Here's the then important yet rarely seen match-up between the two finalists of the WBA heavyweight tournament, Jimmy Ellis and Jerry Quarry. Both men were at their physical peaks, although Quarry later claimed a back injury. The fight did not live up to the expectations when it came to the action, but it was nonetheless an interesting tactical affair with both men playing a cautious chess and planning each of their moves. It was Ellis's sneaky right hand that turned out to be the punch of the fight. Ellis outboxed Quarry in the early rounds, with Quarry starting up his body attack in the middle rounds, and both men proved a point late in the fight by showing improved late round stamina which they had been criticized for. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1uBdw2cEJg[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhuUijJq-Qw[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U53tPyOpHAo[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKGI-M5NmbI[/ame] Additionally, here's a workman-like effort by an arguably prime Archie Moore against the always awkward spoiler Jimmy Slade. Moore's right hand wasn't of much use in this bout, due to Slade's defensive efforts, but he showed he could get the job done with the left as well: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUT71-jyY2s[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwuTfsXFrQ4[/ame] [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w8JZ9kbAcU[/ame]
Quarry had a ruptured disk in his back going into the Ellis fight. Shortly before the fight he and Mike Quarry got into a brawl and Mike slammed Jerry in a pinball machine causing the injury. Jerry wanted to postpone the fight but his dad (who ran the show) was afraid they would never get another shot and made him go on with it. How tough was Jerry? He lost a split decision that night. After the fight he was heavily criticized for his passive counter punching approach. This criticism hurt Jerry and afterwards he elected to change his style and become more of a brawler. Leading up to the first Frazier match in many of the interviews Jerry can be heard talking about this and how he would take the fight to Frazier. In my opinion it was the beginning of the end for Jerry because while he was in his physical prime, stylistically this shift meant he was not nearly as effective as he had been on the way up.
I've never seen a report that Jerry saw a doctor about this to show it was a ruptured disc, was there one? In any account I have no reason to doubt what Jerry said happened and that the bout should have been postponed.
I have never seen Quarry vs Ellis before. Thanks for the footage.. These were two really good fighters in their primes, who made the very best of what they had to offer and especially fighting in such a competitive era.
The Quarry-Ellis fight, is boring but very interesting. Ellis gets really frustrated in there but does a good job sticking to his gameplan.
Ellis refused to "make the mistakes that Thad Spencer made" as he said in an issue of Ring magazine prior to his fight with Jerry. He proved this by refusing to back Jerry into corners...he would back off and motion Quarry forward, which i thought was a smart cookie tactic. It's interesting to me that, although Bonavena withstood Frazier's punches better than Quarry, Quarry took Ellis' shots better than Oscar.
