Jimmy Ellis of the Bonavena fight vs. 1970 Frazier

Joe Frazier still wins this fight by a KO 6. Jimmy Ellis does not have the footwork or speed of a prime Muhammad Ali, 1964-1967, to stay away from Joe Frazier's vaunted left hook and constant pressure. Ellis takes the first two rounds as in the original first bout on Feb 16 1970, but Joe is a slow starter. But by round 3, Joe is all over Jimmy, left hooks to the midsection, left hooks to the head. In round 6, Joe puts Ellis out of his misery with a decapitating left hook to the head.

 

That's what I said in my post, Joe is a slow starter, nut Jimmy does not punch as hard as Oscar Bonavena did when he fought Joe Frazier on Sept 21 1966, when Oscar decked Joe twice in one round, but lost a hotly disputed decision in New York.

 

Ellis always loses to Frazier. He wanted nothing to do with Frazier and neither did Angelo Dundee. Listen to Dundee duck and dodge any talk of Frazier after he beat Quarry. Ellis was basically backed into fighting Frazier because the three previous fights he had scheduled against no-hopers fell through. He needed money and he was overdue for a title defense.

 

You know that there was much speculation for a Jimmy Ellis vs Henry Cooper WBA title bout in Sept 1969, prior to Ellis meeting Joe for the undisputed World Heavyweight title in Feb 1970, but negotiations fell through.

 

That is so true because Muhammad Ali was busy making his case on appeal, there was the looming presence of the emergence of a young George Foreman, a lot of the ranked heavyweights were busy fighting each other for position.

 

That is so true that the heavyweight division was in such chaos at the time. George Chuvalo had just stopped Jerry Quarry, Ali still in court fighting his draft evasion conviction of 1967. George Chuvalo as you said had been beaten by George Foreman Another heavyweight that had emerged in this puzzle was Mac Foster.

 

Chuvalo is always overated as a contender and Foreman is a hindsight, we hoped he was the real deal but we didn't know. It was the only show in town, Ellis-Frazier. The Copper-Ellis match was scuppered by the BBB of C if i recall correctly, wine bemused brain excepted.

 

They offered Liston $50,000 for a title defense and he turned it down. Cooper got injured postponing the fight and then the BBB of C deemed him unsuitable, Peralta fell through. Al Jones was his stablemate. Hed already beaten Patterson, Quarry, Bonavena, and Martin. Chuvalo wouldnt defeat Quarry until the Frazier fight was signed unless Im mistaken and Foremans first fight against anything approaching a legit contender was against aging ex lightheavyweight Peralta on the undercard of the Frazier-Ellis fight. He wouldnt really jump up in the ratings until he beat Chuvalo who had snuck back into the ratings on his fluky KO over Quarry and the Foreman-Chuvalo fight was six months after the Ellis-Frazier fight. So Ellis' back was really against a wall if he wanted to make any money and not get stripped. No really good/safe options. That basically left Mac Foster who was undefeated with all of his wins coming by KO. He wasnt a huge name or draw so taking a chance on getting Ellis KOd by Foster or Frazier was a no brainer because at least against Frazier Ellis would make good money and had some more physical advantages over Frazier than he did over Foster.