January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

infamous "jock strap" comment was a mistake, and he regretted it from the
beginning. The context was that Peter Marciano was at the press conference
after the fight, glowing because Holmes lost the decision to M. Spinks. It got
under Holmes skin that people were rooting for him to lose so that he wouldn't
match Marciano's undefeated record. Sort of like rooting against Hank Aaron so
he wouldn't break Ruth's record. Holmes was about to make history, had a
questionable decision take it away from him (wasn't knocked down, wasn't cut,
landed the harder punches, but lost his title) and now Peter Marciano was
standing in the back of the room, obviously happy that Holmes lost. Larry
Holmes made the jockstrap comment to dig at P.M. more than anything else and
later, really felt bad about it. Even back then, Holmes had photos of Rocky
Marciano hanging at his training facility and was an admirerer of the former
champ. |
|1/12/04 06:38:54
AM|Roadscholarette|Chicago||roadscholarette@hotmail.com||||10|Massimo -I
don't remember using "slice up," but I'm guessing whoever did was using a knife
metaphor for a fighter who was severely cut.Carnera wasn't on steroids -
they weren't around then. He was "normal" muscular, like the guys in the old
California muscle beach photos of the '50s, unlike the juiced-up guys of today.
He was just a giant, muscular man, who could actually move well, a forerunner of
modern day football players who're built like bears, but move like deer. Primo
on steroids would have produced a 300 pound block of chiseled muscle! |
|1/12/04 07:03:41 AM|Kent|La Habra, CA||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|That
"jockstrap" comment was blown way out of proportion. Holmes said it right after
the heat of battle, after a fight he thought he won but was taken from him by
the officials. As Angelo suggests, Holmes apologized to the Marciano family and
to Marciano's fans but this is never brought up. Holmes was a great champion
and he is a class act and he deserves to be cut some slack for a poor, but
understandable choice of words. After all, in his mind he should have been
celebrating tying Marciano's record, not explaining why he lost.In the
fight itself against Michael Spinks, Spinks did land more punches but Holmes
landed the harder blows. It is back to the question about who really won that
fight. The judges sided with Spinks' quanity over Holmes' quality of punches.
I tend to think Spinks had a slight edge in the fight but did he really go out
and decisvely take the title from the champion? I don't believe that he did. A
case can be made for either fighter winning and a draw would have been a fair
decision.As far as Holmes verses Spinks 2, Holmes was robbed by the
officials in that one. Holmes stepped up his performance but he was denied by
officials with "sour grapes" for him.|
|1/12/04 10:27:46 AM|John Gerard|NYC||rock289z@yahoo.com||||10|KEN: On Larry
Holmes. i agree he was a great champion, I agree he was robbed against Spinks
(both times, in my book). I also think he had the best left jab ever. I DISAGREE
with him being a "class act". I heard him ranting before the Cooney fight and
the term class act did not come to mind. |
|1/12/04 10:40:30 AM|JIMMY DORSEY|VENTURA
CALIFORNIA||RONNYRAINS@YAHOO.COM||||10|BOB BUMBERA: They(Quarry-Bonavena)Had a
tentative agreement for July 25th 1973,But Oscar pulled out citing he needed
more time to train,that when Shavers came into the picture and winded up ko'ing
Jimmy Ellis in one JUNE 18TH,Which doubled both fighter's purse for the DEC.14TH
QUARRY-SHAVERS.I was reading Ali's 10-0 title defenses after he beat
Foreman,WEPNER,LYLE,NORTON,FRAZIER,COOPMAN,DUNN,YOUNG,SHAVERS,EVANGELISTA,BUGNER
.It would have been tough for any heavyweight to beat those 10 in a
row,especially the "LION OF FLOUNDERS".Well at least
LYLE,FRAZIER,NORTON,SHAVERS,YOUNG. were tops albeit bouts had a little
controversy to them|
|1/12/04 11:29:31
AM|Roadscholarette|Chicago||roadscholarette@hotmail.com||||10|In the book Facing