Frazier-Quarry II

Holmes-Weaver is probably my #1 favorite HW fight of all time, but this fight, and Quarry's next big fight against Norton, are probably tied for 2nd place in my book.

In fact, I'd say Quarry's fights with Frazier (both of them) and Norton are 3 of my top 5 favorite HW fights of all time.

 

I thought only the big yells of "Stop it Joe!" toward the end came from Dundee. The yells of "Get out of the way" and "Work the other side" came from photographers, I thought (notice that those yells were faint, as compared to Dundee's "Stop It Joe!," from came from within or near the broadcast area).

I agree that anyone yelling at Joe to "get out of the way" was pretty sh!tty. I'm not quite sure what I think of Dundee yelling "Stop it Joe" - on one hand, as a commentator, it's his job to be professional and maintain his composure; but on the flipside, I can understand the frustration he must've felt watching that fight go on for too long. Even Quarry himself made it clear that he didn't want the fight to continue.


Incidentally, notice how when Frazier has rendered an opponent basically "helpless" as Quarry was here, and also Ron Stander in the final round of their fight, he didn't just go "all-out" to finish them. Instead, he did the opposite - he stayed away and used his jab, just looking to pick them apart and stay out of harm's way until the fight was inevitably stopped. Very classy of him, I thought.

 

I can understand how someone would believe that.

Frazier's performance in this fight reminds me of JC Chavez in his fights just prior to Whitaker. He may not have had the all-out intensity and workrate that he had shown in the past, but he appeared to be getting better power and placement on his punches than ever before, particularly with his right hand. Quarry seemed shocked by how much power Frazier was showing in this fight - remember that Quarry had taken everything Frazier could hit him with in the first fight without being in the same sort of trouble he was here.

Frazier also seemed to be experimenting with different styles here - notice how he sometimes stands straight up and uses his jab, rather than simply staying low and using the same repetitive bob & weave motion, and also uses different styles of positioning his gloves to pick off punches.

Overall, I'm not sure Frazier was necessarily "better" than he had been before, but he appeared to have improved in certain areas which may have compensated for his decline in other areas.

 

BTW, your avatar and location are hilarious. :rofl

 

I thought this was one Frazier's best fights, he was quick and strong, plus he utilized his right hand better than ever. As hard as Quarry could punch, and he was a very good puncher, he just could never hurt Frazier.

That being said, Quarry looked horrible in his prior fight to this one. Joe Alexander dropped him on the seat of his pants in that one, but Jerry came back and stopped Alexander. But Jerry looked really sloppy in that fight. Somewhere between stopping Shavers and the Alexander fights, Quarry became shopworn, with probably the damage to his brain becoming significant.

I don't think Quarry could have ever beaten Fraizer if they would fought 10 times. Frazier's style was just all wrong for Jerry, as it was for almost all fighters.

 

Right. As Futch was quoted in "Corner Men," he pointed out to Joe that Jerry didn't really have a height and reach advantage on him, so Smoke could actually jab and box with JQ, having the necessary hand speed to execute this. The resulting mental adjustment Eddie installed in Frazier was a key realization for Joe. Chuvalo has mentioned that Smoke's right was nothing to sneeze at, and Futch's strategy put it fully into play, surprising Jerry tremendously, and actually inflicting the fight ending cut. For my money, this was Joe's smartest performance.

 

IMO, one of Joe's most underrated qualities is that he actually had fairly decent reach for a "short" HW. That's one of the biggest reasons good boxers had such trouble "eluding" him.

In many of Joe's fights - including in the FOTC against ALI - there were isolated moments where he would actually stand outside and outjab his opponent.

 

But seriously, he wouldn`t have stood a chance agiainst `Terrible` Terry !

 

I liked Joe`s jab two handed attack and yes footwork. He was giving him a boxing lesson while smokin as well. Showed a lot more savvy than we were used to seeing...

 

To be fair though, Alexander could crack, if nothing else, and he caught Quarry with a once-in-a-lifetime kind of shot.

Quarry was already past his peak even before he beat Shavers, and it wouldn't totally surprise me if the few big shots he took in the first minute of his fight with Shavers didn't perhaps weaken his chin a bit - after all, look at what Shavers' punches did to Ken Norton's and Jimmy Ellis' careers.

On the flipside though, Quarry showed a still very sturdy chin in his own loss to Norton after that, in which he took volumes of clean, hard punches without going down.

 

Despite winning by a significant margin on the scorecards,Quarry didn't leave the ring against Lyle without absorbing his fair share of punishment - he took some heavy blows over a long period in that fight,and it was really the last top performance of his career.I'd say that fight,rather than the Shavers one,helped steepen the decline.

 

Quarry was suppose to get the shot at Foreman in his next fight after Jerry beat Shavers.

However, the Foreman-Ali fight was made for the Fall, and they forced Quarry to fight Frazier again.

I don't think Quarry's heart was ever in it again after he got 'by-passed".