertisement for the
sport. Unfortunately, and I hope I'm wrong, I suspect he might be the type to
get old overnight (if you know what I mean). The best up-and-comer from here is
Danny Green (trained by Jeff Fenech) who will win a title soon (he was
disqualified against Marcus Beyer earlier this year for a head butt after
knocking Beyer down 3 times). My favourite Australian fighter was Tony Mundine
(Anthony's father). In 1974 he got knocked out by the very great middle-weight
Carlos Monzon in the 8th round. It was a tremendous effort to even survive that
long with that guy. Tony never won a world title, but he deserved one. At one
stage in Australia Tony held every national title from middle-weight to heavy.
He was an excellent offensive fighter, but his chin let him down. Anyway, Evren,
gotta go, and I'm sure we're both good guys when we're not boring the rest of
the posters here by talking politics or religion. Cheers. |
|11/27/03 07:33:39 PM|Evren|London||@||||10|Your right Kent. Just feeling so
argumentative. Sorry to have annoyed people - The Sydney thing was an utter joke
but came out the wrong way and I shouldn't have said it. I have made a peace
gesture to Paul as you can see I hope he takes it up. |
|11/27/03 07:38:29 PM|Evren|london||@||||10|Thanks Paul that was really cool of
you. Do you know that I have felt so upset about this bickering - it sounds
pathetic I know but I am just not myself. I really hope to get hold of a video
soon on the great Les Darcy - I have been trying to get hold of it and have now
managed to find it. Thanks very much.|
|11/27/03 07:58:41 PM|Massimo|Rome||4||||10|Evren-I can't read my e-mail