Which is the best heavyweight contender never to win a piece of the title, and WHY?

Jerry Quarry had two title shots, not four.

The two came against Jimmy Ellis and Joe Frazier.

The Ellis fight took place in Quarry's home state of California.

If you want to be heavyweight champion, you've got to beat Jimmy Ellis, a former middleweight with a modest 25-5 record, on your home turf.

 

Unfortunately Tua hit him so hard and so often Ike lost his mind.

 

He gets a lot of boost from those Lord of the Ring movies.

 

I disagree with everything that you said.

Jackson basically either beat or drew against everybody worth beating at the time except Sullivan.

Whatever you think of the era, he was the best in it, and he either surpassed or matched the best in it.

He is probably the only man named in this thread, who we would make a betting favorite over the champion for a significant amount of time.

However you think the eras stack up against each other, the four past and future champions that Tua beat, were not world class when he beat them, with the exception of Rahman.

He had his chances and he blew them.

Tua didn't hold a title, because he simply wasn't good enough.

 

In defense of Quarry, I think we all heard of the back injury Jerry sustained before the fight, but I think we all scoffed as the usual excuse. But I had looked into it and indeed, Jerry spent some time after the fight in a body cast to repair the damage. Now one would not spend such an inordinate amount of time in such a contraption just to prove a bogus point, so I am inclined to agree that he was not 100% fit. If anyone here has suffered back pain in their life they would know how it restricts mobility. Regardless, I did score the fight a draw and do believe a 100% fit Quarry would have outpointed Jimmy after watching their bout. Regarding the Frazier title shot, if Jerry and Joe fought 10 times Joe would win all 10. Jerry would never have beaten Frazier.

 

Chok will love you for this post. Ha Ha.