This guy beat prime or close to; Folley Machen Williams Bob Foster Chuvalo Garcia A record up there with the likes of any of the above and the likes of Ellis, Bonavena, Patterson, Quarry etc so how do others rate him?.
Seamus says he "wouldn't even make a good opponent today". Not based upon size, at 6'6 and up to 220, so presumably just because he's trash.
Well some posters think that you just have to measure a fighter and weigh him to determine how good he was! You know the ones "He was 6-3 and 245 pounds" with not a word about his speed, skills, heart etc.
He also got KO'd by scrubs like Bethea, Spencer and Ramos. He looks like a feather-fisted stiff on film. He had his moments and hung in there. A good sparring partner, I'm sure.
He wasn't KO'd by any of them and lost to Bethea when he was, what, 20 years old? Look up Wladimir Klitschko vs Ross Puritty. In my opinion the Ali fight killed his confidence but the Terrell-Spencer fight was closer than the scorecards suggest from what I saw. At his best he had one of the best left jabs in heavyweight history.
KD'd by Spencer, sorry. He had a long, albeit slow and pushed, jab. Not near one of the best. In average fighter in a transitional (that's being polite) era.
The only times Terrell was stopped was by Cleveland Williams in '62 and at the very end of his career in '73 at the hands of Jeff Merritt. He was an awkwardly effective heavy with a long left jab and his nickname was the "octopus"...which probably would have put him in the same league as John Ruiz in terms of fan appeal. He was actually a good fighter who unfortunately was in the game at the same time as Muhammad Ali, and may have prompted Ali's cruel performance with his insistance on calling Ali "Clay". Terrell would have no doubt won a version of the crown in the past 20 years but would have fallen short against the stellar names of that particular time as he did against Ali. His style was monotonously effective against certain fighters who couldn't seem to deal with that long telephone pole jab of his.
I had mixed feelings on Terrell. I thought he looked good in some of his earlier performances, such as against Bob Foster, when he actually stepped out and fought his opponents. As time progressed though, he became increasingly more of an ugly Ruiz-ish stinker, who just looked to turn every fight into an ugly, impossible-to-score maulfest. The WBA basically gave him a gift by matching him with a faded Eddie Machen for their title, and he duly won one of his typically close, ugly non-fights. I did think he might have the potential to give Ali some trouble with his size and grappling ability, but he basically froze and allowed Ali to dictate the whole fight, and never really tried to physically impose himself on him. After that, he was exposed again by Thad Spencer (who turned out to be not really that good) and faded away.
The transitional era howso? Was it the period that Bonavena, Bugner, Quarry, Lyle, Norton needed until they could better Terrell, Machen, Garcia, Cooper, Peralta, Folley? Makes sense...
Terell was a solid fighter. He perfected a defensive oriented style which made him tough to catch cleanly, and more often than not used his great length to his advantage to tie guys up or jab them at a distance.. Terell had a good chin, good stamina, and solid skills. He wasn't very fast nor did he hit hard, but he was a good nights work for the best fighters of the 1960's for sure, expect for a prime 66' -67' Ali. I'd compare Terell to a modern day Tony Thompson, with Terell being the better by a small margin. Was Terell better than Folley,Machen,Williams,Bob Foster,Chuvalo and Garcia? I think its close, but I would say yes in most cases, and tie in 1-2 others. I think Patterson was better and so was Quarry. I think Terell would be ring ranked today anywhere from 5-10.
Problem with Terrell was he really did not have the best power, nor was he a speed demon. Terrel was 6"6 and that worked for him. I do not see him doing anything great but he was somewhat effective for a spell. I would compare him somewhat to Tony Thompson, only I think Thompson would beat him. Thompson seems to have more pop, goes to the body agressivly and the southpaw style is a benefit