BoxRec

Did anyone here see Jerry Quarrys last fight against Cruiserweight journeyman Ron Cranmer? I know for a fact the fight is available on tape/DVD.

I have heard Quarry took a bit of a beating?

It's amazing that this fight was even allowed to happen as I have heard that as early as 1982 there had been talk of Quarry have some early signs of brain damage, so hence the fight was help in a place were a Boxing License was not needed.

Any info fight fans?

http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=009385

I think Quarry first made a comeback in '82-83 when he was 38... if I remember right he had one or two fights and though he won on points he was badly cutup in both fights and the comeback came to a halt. His last fight at 46 was in about 1990... from what I've heard he was pounded about for the whole fight and his brother later said that the day after the fight Jerry was 'gone'..... had a vacant look and started becoming confused. Very sad. People talked about him having brain damage in 82 when he made his original comeback but he laughed off these claims and seemed to be ok on the outside... seems it was the last fight that pushed him over the edge.
I see worrying parallels between Quarry and Thomas Hearns with the difference being that Hearns is already showing outward signs of problems yet is still being allowed to box.
Other worrying cases are Tyson (his speech has changed quite a bit I think) Holifield and Bowe.

silkov wrote:Other worrying cases are Tyson (his speech has changed quite a bit I think) Holifield and Bowe.

And Gatti, his speech pattern seems to have changed as well.

KOJOE90 wrote:

silkov wrote:Other worrying cases are Tyson (his speech has changed quite a bit I think) Holifield and Bowe.

And Gatti, his speech pattern seems to have changed as well.

Yeah I noticed that after the Mayweather fight but hoped it was tiredness perhaps... but his voice has got hoarse. Another thing I noticed about Gatti in his recent fights though he won them (before the Mayweather bout) is that he doesnt seem to have the enjoyment there anymore... even when he won the WBC title he didn't look that happy. I'm hoping he quits now too.

Quarry was already half blind and half brain dead when he fought Crammer. He got a measly $1000 for fighting him and Quarry's conditioned spiralled towards tragedy after the fight.

Heros of the past who ended up thick tounged include: Ali, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, Floyd Patterson, Ray Leonard, Thommy Hearns, Jorge Paez, Frank Bruno, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whiticker, Jerry Cooney, Jeff Harding, Leon Spinks, Bobby Chacon, Greg Page, Iran Barkley, the late Jimmy Young, Kid Gavilan, Jerry Quarry tec...etc...etc...although we all love boxing, sadley nothing comes for free, and everything has a price, even a career in boxing.

For the record Ken Norton is "thick tongued" because he was involved in a severe car accident which nearly killed him. He was not expected to walk again after having suffered terrible head injuries. He has made an AMAZING recovery.

I saw Quarrys last fight and it was pathetic. His opponent, Cranmer, was a joke and Quarry looks Frankenstein. A friend of mine once joked that the opening bout was a tractor pull and that about sums it up. It looks like it was promoted by the producers of Hee-Haw.

scottcall wrote:Heros of the past who ended up thick tounged include:

Ray Leonard, Frank Bruno,.

Are you sure on these two?

KOJOE90 wrote:

scottcall wrote:Heros of the past who ended up thick tounged include:

Ray Leonard, Frank Bruno,.

Are you sure on these two?

Brunos had problems recently but his speech is the same as it always was as far as I've been able to see. He was on medication for depression which can alter the speech a little at times.

Tycoon2002 wrote:Quarry was already half blind and half brain dead when he fought Crammer. He got a measly $1000 for fighting him and Quarry's conditioned spiralled towards tragedy after the fight.

He was a mess, before and after...and there are those who will still argue in favor of a fighter's 'right to fight'...there comes a time when somebody should step in and just say no...

...just think where Jerry is today...and where he could have been with a few less fights at the end...enough is enough...and the fighter doesn't always know when enough has been reached...

...now, Holyfield and Hearns want to do the same thing...get battered until there's nothing left...

Too many of these guys look at what Foreman did 10 years ago and think they can do it too...but Foreman was a unique exception...and Foreman was losing badly until he connected with the luckiest punch of the last 50 years...

