I'm thinking Quarry may have let his conditioning slack off after the 1974 Frazier defeat. He was probably in less-than-perfect shape for the January tune-up against Johnson and against Norton a month later.Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑24 Oct 2023, 14:31Quarry was still #7 at the end of 1974 by Ring Magazine. This was after the Frazier fight. They had Norton #6. That's pretty good when you look at the quality of hws at that time. The division was loaded at the time. May never have been stronger.Joson wrote: ↑24 Oct 2023, 10:06It's well known that Quarry was on the athletic downside when he fought Norton. Jerry weighed a career-high 208 lbs for that bout, significantly heavier than in most prior fights. He took the fight on short notice, and didn't have a proper training camp.Ambling Alp II wrote: ↑24 Oct 2023, 09:39
Usyk should have been able to beat Joshua easier than he did. Yes AJ embarrassing loss to Ruiz hurts his case. Why wouldn't it? That and that his biggest wins are against opponents are senior citizens don't exactly help his cause. Joshua has done virtually nothing worth mentioning in his career.
Where is the evidence that Quarry was faded? He was only 29. He was ranked right behind Norton. He did hurt Quarry and btw, cuts do count.
Norton stopped Henry Clark who had a pretty good chin. He also hurt Holmes who obviously had a great chin.
Compare Norton's fights against Holmes, Quarry, Ali, and Young against Usyk's 5 hw fights. In comparison, Usyk's competition has been a joke so far.
Jerry took a terrible beating eight months earlier, against Joe Frazier, an experience that probably drained him of motivation. In his only other fight before Norton, in January 1975, Quarry looked sluggish in a tune-up against Scrap Iron Johnson.
Quarry was only 29, true. But he had been fighting pro for ten years, had been in lots of wars against top heavyweights, and was showing symptoms of burn-out.
Insiders claim that, after the June 1974 Frazier loss, Jerry did a lot of partying. He probably let himself go. They say he was drinking and playing golf the day that MSG called and offered him Norton on short notice.
As for Quarry's rating in March 1975, when he fought Norton, I recall that he was widely regarded as the seventh or eighth ranked contender. Going into that fight most magazines' ratings looked like this:
Champion: Muhammad Ali
1. George Foreman
2. Joe Frazier
3. Ken Norton
4. through 7. - Ron Lyle, Jimmy Young, Joe Bugner, or Oscar Bonavena (varied according to magazine)
8. Jerry Quarry
9. and 10. - Chuck Wepner, Howard Smith, Bob Stallings, Earnie Shavers, Henry Clark (varied according to magazine)
The Frazier loss knocked Quarry from the third or fourth position all the way down toward the bottom of the ratings. That's probably because of the decisive, one-sided nature of the defeat.
The old line about Quarry not being ready for Norton doesn't make any sense. He just had a fight a month before he fought Norton. He signed for the Norton fight three weeks before the fight. It simply doesn't make sense that Quarry could have got hopelessly out of shape in the 1-week interval between his last fight and signing to fight Norton.
Let's stop pretending that this wasn't a big fight. Big win for Norton. Even bigger than stopping legends like Daniel Dubois and Chazz Witherspoon.
Don't you think Quarry looked too puffed up in the Norton bout? He's 208 lbs.
Either way, I do agree that as of 1975, Quarry was still a top ten contender. Stopping Quarry may have been Norton's finest achievement outside of defeating Ali in 1973.
