Jimmy Ellis's weight jump - the first concrete sign of steroid use in boxing?

willie Pastrano went through big weight gains too feather weight to heavyweight in a short time. Another Dundee fighter! Of course this could be purely coincidence.

 

Maybe Ellis, like Patterson, wasn’t as heavy in the first place? Maybe he carried weights in his shoes too?

 

however he did it Ellis was successful. I haven’t checked but even though each fighters body is unique in its own way it would probably be worth looking at similar sized champions listed weights at particular ages in their career. See how it lines up.

I think Floyd Patterson, Willie Pastrano and Jimmy Ellis should get more credit for achieving what they did in light of the fact they never were legit heavyweights.

I don’t see how they could be. Most heavyweights start as heavyweights. There has to be an advantage to having been big from the beginning than having moved through the weights.

 

Not the rule but some fighters can see a protracted evolvement to full physical "maturity".

But I agree that those who were lacking in size at HW (even in their own day) should be duly credited. And, at least in terms of height and reach, a guy like Tyson performed amazingly against quite a few behemoths in the division. And let's give an equal shout out to Joe Frazier who also had to overcome such disadvantages. He always gave the far more physically blessed Ali absolute hell.

 

Jimmy's natural weight was about 175-180 lbs in his early 20's. He was cutting the weight, since it was easier to get fights more consistently at middleweight compared to light heavyweight. Without the right connections at light heavyweight it was very easy to starve in those days. By his late 20's to mid 30's Jimmy's natural weight was about 205-210 and he'd just take off about 5-10 pounds.

Here is a piece on Jimmy Ellis and Quarry. It also has a quote from Dundee on Ellis and his weight.

Jimmy Ellis and Jerry Quarry were entered in the World Boxing Association heavyweight elimination as a kind of padding, to fill out an eight-man tournament. The tournament was the WBA's answer to the title vacated by Muhammad Ali.

Most experts were picking Thad Spencer or Floyd Patterson or Karl Mildenberger or Oscar Bonavena or Ernie Terrell. Some even gave Leotis Martin an outside chance.

Only a hardy few - risking incarceration in a funny farm - picked Ellis or Quarry. So, following the thankless tradition of expertise, most experts were proved wrong. Ellis and Quarry will meet in the tournament final April 27 at Oakland, Calif.

For the last few years, Elli's chief claim to notoriety was that of Ali's sparring partner. Before that, he had been a very mediocre middleweight, losing five of 20 bouts.

His manager, Angelo Dundee, who handled Ali among several other champions, said that Ellis's poor showing as a middleweight was due to lack of strength after sweating off pounds to make the weight.

Ellis turned heavyweight in May, 1965, and since won 10 straight bouts, with six knockouts.

To make the WBA Final, he knocked out Martin in nine and decisioned Bonavena in 12.

"Jimmy was burying his natural abilities in an effort to stay a middleweight. He was too weak to fight. Jimmy has everything. He's a scientific boxer. He's a nice guy, too. I mean he's no alleycat type hood...He's your next champion.

Quarry, 22, was the youngest fighter in the tournament field, six years younger than Ellis. In the elimination, he has demonstrated a powerful punching ability. He decisioned Patterson, then stopped Spencer in the 12th round. Like Ellis, Quarry has gone undefeated in his last 10 bouts, but one of these was a 10-round draw with Patterson last June.

Overall, Quarry has won 26 of 31 fights. He has had four draws and only one loss - a 10-round decision to Eddie Machen. Fifteen rivals have been KO'd by Quarry.

Not only did Quarry beat the odds to make the finals of the tournament, he also beat the odds that he would be fighting at all. He has suffered several serious injuries in his youthful life. As a kid, he has his arm broken by a blow from a baseball bat. In an argument with an umpire, on the day his cast was removed, he punched the umpire and suffered a broken hand. He also had nephritis, a kidney disease, and broke his back and hand again, when he did a backward dive and missed the water at a pool near his home in Bakersfield, Calif.

Quarry is co-managed by his father, Jack, who taught Jerry how to box, Jack had been a fighter, too.

"I boxed because I was hungry," said the senior Quarry. "I never did anything but pick cotton, beets, peaches in California. When I got sons of My own, I taught them to box because it was the only thing I could teach them...I wanted them to use up their energy so they wouldn't steal."

Physically, Ellis and Quarry are very similar, Both stand slightly over six feet and weight about 195 pounds. Ellis though, has a 76-inch reach, compared to 72 for Quarry.

THE ODDS, at this writing, are practically even. The experts are reluctant to make a choice. That seems reasonable; they've been burned before by Ellis and Quarry.
https://imgur.com/NEBbSVy

Here is a picture of Jimmy Ellis in 1959 with Ali.
https://imgur.com/t2dpYOI

Here is Ellis at about 203-205 lbs a few weeks before the Quarry Fight in 1968
https://imgur.com/k6e8TKI

Here is Ellis at about 200 lbs Sparring with Ali in 1969 a month before a fight with Cooper that didn't happen.
https://imgur.com/RvCvGPz

Here is a piece from a book on Jimmy's weight.

The other half of the double-header matched Philadelphia's Leotis Martin with former Ali sparring partner Jimmy Ellis

Martin was a dangerous puncher, with only one loss in 25 previous fights. Fourteen of his victories had come via the short route. Ellis, on the other hand, was an improbable participant in a heavyweight title eliminator. Only tow years earlier, he had been a struggling middleweight with a spotty record.

Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, Ellis showed promise as an amateur, splitting a pair of fights with Cassius Clay, who was two years younger. However, it wasn't long after their youthful rivalry that their fistic fortunes diverged.

Clay gained Olympic gold and grew into a full-fledged heavyweight. Ellis turned pro as a middleweight without the financial backing or media hoopla that surrounded his friend.

At the time, Ellis had a wife and several children to feed. Lacking the advantage of a sponsoring group, Ellis couldn't survive on the purses of a preliminary fighter. Like Frazier in his pre-Cloverlay days, Jimmy had no choice but to seek other employment.

Ellis worked long and hard hours in the concrete business and starved himself to keep his weight under 160 pounds, the middleweight limit. After losing three of four contests to contenders like Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and George Benton in 1964, his record stood at 15-5.

Believing he was better than that record indicated, Ellis sent a letter in 1965 to Angelo Dundee asking for help with his career. Dundee agreed not only to train Ellis but to manage him as well. Angelo would also use Jimmy as sparring partner for Ali, to increase Muhammad's already considerable speed. The Shrewd Dundee knew Ellis was draining himself by fighting as a middleweight.
https://imgur.com/OFdAdq2

 

Great post - thanks for the info.