Jerry Quarry vs 1950 Joe Louis

Only a prime Charles and a prime Rocky beat comeback Louis. That's probably how good a fighter has to be to be assured of victory here. Even that version of Louis was still pretty darn good. Have you seen what Louis did to Pat Valentino? In the same era Louis knocked out Nino Valdez in one round too. The guy was still very capable.

I like Quarry but Louis beat a lot of guys like him. Quarry might even lose to Cesar Brion. After all, Even in his prime Quarry couldn't do anything with Willis Earls a guy knocked out 12 times in less than 30 Total fights. There is scope for Quarry losing to the kinds of guys Comeback Louis would beat. Jimmy Bivins was still good enough to beat Mike Dejohn years after Louis beat him. Comeback Louis might not have been the bomber of old but his opponents were live, willing guys all trying to win. There was nothing hand picked about any of them.

 

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I think at this point in time Louis would have been in danger of been out pointed or even stopped late. Quarry was a decent fighter, tough as they come. Joe was now really slipping and Jerry takes advantage of this. He would be to fast for Joe, and even though Louis gets some hard punches in, it's not enough to hold him back. I see either a wide point s win or even a tired Joe been stopped in the last few round s

 

So his knocking out Ernie Shavers means nothing?

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It means he knocked out Earnie Shavers.
But so did Ron Stander, Ron Lyle and Bernardo Mercado.

 

Shavers wasn’t an easy fighter to beat as his record shows.
Shavers finished his career in 1995 with a record of 74 wins (68 by knockout, 23 inside the first round), 14 losses and 1 draw. So his losses were 7 by knock out,

6 by decision and one by disqualification.

That leaves 74 fights that he won and was NOT knocked out. 68 of which he won by knocking his opponent out. That means that of 74 opponents, that he defeated, only six escaped being knocked out.



Unfortunately he had a weak chin and was knocked out by



Brian Yates

Randall Cobbs

Bernardo Mercado

Larry Holmes

Ron Lyle

Jerry Quarry

Ron Stander

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earnie_Shavers


So that does weaken the significance of Quarry doing the same.


BTW
Ali was unable to knock Shavers out.

 

Its a tossup. People are severly overrating Louis here. He didnt have much left beyond a jab at this point. Quarry was tough, athletic, could bang, and loved guys coming at him. Id give Joe a good shot because of his class and that jab was still potent but pretending joe was joe in 1950 is silly. I dont rly see Louis stopping him at this point and hed have to really hurt him or keep him on the end of his jab to outpoint him but he could fo both. Whereas i could see Quarry beating Louis several was in 1950. To me its a tougher fight for this version of Joe but given his class Id give him an even shot.

I also dont agree that by suffering defeats only to Charles and Rocky at this point means you had to be in that class to beat him. Beyond those two fights his level of competition drops way off. His next best opponents were Savold and Bivins, both of whom were ancient also and not prime versions of themselves and it only gets worse from there. Id favor Quarry over anyone Louis fought in his comeback outside of Charles and Rocky.

 

Look at the guys Louis fought as champion. Were his comeback guys really that much of a drop off from many of the Red Burman, Gus Dorazio, Nathan Mann, Tami Mauriello types. I think all of the comeback opponents were better than Jack Roper, johnny paycheck and Harry Thomas.


Agramante and Brion were the kind of live opponents who in a another life would have won a lot more fights. I imagine you have seen the same films as me. Brion gave Charles as much as a handful as he gave Louis.

If there was so much of a gulf between Brion and Charles it would have shown up in their fight surely? Cesar certainly deserved to be in the ring with those guys. Agramante was a real live wire too. The Cuban fought at least 9 times a year between 1949 -1951 against all comers. Only Walcott knocked Agramante out during that spell. He even went the distance with Big Cat Williams when he was all washed up.

Today fighters good enough to operate at world level are groomed as prospects away from any real competition until they get a title shot of some kind but back then if it was decided you could live at a good level that was the level where you fought. Today that's called a journeyman. Back then it was a top of the bill opponent. That's why a lot of the top guys had 50-50 records. They were having 50-50 fights.

 

Interesting fight. I give Quarry a good chance to win it.

 

Styles make fights.
Guys like Agramonte, Bivins and Brion were known as cagey defensive types. Against an old Joe Louis they survived the 10 round distance.
Quarry was more open to getting hit. He'd surprise me if he lasted the distance with the old Louis.

As for him winning or stopping Louis it's extremely improbable. We're talking about Jerry Quarry, the guy who couldn't stop Patterson in two outings, the guy who was outboxed by a washed up Eddie Machen and couldn't stop or beat Jimmy Ellis, twice outclassed by Ali, twice outclassed by Frazier, most of which happened in his prime.
Louis, although old, was taller, bigger and better than most of those men, and definitely taller and better and bigger than Quarry.

Quarry was a plucky warrior but not a first rate fighter.

 

None of those broke his jaw though.

 

Yes he was. He was near retirement, pounds over his best weight, and did nothing but run against Louis. No, I wouldnt favor the 1950 version of him over a prime Quarry.

Braddock was ****. Id pick even off form Quarry to beat the best version of Braddock.