January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

The irony is that it is Ali who taught us that even the greats are
beatable on any given night, and I'll try and explain it this way. Tell me this:
who would have won out of Henry Cooper and Jerry Quarry ? Be fair now. Jerry
would have been too strong and too busy (although both he and Cooper would have
cut up badly in a frantic fight). Now go back in time and remember the
Clay v Cooper fight. Cooper put Clay down almost for the count. The difference
between a loss and a win for Clay was probably Angelo Dundee's probing thumb and
a glove tear.So I ask you this: if Cooper all but beat Clay, then why is
it so unbelievable that Jerry could have done the same thing ? Lightning does
strike, you know. Ask Joe Louis.I'd like to add something else. Many
people accuse Ali of getting favouritism from judges etc, in his second career.
Perhaps that was the case, as there were questionable decisions (even though
close title fights traditionally go to champs).But people forget that
Ali in his first career - as Clay - was hated by the establishment, including
the judges, and the influential media. It is a credit to Clay that he never
allowed his fights to be dictated by shonky judges. He took the result out of
their hands by winning easily. And it wasn't like he was fighting bums.
Whether critics like or admire Ali or not, the undeniable truth is that
he had probably the most remarkable career in boxing history. It had everything.
Controversy in and out of the ring. Politics and defiance of authorities.
Charges and court hearings. Show downs in exotic places all round the world. His
fights became world events. Boxing today still has wind in its sails from the
Ali era.|
|8/14/04 07:04:14 PM|Ernie Laxalt|Reno, NV||elax66@aol.com||||10|Hahaha, you
guys crack me up, and I mean that in a nice way. No, I gave up drinking back in
'82. Jimmy, yes, any really good heavyweight boxer -- and JQ was a great one, no
doubt about it -- could conceivably beat any other on a given night. The proof
of that is that every once in a while there's a huge upset, like Buster Douglas
beating Tyson or Leon Spinks beating Ali. But that's only one one hundredth of
one percent of the time. 98% of the time, there is a pretty consistent order to
things in boxing, and we can usually tell what fights will be close, which ones
someone is pretty sure to win, etc. Now Jerry had how many title fights? 4? 5?
He didn't win. That means something serious, friends. We cannot truly call him a
champion. In some ways he was great, like a champ -- in his heart, his punch,
his killer instinct, his will to win, his left hook. But I argue that's really
all we can say. Now there are certain matchups where Jerry was probably closer
to winning, even against guys he did not beat. Norton and Holmes were good
opportunities for him -- these were guys he could knock out. I don't think so
about Liston, Ali, Frazier and Foreman. Yes, it's possible, but not very likely.
Now my real point is that by indulging all our speculations as far as we
want, with no discipline, we are not learning anything, we are not exchanging
real information, we are not exploring facts or real hypotheses or theories. All
we're doing is pushing peas around on the plate, as they say down South. I
compared it to masturbation. As far as my World War Two analogy, I wanted to
give you an example that was absurd and similar. It's not history to investigate
what would have happened if the Germans had repelled the Allied invasion of
Normandy, and it's not history to investigate whether Quarry would have beaten
Ali if Quarry did not get cut. I don't man to be rude, but it seems like a waste
of time, and doubly so, because it's been said here so many times. There are
so many other things about heavyweight boxing from the days of Jim Jeffreys on
that we could talk about. I suggest we move onto new ground. For example, I'd be
interested in what happened to guys Jerry beat. Specifically, I'd like to figure
out if the experience of being KOed or soundly beaten by Jerry got many guys out
of boxing, either right away or after just a few more fights. It seems to me
that it would, but I don't know. Does anyone? My brothers were all brawlers,
Massimo, and I was the fast one, the one with footwork. They are all fat couch
potatoes now. (Meaning: mostly what they do is sit around drinking beer and