Did Jerry Quarry became underrated ?

I refuse to believe George was scared of Jerry.

 

I want to relay a personal story to you, if I may? I was walking out of a Yank Rachell concert once, it must've been, I don't know, maybe 19 and 91 or so? The band and I knew this girl named Hemera Phillips, who met us at the place they were staying. Mods, redact that. Anyway, Hemera was so high she could've played first trumpet for the angel Gabriel. She was so amped she painted the walls and we were in a hotel. Kachapati, the Batoro call it. Anyways, she wanted boned like a Christmas turkey. So, I offered my services. But Yank's back-up bassist also offered his services and I'm a romantic, and I don't do the Honolulu spitroaster-because it's not romantic. So, she they went to the roof, where they both belonged anyway. I went to La Pinka Puttana's Bar & Grill to have a screwdriver and a pulled pork sandwich with fried pickles and a blooming onion. I had six screwdrivers. I think I ate some food too. I can't remember. But what I DO remember is this: I was stumbling out of that place and I could not feel my legs or my face. Or my balls. And I had my hand on 'em.

Everything was in slow motion, time did not exist, only slowness, and a lack of feeling for gravity or neurology. I feel like I'll never actually make it out of the door. I lock eyes with this guy, this judgmental-looking POS who thinks he's better than me and it becomes a primal thing. I look at him with my best hands-throwing face, and it's like two sasquatches in the wild, seeing who's going to blink first, and this dude says to me "You ain't nothin' but a Jerry Quarry!" I'm almost certain he said that. So, I blinked. I can't process stuff I don't understand without blinking. So, then I fell, and I hit my head and I was knocked unconscious. That would never have happened to Quarry if he hit his head on a diner cushion. So, that guy was clearly underrating him or overrating me. And if that is representative of what the everyman thinks of Jerry S. Quarry...? Then, I guess he is underrated. Or I am overrated.

 

Possibly mate. I'm not sure of the complete dynamics and no-one has been either. It's a bit murky. Did he go for the easier option? Possibly. Did color come into it? Possibly? Was it something else behind the scenes, particularly with Don King hanging around? Possibly. It's not a duck where a demand was made to fight Quarry in particular or a title (particularly if the title was the only one the fighter held) was threatened to be stripped. For me any claim it was an out and out Mallard would be more weighty if the decision become public after Quarry's impressive dismantling of Shavers but it was announced Norton was the next challenger before Quarry fought Shavers.

 

I think you might have misunderstood the point I was making about the purse and the income tax.

The tax-free incentive offered to Foreman and Norton by the Venezuelan government had to be a big influence on the decision Foreman and Sadler made to fight Norton.

Heck, even without that deal (which actually ended up being the case anyway), the take-home pay was much better for Foreman than had he fought Quarry in New York.

Therefore, the idea that Foreman took a smaller purse in order to avoid Quarry is illusory.

 

Somewhat but do you think MDWC doesn't know all that? Most of Classic (i'd hope) would be well versed and most certainly MDWC of all people.

It's worth mentioning because they did actually fight and.....

At that exact time Quarry was ranked the #5 contender with Norton just one spot above him at #4. So Norton would have got a nice ranking boost out of it.

The only people that had beaten Quarry in the previous 5 years, half a decade, were Ali and Frazier.

It was 15 months after his great win over Shavers. He'd lost to Frazier in the meantime with two low level wins on top.

Quarry actually had a solid crack for a bit so it's not akin Ali being wheeled to Holmes.

It was just 13 months after Quarry claimed this, and a lot more -

• Quarry complained that the top black heavyweights would not fight him. "It is a black conspiracy," Quarry said. "I'm being boycotted by Ali, Norton and Foreman." He said they wanted to "leave the little white boy out of it."

Quarry actually fought just 4 weeks earlier and went 10 rounds so it's not like he hadn't fought or trained for 12 months.

There wasn't much, if any, chatter pre fight about Quarry being a shell and shot and the likes. Most or all of it has been hindsight. For sure he wasn't at his best or near it but i'd like to see the odds they put on that fight.

 

no no not at all Kenny Norton the father told Jerry's son , how good Quarry was exact opposite, I thought that was good of Ken to talk that way and his son was Quarry's son's good friend

 

No not at all REAL I heard that jive, Jerry and his new wife were in a cab and headed to plush Tropicana hotel. the tanglement was over Jerry's first wife at massacrye canyon inn 1973

 

It's always enjoyable seeing past foes dish out the love and respect. Holes and Cooney are another two, Holmes and Cobb as well.

 

I honestly don’t think there was much animosity between Holmes and Cooney personally but rather their camps, racial groups, etc. You could tell Cooney was uncomfortable with the whole racial thing, and wasn’t a racist himself.

 

Correct, absolutely. Holmes showed some racism at times but he used to get pretty cross eyed in the public eye and his mouth often got the better of him.

 

Colour such as racism seems a bit far fetched for, probably it was the ol' risk-rewatd where Quarry might gave been deemed too big a risk.

"Duck" as such is a hard term to pjn down. One definition could be if a fighter refuses a mandatory, but as discussed earlier, for example Duran choosing Hearns instead of McCallum was the logical choice even though Mike was his mandatory.

In this case there weren't even a mandatory and Norton was quite possibly higher ranked when the fight was verbally agreed pre Quarry-Shavers but not when it was signed after that fight. So no clear distinction there.

But if a fight with Quarry was already being negotiated for a higher purse, and had been ever before Roman, when Norton came into the picture, then it seemingly does start to line up with what Foreman himself has said about ducking/avoiding Quarry. Becasue going with the bigger money otherwise would be the logical choice here,

 

No, I understood your point, but my understanding is that the Quarry purse would have been bigger even then. @My dinner with Conteh can hopefully shed some light on the issue.

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting he was shaking at the knees, but I don't think a sober analysis of risk was beyond him and his team.

He had had a quite protected rise after all, only facing one top contender after four years as a pro. And he would know that a record payday lay in wait if Ali could overcome Frazier, so Quarry could well be seen as too big a risk in wait for that showdown.

 

Unfortinatly its a part of our world and boxing history, I think Holmes is a good guy and Foreman the best. Watch how Foreman tries to console Scott LeDoux in their bout. Ali really went out to console opponents at times, usually all the big time guys do, Cage match women Heidy Holms showed they utmost class ive ever seen , after ko'ng Rhonda Rousey and Rousey refused to touch gloves AT THE OPENING BELL !

 

You could well be right but it's a tad blurry for mine.