Heavyweights - The 70's

He also says that he can't think of 10 quality fighters in the 70's, while purposely leaving off Jerry Quarry and then placing Ross Purity and Oliver McCall on the 90's list.. He furthermore claims that Quarry would have always been stopped by any top flight guy except Shavers, but apparently doesn't realize that Quarry beat Lyle, Patterson, Foster, Mathis and several others, plus was a top 3-5 contender for nearly a decade.atsch

 

Ibeabuchi never beat Tua , neither did Byrd. Go watch them fightz

 

I do not count a win over Foster in HW .
Patterson was 10 years older than Quarry and still gave him good fights.
He beat Lyle by decision which does count , but not as a stoppage.
McCall and Puritty , especially McCall were many levels above Quarry.
McCall stopped Lewis and Akiwande. He was never stopped when in tact.
McCall outpointed Jesse Fergusson whom outpointed James Douglas whom outpointed himself and achieved some more.
Puritty stopped Wlad and took Sanders whom stopped Wlad the distance , he was stopped on cuts by Vitali , all his stoppage losses except maybe the first were on cuts.
He took Rahman whom stopped Sanders the distance.
He took Michael Grant the distance.
He stopped Jorge Luis Gonzalez.
Puritty drew with Tommy Morisson and knocked him down.

If someone like Quarry was a perennial top 3-5 contender in the 70's it is just a testament of the weakness of the era.

 

I was referring to Mac Foster who was 24-0-0-24 and a true heavyweight who Quarry stopped in 7 rounds....Not Bob Foster who I think you're confusing between the two..

Patterson was still a ranked contender and a participant in the 1967 heavyweight elimination tourny to determine the next champ... A green Quarry took the win, and while it may not have been a stellar victory, it was certainly a quality win of note.

Is this a discussion to determine who was a big puncher, or is it an attempt to rate fighters?

First of all, McCall and Purity were not " many levels" above Quarry, and frankly I don't see them as rating anywhere near him in terms of legacy, especially not Purity... Secondly, both of those men were very unskilled fighters who relied mainly on their chins to win fights, and only had maybe one or two big wins each, whereas Quarry defeated top notch opposition for the bulk of his career.. Lastly, McCall beating a totally shot version of Jesse Ferguson in 1991 means nothing in relation to Ferguson beating Douglas in 1985.. Ferguson was a nobody even at his best, and was a mere journeyman by the time he climbed into the ring with McCall - a terrible fight by the way, in which the outcome could have gone either way...

I don't see the relevence in many of these examples. You're talking about losing efforts that went the distance and comparing them to results that other good fighters could not duplicate, which means absolutely nothing, and many of the guys you're listing weren't worth anything anyway. Wlad was a work in progress when he gassed against Purity, and this is really Ross's only notable win in some 50 pro fights. Jorge Luis Gonzalez was an unranked fighter who had basically diminished to a journeyman.

That's a matter of opinion, and one that does not sound very informed. You give credit to Purity for going the distance in losing efforts, but ignore the fact that Quarry was actually BEATING some of the very best contenders of the period, while also establishing himself as a concensus all time great contender.

 

I would say the early seventies, certainly not the watered down nineties.

 

Yes , I confused between the two , but it does not matter too much , as Mac Foster was quite untested when he met Quarry and the loss to Quarry just exposed him as someone whom can look great against C level fighters , but lose most of time to B level fighters.
But a win over him still counts somewhat more than a win over Bob Foster whom is even very overrated at lightheavy.

Chin and punching power are very important in ranking fighters.
Not that Quarry had a lot of anything else.

Puritty's wins : Wladimir Klitschko , Jorge Luis Gonzalez , Joe Hipp.

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and do you know if he deserved a win over Tommy Morisson instead of the draw he got ?

McCall's wins : Lennox Lewis , Henry Akiwande , Oleg Maskaev , Lance Whitaker , Yanqui Diaz , Jesse Fergusson .

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Shavers , (Mac) Foster , Mathis , Lyle , Patterson.
The first 2 by stoppage , , the last 3 by decision.

Fergusson was 34 by then , not fresh , but not totally shot , he fought on 8 years later.

He was a fine Journeyman whom fought a very respectable opposition.

losing over the distance is something unachievable for Quarry , wasn't it ? he was KO'd by Norton FFS. he was twice stopped quickly by Ali , another rarity. He was KO'd by Chuvalo , what a rare type of fighter Quarry was ..

As listed above , Puritty had more than one important win , despite your dissing of Gonzalez whom was surely better than most of Ali's earlier 'top' opposition.
Puritty and McCall at least lost with respect when they lost , and won BIG when they won.

 

mccall lost with respect against lewis?

 

I think that the 90s probably have the best heavyweights the division has ever had.
But, the 70s have 3 ATGS, so I'm not sure.. As a whole, the 70s aren't better then the 90s, who have Holyfield, Lewis, Holmes, mercer, cooper, etc.

 

70s had better versions of Foreman, Holmes and with all due respect to them, I don't see anything special in Bert Cooper and Ray Mercer.

 

He had crack rehabilitation problems. Fight should have been declared a NC.
Does anyone know if a drug test was held ?

 

If you seriously want to believe that Ross Purity's wins over a green Wlad, Jorge Gonzalez and Joe Hipp eclipse that of Quarry's wins over Patterson, Lyle, Shavers, Foster and Mathis, then go for it.. If you think that McCall's resume was better than sobeit. If you think that knockout wins or losing by decision has anything to do with rating one fighter over another or even determining an outcome, then thats your perogative. And if you feel that using any match having to do with Jesse Ferguson helps to bolster your argument, then there's obviously nothing that I'm going to say that's going to make you budge..

 

Are you serious?

If so, this is pandering of the highest order.

Fighters break each other mentally and physically. It's up to the individual to arrive prepared in both regards.

 

Then tell me : is it ok or not that tyson destroyed golotta quickly and easily only to be rewarded a NC instead of a TKO , just because he smoked marijuana ?

 

I've seen that fight, I have a copy of it still, and no; it was one of those times when a draw was the right result.

In terms of rounds alone, Morrison would've won 6-4 but the two knockdowns he suffered evened it up. If he'd just boxed in the last round he'd have got a 7-3 points win, rightfully, but you know Morrison...he got caught trading again and Puritty was a guy it wasn't very wise to trade with often. Puritty decked him again and Morrison had to survive to the end of the round.

Still, a draw for Ross against Tommy Morrison is a credible result. Puritty seemed to really get some inspiration from it as well, he was 8-8 going into that but it kind of gave him some belief in what he could be capable of.

 

It's not OK. It's bull****. Not a performance enhancer. Hell, Mando Ramos was high on heroin when he won the title.