On Jerry Quarry …

When you say 1973 Foreman, do you mean a fight between them that year? Or do you mean prime Quarry vs that Foreman?

I am one of those sickos you hear about who considers a prime Quarry quite the live underdog against Foreman (though certainly, an underdog nonetheless).

 

He’s underrated by the casuals, but overrated on the forums, he’s one of those guys who can look spectacular against certain styles, but look mediocre against others, he was a sharp counterpuncher, and was one of few counterpunchers who fought square on, which is quite unconventional, if a guy came at him and tried to knock him out, he could light them up all day, he’d make the miss and counter them, he’d get in the inside, land flurries, then evade the counter, but guys who could box, jab and didn’t have to take risks, like Ellis, could simply sit behind the jab and straight punches, and there wasn’t much he could do, he didn’t close the ring of well, didn’t set punches up well in the front foot, would start lunging in with that left hook square on.
With this said, I believe prime Quarry vs prime Foreman would be very interesting, Foreman was relatively predictable, with his footwork anyway, would look for the knockout, wasn’t fast, I see Quarry out boxing him for a bit, but Quarry did Bob and weave hooks sometimes on the way out, I see Foreman timing him at some point and getting to him, yes the styles perfectly favour Quarry, but sometimes quality just prevails regardless.

 

Hi Buddy.
We are of a similar age, so we sort of grew up with Quarry, and got to say, he was my fav around the early 70s, not Ali or Frazier, as it was with lots of other boxing fans, as you will remember he adorned the front of the Ring on many occasions during that period, once with a full grown beard, the week before the Lyle fight I was very apprehensive, big Ron was a truly intimidating fighter at that time, the jail time adding to his badass persona, Quarry wasn't given much chance of stopping Lyles unbeaten run, pretty much seen as cannon fodder for the rampaging puncher, who many thought would one day be a champ, come the Friday and down to the sweet shop to buy my BN, strangely enough the report was on the back page, and the picture was of Jerry countering ( what else ) a roundhouse right from the big man, I was elated, Jerry was back in the big time again, the editor of BN at the time of the Bodell fight wrote a piece about interviewing Jerry in his dressing room after the demolition job on the likeable but limited heavyweight, he said that in the flesh Quarry was a formidable figure, huge legs ( 2nd only to Jeffries in girth and size ) forearms that were cast in iron, and twice the size of a normal man's forearm, broad of neck and chest, the writer said it would be a frightening experience to upset Jerry in an enclosed environment, he remarked that his face was that of a battered Glen Campbell, all that aside, he said Jerry was a calm and unassuming man, and was sorry for destroying our heavyweight hope, I like this from Norman Mailer " Quarry had the sort of face to give a marine sergeant pause, in a bar room brawl " yea I liked him, liked him a lot.
stay safe PRW94, chat soon matey.

 

That’s also what I meant.

 

Pretty fair on both hypotheticals. It’s a shame they weren’t just a little more time-aligned. Had Quarry come along just a little later & lifted the crown from Foreman in a boilover, it would have been an interesting wrinkle.

 

Since Foremans 2nd career the 70s are considered the best era of boxing. Thus everyone from that era who was even close to the level of the top fighters got a substantial legacy boost. But Quarrys borderline top 10 of that era.

For me Shavers, Ellis, Bugner, Quarry and Bonvaena were a signifigant dropoff from the top 6 in Foreman, Ali, Frazier, Norton, Jimmy Young and Lyle with Lyle and Shavers being the wildcards. Quarry beat said wildcards but those guys were more of a threat to beat the top HWs then he was because of their power.

The big overarching problem with Fraziers resume is he fought group 1 but didn't fight most of group 2 while going 1-4 against Ali and Foreman. Quarry was 1-5 against this group. Despite a truly great win over Lyle there was nothing from the Ali, Frazier and Norton fights that suggests he has anything for prime Foreman. Quarry isn't as good as Jimmy Young hes not as big as Jimmy Young and hes not as durable as Jimmy Young. And if not for the lucky knockdown and the point deduction Young won that by the skin of his teeth. And Jimmy Young is one of the best point fighters in HW history. Against Ali and Frazier Quarry won 2 rounds in 4 fights.

 

I used to dismiss Quarry, but he was really good. The stars just did not align in his career.

 

Quarry was a great talented fighter, but he should have been in boxing 10 years earlier before Ali, Frazier, etc..... or 10 years later when there was a cruiserweight division which would have been perfect for him.

 

I've always favored him over Foreman due to styles. Jerry was a strong counterpuncher who walked through massive punches from Shavers without realizing he'd been hit, only got mad at himself when the powerful Lyle landed, and in undefeated Mac Foster's greatest career performance, he responded to possibly the hardest punch of Mac's career to immediately unload the burst of sustained fire which led directly to the end.

Jerry would've retreated to the ropes for baiting traps like the ones he used to deck Patterson twice. George would've eagerly followed him there. Foreman was too predictable, while JQ wasn't. He'd let Foreman cut off the ring, then make him pay for it. His left hook to George's wide open body would break down the big man pretty quickly. He expressed an excellent understanding of Foreman during his commentary for George's match against Dino Denis.

Again, it's about styles here. Foreman only had one extremely predictable approach which played perfectly into Jerry's greatest and most preferred counterpunching forte. And if Shavers, Lyle and Mac Foster couldn't hurt the Bellflower Bomber, then the question has to be raised about whether George could, since he was slow enough for the trigger fisted JQ to see everything coming.

Speed and stamina intimidated Jerry. Size and power though played directly into his hands, and didn't intimidate him at all. Nobody ever powered him down to defeat, he routinely went ten, 12 and even the Championship Distance (when severely impaired against a stylistically frustrating and well advised Jimmy Ellis).

He went into round 12 four times in victorious efforts. He won over the ten round limit a dozen times. Foreman during the 1970's? George entered round ten in winning efforts just three times. (Levi Forte and Peralta 2X.) He never produced a knockdown beyond round five. Stylistically, George Foreman is Jerry Quarry's perfect victim.

Buster Mathis, Mac Foster, Ron Lyle and Earnie Shavers are monster wins for Jerry, and Thad Spencer shouldn't be ignored either, as Thad never recovered, going 0-7-1 for the remainder of his career. His booming right keyed his decision over the 6'4" Larry Middleton. He utterly dominated the best conditioned and well prepared Buster Mathis who ever entered the ring, yet dominated, dropping the big guy in round two and dominating him over 12.

 

As with Leon Spinks, he was far too good and effective against huge heavyweights at his best to belong in the cruiserweight division, which to me has always been an illegitimate division.

Leon knocked out Evangelista and stopped the huge deadly punching Mercado at Bernardo's absolute peak. By defeating Mercado and Ali, he prevailed against two guys Norton could not in the late 1970's and early 1980's. (Let's face it. Ken would've been knocked out by Mac Foster, Ron Lyle and Mercado. Mac and Ron were decisively beaten by Jerry Quarry and Norton never proved he could even compete against punchers of that caliber, or Mercado's caliber. NOBODY disputed that Leon EARNED his second heavyweight title shot at Holmes after Mercado. And Michael Spinks hopscotched the cruiserweight division to get to Holmes, because the cruiserweight division is an excuse for those who are simply not good enough to be legitimate heavyweight contenders. I always vehemently opposed the proposal of creating that division, and Michael Spinks proved there was no need for it.)

 

I agree with a lot of this but it’s a bridge too far for me to hand Quarry outright favouritism, personally. Foreman would probably knock him out. But those thinking Quarry had zero or very little chance are a betting accident waiting to happen.