Thad Spencer-Ernie Terrell Jerry Quarry-Floyd Patterson Oscar Bonavena-Karl Mildenberger Jimmy Ellis-Leotis Martin
Nice one, if i remember right bonavena-mildenberger reminded me of someone bouncing a basketball up and down.
The article mentioned Frazier, Mathis & Liston weren't invited. Joe of course, stood little to gain and he took his business elsewhere to await the winner, and fighting Mathis along the way. But the Liston issue is interesting. Liston might have got Martin's slot. and probably would have beaten any of the rest in 1968. Then you would have had a Liston-Frazier-Ali triangle to try to figure out.
Frazier turned down the WBA invitation. I'm not sure why Liston was excluded. Perhaps some were afraid of the legitimacy of a tournament if Sonny was upset. Shades of the phantom punch.
Ellis was a 'dog' vs. Leotis? Mathis hadn't moved up the ladder yet (mid-67) to warrant inclusion. Sonny, at this time, was still fighting journeymen on his way back (he wouldn't beat Henry Clark until 1968 so his exclusion doesn't seem to be unwarranted)
Jimmy Ellis was probably the last one of the eight to be expected to win it. He had never fought a top quality genuine heavyweight before he entered the tournament. But he'd been sparring a lot with a peak Muhammad Ali, so he got pretty good. In fact, he proved himself an excellent boxer in that tournament. I think he's overlooked too often these days. He was probably on the slide, and coming off a layoff, when he faced Joe Frazier later on, to be fair.
