The Quarry that beat Spencer was a fit, fast, disciplined and effective boxer-puncher. I'm inclined to think that may have been Jerry at his best. Being a natural cruiserweight in the heavyweight division may have been his biggest problem.
He was probably at his physical peak for the Spencer fight but, oddly enough, his 2 best wins(IMO) came about when he was a complete mess, physically. His erratic nature is what makes him such an interesting guy to study
You can't discount the shape he was in for Frazier 1, his speed and timing were great but it looked like he hurt his right hand banging it on Joe's jaw early. His loss was a matter of a rock of a man meeting one made of iron, Joe just could take it better.
I tend to fashion a fighter from what I feel is his 3-fight prime. And I always seem to see Quarry in the Aaron Eastling-Buster Mathis-Joe Frazier I era.
Late sixties early seventies.wait on way to long and payed a terrible price .real shame a good fighter ending up like he did.
It really is a tragic story.. He squandered a fortune of about 5 million dollars which back in the seventies was probably the equivalent of what 20 million is today, and all of it on nonsense like drugs, women, booze, parties, bad investments, free handouts to leaches, etc... He then tried to compensate by fighting too long as you said and his health suffered for it. Its too bad he didn't stop after the second Frazier meeting of 1975 and then managed his money more carefully.. For all we know he might still be living today and doing well.
The beating he took off Norton should have been the finish went on and fought that Italian bloke zamon I think his name was Jerry was taking beating when he he came from behind and KOed zamon .made lots of comebacks fighting in the backwoods against nobodys that wouldn't have lasted a rnd with him at his best.A tragic story that young fighters shouldn't ignore.
Yeah I don't think he should have even fought Norton.. After taking a hammering from Joe Frazier for the second time in 1974, retirement was a good idea. Lorenzo Zanon was outboxing Quarry before Jerry knocked him out.
