The Quarry fight kind of ruined him. It was a devastating KO that was hard to come back from and it broke Big Mac's momentum
This was particularly true as Mac started out with what was one of his very finest showings against Jerry. His reputation as a puncher centered on his hook, but his jab (which looked bad in sparring for Quarry) was sharp in the early rounds, and his right was cracking. Jerry was no longer the elusive target that Thad Spencer found him to be a couple years earlier, yet Foster's bombs couldn't do the job. Quarry was more than capable of ruining a promising career. (Mac, Thad, Alexander, Middleton...)
They mismatched Mac after the Quarry loss, in no way the man should have been in the ring with Ali, instead a Earnie Shavers, or Jeff Merritt would have done the trick.Should have been force for five years minimum.
I do remember it being reported that a fight between Lyle and Foster was close to being inked, but of course it never happened, at the time Mac was sporting a thicker girth and was not the dangerous predator of old, i remember thinking this was more about Lyle gaining a good win, it could be that Mac fancied a working Holiday and Fought Joe Bugner in London instead (?) Mac wasnt really up to a LOng distance sustained effort at this point of his career.
