Where would you rank Quarry if he'd beaten Foreman for the title?

About the same as Norton, both the clear #4 of the 70s HW era with valid wins over ATGs and many of the contenders in that era.

 

A Quarry win would move him up a little bit but the rest of his career shows that this was a one off. This result would not do too much for him. What a result like this really does is hurt Foreman's standing. Back then losing to Ali made you more than a footnote, If the Rumble in the Jungle had never happened Foreman would be a no-successful defense champ and quite possibly less than an all-time great. Lastly, the Rumble in Bellflower, AKA Ali-Quarry 3, would have been a fun, relatively short fight.

 

Dare I say it, but maybe on the same level as Douglas??

 

Ahead of Foreman.

 

Top 20 if his legacy ended there. If he managed to pick up a few more meaningful wins after then a bit higher

 

If he beat Foreman for the title, then I would think that he was the better fighter, since he won.

 

The rest of Quarry's resume is some way ahead of Douglas's, I'd say. What's Douglas second best win? McCall? And beyond that? Quarry beat a pretty decent amount of contenders.

 

George said many times that he avoided Quarry but that doesn't mean he'd have lost to Jerry. In truth, had Quarry beaten Foreman, he would have snuck in a voluntary against a Danny McAlinden or Jurgen Blin and the would have been massacred by Ali or Frazier.
I really don't think this would change history's or fight fans' overall view of Jerry.

 

Of course it would. A peak Foreman would be his best win by a mile. Even Young's win over a Foreman that seemed to how lost much of his interest in the sport is rightly seen as a very good one and Young's best.

 

This. I also wouldn’t rate Quarry any different, since Big George was pretty much tailormade for Quarry and knew it, so he and his handlers wisely avoided the Quarry fight. I would actually be surprised if Quarry lost to Foreman.

My trainer worked a few camps with Foreman early in Foreman’s career and recommended to Sandy that George shouldn’t fight Quarry if he didn’t need to. Years later when my trainer was working for Lyle he advised Lyle’s manager to avoid fighting Quarry and later Young, since neither were necessary fights and bad style matchups, but they had the fights anyway.

 

It would be a huge win for him and not absurd to consider based on styles .. that said I'm one guy that deeply appreciates Quarry but finds all this best to never win a title nonsense .. he lost to Ellis , barely squeaked by an old Patterson, was stopped by Chuvalo in addition to his devastating losses to Frazier and Ali .. to me he was a brave, very tough fighter that like many excelled based on stylistic match up ..

 

Judging how Foreman is ranked, much higher for Quarry.

 

There’s a few possible permutations here.

Will Foreman still have faced and beaten Norton either before or after the fact of losing to Quarry? Will Foreman still face and lose to Ali after losing the title?

Best case for Quarry. Of course he wins the HW Title - a big deal in itself. He becomes the only guy to beat the top 3 punchers of the era with his victory over George more emphatic than Young’s.

He becomes the ONLY fighter to have stopped George - and just as it was for those who actually beat George in the 70s (Ali and Young) he gets significant credit for same as well the victory perhaps gaining even more worth in hindsight given George’s second career successes.

He’s part of select group just to have even faced the top 3 punchers in any case (only Caldwell otherwise?) where others can be accused of avoiding said fighters.

He beat the guy that crushed Frazier (and Norton?). If he still faces and loses to Norton later down the track, as he did in reality, it can be washed as a well past prime Quarry and people will have the prime Quarry that stopped Foreman as well as Quarry’s preceding career to suggest a prime Quarry would’ve beaten Norton.

Quarry was very close to but not quite up with the absolute top tier. His orig. victories still stand but a title win and against Foreman no less, might be viewed as an important missing jigsaw piece to his whole career for elevation to a somewhat higher level and rating.