Jerry Quarry vs Bob Foster

Just a side note here on Jerry, have you ever seen a fighter so messed up as after he saw his brother brutally ko'd by Foster? Jerry just was out of form entirely when he stepped in later with Ali. As for Foster, while Frazier could take those booming hooks to the body Jerry landed on him, no way could Bob.

 

Ahem, I think Chris really meant to say 'deflate' and not 'inflate', as Jowcol has already pointed out.

 

Aside from Frazier and Ali, Bob Foster also lost to smallish HW Doug Jones by 8 round ko, to tall HW Ernie Terrell by ko 7 and to Zora Folley on points in 10 rounds.

He did beat Bert Whitehurst and Willie Besmanoff who campaigned as HWs.

Now, I would just like to say that Jerry Quarry, if not with Ali and Frazier, definitely at least belongs to the class of fighters like Doug Jones, Terrell and Folley and certainly is far above fighters like Whitehurst and Besmanoff.

 

He was green, way before his prime against these fighters, Doug Jones was his 10th fight, he was a damn site better from '68-'73

 

Well said. Foster would have done better against opponents his own weight. So fighting the 1950s small heavies woulda been better for him. Frazier and Ali were both too good and too big. Doug Jones was not a bad fighter at the time he fought an upcoming Foster. He gave Clay a hard fight. Jones v Folley was a very close fight on points.

 

My take would be that there are legitimate questions hanging over Foster's status as a great fighter even at lightheavy. These are, I think, his ten top opponents:
Doug Jones-Maura Mina-Ernie Terrell-Henry Hank-Zora Folley-Eddie Cotton-Dick Tiger-Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali-Vicente Rondon (or Chris Finnegan)

The only ones he beat were Tiger, Cotton, Hank, and Rondon. This just isn't very impressive. Cotton and Hank lost more often than not to the very top men. Tiger was 39 and a puffed up middleweight. Rondon and Finnegan were ordinary.

I just don't think Foster ever proved he was a good enough fighter to move up in weight and beat a fairly tough contender. I like Quarry.

 

I admit he might have been green against Jones. But he fought Terrell in his 17th fight when he was 25 and a 1/2 years old and Folley in his 25th bout when he was almost 27 years. No way he was green for those fights.

 

you have to look when he was fighting them. doug jones was in 1962, ali in 1972. 10 years difference. what was Foster's peak?

 

Hard to say. Lots of kos throughout his career record. I would say his peak started in, maybe, 1966 and continued till 1972.