What were the thoughts regarding Jerry Quarry as Ali's comeback opponent.

Quarry was the #1 contender at the time. He was in one of his "new" Jerrry Quarry phases after beating Mac Foster. Outside of coming back against Frazier, Ali couldn't have matched himself tougher. Ali didn't mess around. He fought all the top guys, and then fought them again. He fought all over the world, he didn't have every fight in his hometown with home cooking like some guys do.

 

If you look at some come back fights ,such as Tyson v McNeely ,Quarry seems a damn hard first fight back !

 

Very ballsy pick. Consider that Ali came out of a 3 year layoff and took on the top 2 contenders and then champion back to back in three fights in less than five months. And its not like those top two guys were soft, or the division was weak. This guy had balls the size of mount fuji.

 

I remember it well and yes it was as tough as it got, bar Frazier. And Bonavena was then considered equally so, in fact people were not convinced after the Oscar contest.

 

Very brave imo!George Foreman thought Ali was taking a huge risk!

 

I thought Ali looked pretty poor against Oscar.

 

The back to back fights were a serious gamble .. he got a bit lucky against Quarry as he was already slowing down and feeling the pace when the nasty cut made a potentially brutal evening short .. Bonavena was a very tough opponent, great chin, very strong and tough to look good against .. this was the first fight we saw Ali in decline as he got hit more in this fight than his while prior career .. it was am very different type of Ali fight but almost forgotten as the freak KO masked the disappointing performance .. instead of taking a rest and letting his body heal he went right into a Frazier fight .. the concerns were that at any time Ali could lose his license to fight again so there was a rush to the money .. the fact that he was able to beat that Quarry, that BOnavena and then fight competitively with that Frazier under these conditions is truly amazing ...

 

Excellent post!

 

Never a champion, but a tough guy indeed. Have a look at his fight against a "nearly seasoned" Earnie Shavers.

 

It is why ali was that great

 

As people have pointed out, they needed to get to the Frazier fight quickly since Ali was still out on appeal and could be sent jail soon, and that meant Ali needed proper tune-ups.

And Quarry and Bonavena were certainly that. The early cut to Quarry meant that it was hard to draw firm conclusions from that fight, but against Bonavena it's clear that he's far from where he was four years earlier. It's not just that Ringo was awkward and potentially hard to time, but also that Ali came out so flat footed and still started to tire early. That was bad news for going 15 grueling rds with Frazier.

 

Under ideal circumstances Chuvalo would have been the next opponent for Ali. He could also be counted on to push Ali the full 15 and that would be much needed in getting back to match fitness. Then Ellis, which also was his fourth fight after the comeback in reality, and then another couple of fights and the fight with Frazier coming some time in 1972.

That would probably be the optimal preparations for Ali, and that Ali might have been better than any post-exile version we got to see in reality, seeing how the brutal fight with Frazier probably took something out of him.