BoxRec

Didn't hear about this until yesterday ; Another 70's Heavy is gone....

Do you have a source for this? I can't find anything.

I still cannot believe Merritt has spent the last 40 years under the radar, bar his shoeless rant at Jack Newfield outside Tyson/Ruddock. Not a single journalist on earth thought tracking down this wild and dangerous first ever heavyweight of Don King would make for an interesting story? Astonishing.

A reference to it can be found here:

https://www.facebook.com/Ring8ny

Does anyone know who gave Jeff Merritt his nickname.

Jeff was one strange dude.

Sheila wrote:Does anyone know who gave Jeff Merritt his nickname.

Jeff was one strange dude.

I heard a few years back that he was working on his life story...would surely be an interesting read...

Sheila wrote:Does anyone know who gave Jeff Merritt his nickname.

Jeff was one strange dude.

I would guess your 'hero' Ali named him that...they did spar at Miami Beach...

evrenb wrote:

Sheila wrote:Does anyone know who gave Jeff Merritt his nickname.

Jeff was one strange dude.

I would guess your 'hero' Ali named him that...they did spar at Miami Beach...

I seem to remember reading that somewhere. I'm not certain, though.

interesting life...



http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1 ... 72,2906896

Will always remember him for breaking stablemate Earnie Shavers jaw in a sparring session before the Quarry bout.
It pissed off Don King, who managed both fighters and he blamed trainer Archie Moore for letting the 2 spar. The Old Mongoose was then fired.

Merritt could belt, he did blow out an aging Terrell and a prime Ron Stander, but he always had a very questionable jaw.
He only lost 3 bouts, all by KO.

Jeff Merritt

Was originally called 'Sweet'. Not sure what that meant, as he went to jail {Age; 18} in 1965,
in the Missouri State Penitentiary System, before being released at the end of 1967.

Later, Jeff's nickname was changed to Candyman. And then later Candy Slim.

SenorPipino wrote:Will always remember him for breaking stablemate Earnie Shavers jaw in a sparring session before the Quarry bout.
It pissed off Don King, who managed both fighters and he blamed trainer Archie Moore for letting the 2 spar. The Old Mongoose was then fired.

Merritt could belt, he did blow out an aging Terrell and a prime Ron Stander, but he always had a very questionable jaw.
He only lost 3 bouts, all by KO.

Stander was hardly "prime" when he fought Merritt. He came into the ring nearly 30 pounds over weight and literally rolling in fat. He looked like a bowling ball with arms and fought like it too. When you put nearly 30 excess pounds on a frame as squat as Standers the results are hardly geared toward athleticism. Stander claimed he came in out of shape because he had come down with a virus two week prior to the bout which prevented him from training but come on, if wait until two weeks prior to fight time to take off nearly 30 pounds you havent really been training and Stander proved this. He just showed up to collect a paycheck and pad 5th ranked Merritt's record with a victory over a guy who had recently fought Frazier. So while Stander was in his prime age-wise he was certainly not "prime" when he showed up to fight Merritt and was actually at entering a piss poor losing streak which saw him continually show up in this poor, obese condition and over a period of 3 years win only one of eight contests.

Merritt had an extremely leaky defense which was exhibited by him walking forward with his hands down low as he walked down his opponents. The problem was that while he was fighting in a style very similar to Foreman he didnt have Foreman strength or durability. I became intrigued by Merritt when I read a few articles in the 80s and 90s talking about what could have been had he not been exploited by Don King. Im no King fan but I call bullshit. When I finally got a chance to see him fight I was not impressed. You can only take a fighter so far and Merritt simply didnt have the tools to compete well at the highest level either mentally or skillwise. The mystique in regards to him is unwarranted IMO. Some fighters are just not cut out to go any farther than they actually get and Merritt was one of them.

.....i saw the candy man beat the hell out of stander in cleveland. when he knocked stander down stander told the referee he slipped because he was proud of the fact that he'd never been knocked off his feet. whatever, candy slim was really on name that night.

I have the Stander fight on film and Stander looked and fought like crap. The most entertaining part of the card was when Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali clowned for the cameras in the ring before the main event. Walking forward squared up with your hands down and punching a fat stationary target who leads with his face and cant get out of the way is not being "on name." Its beating a setup with your eyes closed.

Jeff Merritt

Was a fun fighter to watch. He could whack with that left-hook.

But he was a flake, right out of a box of Frosted Flakes.

Sheila wrote:Jeff Merritt

Was a fun fighter to watch. He could whack with that left-hook.

But he was a flake, right out of a box of Frosted Flakes.

Yeah? Which fights did you see of his?

