George Chuvalo vs. Jerry Quarry: Was it a fix?

Just factual matters off the film (to my eyes)

Chuvalo landed a left hook to the temple-forehead. Quarry lost his balance and went down for what looked a flash knockdown.

Quarry jumped up and went back down to one knee. I can hear the count being tolled. At 8 Quarry is adjusting his mouthpiece. At 9 he doesn't move. He is still on his knee at 10. I don't know what the referee could do except raise Chuvalo's hand. Quarry simply did not beat the count.

I think Quarry took a lot more punishment in this fight than "dominating" would imply, however it is scored. One thing I noticed is that just before the knockdown Chuvalo trapped Quarry on the ropes and it looked like he landed quite a few hard punches. This is difficult to judge because the referee is partially in the way. Quarry might have been hurt by that flurry more than he showed and also shaky from taking a lot of hard punches throughout the fight.

So, a punch clearly landed. Quarry went down and was still on one knee at 10. The film shows that the count was not fast. For me there is no basis for any criticism of the referee. He did his job.

Fix? I don't think they would have fixed it this way if they were going to fix it, and why fix it? Why would they want Chuvalo to win? He was past it. Quarry would have been the box office fighter of the two. And why would Quarry agree to take a dive? Hard to buy there could have been a betting coup.

 

I remember watching the fight and Quarry got up immediately after he went down. What surprised me was that he went back down on a knee. He must have been shaken and felt the need to take advantage of a longer count. I was surprised again when he did not get up in time to beat the count. When he did get up he protested the KO and seemed full of fight. I don't believe the fight was fixed but think that either he was more hurt than he appeared, or was embarassed or still confused to the point of not being focused on the fight. The ref had no choice but to complete the count. The announcer told ref Zack Clayton after the fight that the result would be controversial, and Clayton replied "It shouldn't be!"

 

I've heard that about Clayton before, maybe from you. If true (and you heard it directly from a fighter who was there), that's a shame.

I watched the fight last night and it looked to me that Chuvalo did land several good punches that maybe softened Quarry up a bit. The knockout blow looked like one of those high-on-the-temple punches that disorients a fighter. While it wasn't one of those picturesque punches that lands perfectly on the point of the jaw, I think it was a legitimate shot.

 

Are you referring to Clayton saying it shouldn’t be controversial?

He is 100 percent right fro a referee’s point of view — a guy goes down, you count; if he doesn’t get up before 10, he’s counted out.

You don’t slow the count down to allow someone to get up because you don’t think the punch was hard. You don’t count at a different cadence because of how you think the fight should be scored up to that point.

It’s the boxer’s job to get up before 10, not the ref’s to figure out a way to make sure he does it.

So I don’t see why he would think the stoppage would be controversial — guy gets hit, guy goes down, guy doesn’t get up before 10.

 

If you remember, Zack Clayton refereed the Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman fight on Oct 30 1974.

 

Jerry Quarry was a fine fighter but he could be a bit of a flake sometimes.

 

I cant see what Quarry had to gain by going into the tank ,and I highly doubt he would ever do so.I think he got clipped and misjudged the count,an abberation if you will.

 

The stories about Clayton are supposedly true. Ive heard a friend who knew him well via the business (Im not saying names because he may not want me to) that Clayton “always had his hand out”. Ive only really seen a handful of questionable fights featuring him though and this isnt really one. Like I said above a more liberal ref might have allowed it to continue but its really Quarrys fault for waiting until 10 to rise. Frankly he shouldnt have even gone down again. He could have been buzzed but he also could have been tired. His stamina was an issue throughout his career off and on. But ultimately he screwed up.

 

I read that Ali's camp gave Clayton cash to ensure he stopped the Zaire fight promptly if Ali was in trouble/protect him.Ive no idea if its true.Wasn't Clayton the first black man to referee a heavyweight title fight?
He was also a famous basketball player.

 

Theres been so much nonsense written about Zaire I wouldnt even dip my toe in that water. I dont think Ali needed any help that night.

Yeah I think Clayton may have been a Harlem Globetrotter.