..can't some administrator or someone who can read and write change my email address as i requested on the control panel and did everything it told me to do? if i don't get this changed by the end of june i won't be able to read my replies. if i have to i'll keep harping on every thread until i get a response ....sent to my new email address.

klompton wrote:

Sheila wrote:Jeff Merritt

Was a fun fighter to watch. He could whack with that left-hook.

But he was a flake, right out of a box of Frosted Flakes.

Yeah? Which fights did you see of his?

Be more specific. Which bouts of Jeff Merritt do you want me to school you on.

so youve seen them all... right... cant help yourself can you.

I can feel Duce cracking his fingers & preparing to write a spate of utterly useless Candy Slim fight fiction.

I believe the poster Jaclem genuinely was ringside for Merritt/Stander however. I'll take Jaclem over any incarnation of Il Sheila.

klompton wrote:so youve seen them all... right... cant help yourself can you.

Are you still making those long lonely drives to Buffalo........... ;;-)

Tuan_Jim wrote:I can feel Duce cracking his fingers & preparing to write a spate of utterly useless Candy Slim fight fiction.

Maybe he can get his enabler Buzz to help him enter them into the database.

klompton wrote:

Sheila wrote:Jeff Merritt

Was a fun fighter to watch. He could whack with that left-hook.

But he was a flake, right out of a box of Frosted Flakes.

Yeah? Which fights did you see of his?

Ding Ding, round 2

Exactly what drive to Buffalo are you referring to? For someone who has only been on this forum one week thats an odd comment.

klompton wrote:

SenorPipino wrote:Will always remember him for breaking stablemate Earnie Shavers jaw in a sparring session before the Quarry bout.
It pissed off Don King, who managed both fighters and he blamed trainer Archie Moore for letting the 2 spar. The Old Mongoose was then fired.

Merritt could belt, he did blow out an aging Terrell and a prime Ron Stander, but he always had a very questionable jaw.
He only lost 3 bouts, all by KO.

Stander was hardly "prime" when he fought Merritt. He came into the ring nearly 30 pounds over weight and literally rolling in fat. He looked like a bowling ball with arms and fought like it too. When you put nearly 30 excess pounds on a frame as squat as Standers the results are hardly geared toward athleticism. Stander claimed he came in out of shape because he had come down with a virus two week prior to the bout which prevented him from training but come on, if wait until two weeks prior to fight time to take off nearly 30 pounds you havent really been training and Stander proved this. He just showed up to collect a paycheck and pad 5th ranked Merritt's record with a victory over a guy who had recently fought Frazier. So while Stander was in his prime age-wise he was certainly not "prime" when he showed up to fight Merritt and was actually at entering a piss poor losing streak which saw him continually show up in this poor, obese condition and over a period of 3 years win only one of eight contests.

Merritt had an extremely leaky defense which was exhibited by him walking forward with his hands down low as he walked down his opponents. The problem was that while he was fighting in a style very similar to Foreman he didnt have Foreman strength or durability. I became intrigued by Merritt when I read a few articles in the 80s and 90s talking about what could have been had he not been exploited by Don King. Im no King fan but I call bullshit. When I finally got a chance to see him fight I was not impressed. You can only take a fighter so far and Merritt simply didnt have the tools to compete well at the highest level either mentally or skillwise. The mystique in regards to him is unwarranted IMO. Some fighters are just not cut out to go any farther than they actually get and Merritt was one of them.

You're correct about Stander being past his prime "physically" when he fought Merritt, but chronologically he was only about 1 1/2 years removed from his title shot at Frazier.
I don't think Stander had lost that much skill-wise in '73. It was simply his fault if he no longer had his head in the game and was grossly out-of-shape when he took on Merritt.
I got a laugh yesterday when I read that Stander maintains that Frazier did not beat him when they fought in 1972.
He instead blamed the doctors, who halted the bout because of a couple of (he says) tiny cuts. My memory is that Stander was a bludgeoned punching bag when the fight mercifully ended in the 5th.

BTW, who is this Sheila guy (girl?)? He (she) seems to have a style reminiscent of someone, whose name slips my mind.

Surprised no mentioned who was the one who found out about Jeff Merritt, who was living in a
Missouri State Prison.

It was the old 'Brown Bomber' himself {Joe Louis} who had heard about this devastating puncher
who had been incarcerated for armed robbery in 1965.

In August 1967, Joe Louis travelled to Kansas City to see a Prison Boxing Exhibition that featured
20 year-old Jeff Merritt.

Joe reported that Jeff Merritt stood around 6' 4" and weighed 211 lbs.

Joe had said that Jeff was a murderous punching brute, with the most vicious left hook that he had ever seen.