Sweet Scientist wrote:

Tycoon2002 wrote:Quarry was already half blind and half brain dead when he fought Crammer. He got a measly $1000 for fighting him and Quarry's conditioned spiralled towards tragedy after the fight.

He was a mess, before and after...and there are those who will still argue in favor of a fighter's 'right to fight'...there comes a time when somebody should step in and just say no...

...just think where Jerry is today...and where he could have been with a few less fights at the end...enough is enough...and the fighter doesn't always know when enough has been reached...

...now, Holyfield and Hearns want to do the same thing...get battered until there's nothing left...

Too many of these guys look at what Foreman did 10 years ago and think they can do it too...but Foreman was a unique exception...and Foreman was losing badly until he connected with the luckiest punch of the last 50 years...

Yeah, I'm sure that if Jerry hadn't fought again after the Zanon fight in '78 he'd still be around today... perhaps not 100% but those last three fights he had really threw him over the edge.... its a tragedy.

Yeah and I had a neighbor who kept driving when he was too old to drive and killed himself on the highway. Thankfully he took no one else with him. He used to chant the motto "live free or die". He did a lot of his own work around his place and stayed pretty active.

Another neighbor I had, talked about how realized he was getting too old and hung up his keys maybe even before he needed to. I used to hear him say "better safe than sorry" He was a bit of a bookworm and a bit sedentary. His heart just gave out one day.

They lived what seemed to be very productive but very different lives. I liked them both.

I don't think Quarry looked good even in the Zanon fight. What was it? About a 2-year layoff he was coming back from even then?

As I recall, by the 9th round of that fight, Quarry already needed a knockout in what was essentially a pretty boring fight. Fortunately, it didn't take much to put Zanon down. His was not one of the stronger chins anyone's ever seen.

Kind of brings up one of those little comparative things like others that have often crossed my mind. As an old, washed up 70s contender who was probably already on his way to dimentia, Quarry was still better than a young late 70s/early 80s contender like Zanon, who actually went on to a shot later against Holmes.

The talent pool really fell off somewhere during the turn of those two decades.

i think quarry is easily one of those fighters that got the short end of the stick in his time. it was unfortunate for him that he boxed in the times of foreman lyle ali frazier and etc. if quarry lived today, he would definatly have the ability to get his hands on a title. he could take a punch, but the problem with him was that he has weak skin and was cut very easily. how do u think he would have faired in a fight with rocky marciano? when both where i nthere prime. is this a little to far fetched to see quarry possibly winning? i think he was a very talented boxer.

I'd never bet on Quarry against Marciano prime for prime, but I don't think it's too far fetched to say he would've had a chance. For one thing, Marciano would have represented a situation in which Quarry wouldn't have been giving up size and reach, as he often did against the fighters of his own era, even though Marciano would still have a considerable edge in power.

Might've been a real bloody fight, these two !!

Bruno is obviously punchy. He suffered some severe TKOs. His speech is frequently slurred and unclear and at one film premiere in 2002 or 2003 before he started all his problems he was ranting about an upcoming rematch with Lennox Lewis in somewhere like Scotland as if it was reality.

I know his marriage break up and being forced to retire sent him off the rails too but that stuff doesnt make you slur your words.

overhand_right wrote:Bruno is obviously punchy. He suffered some severe TKOs. His speech is frequently slurred and unclear and at one film premiere in 2002 or 2003 before he started all his problems he was ranting about an upcoming rematch with Lennox Lewis in somewhere like Scotland as if it was reality.

I know his marriage break up and being forced to retire sent him off the rails too but that stuff doesnt make you slur your words.

I've heard he has bipolar disorder which is something many people suffer who have never boxed in their lives its probable that Bruno has suffered from it since he was a teenager and that once the outlet of boxing was gone his symptoms manifested themselves again. Medication that Bruno is probably taking for his illness could be causing his speech to slur at times.

silkov wrote:I think Quarry first made a comeback in '82-83 when he was 38... if I remember right he had one or two fights and though he won on points he was badly cutup in both fights and the comeback came to a halt. His last fight at 46 was in about 1990... from what I've heard he was pounded about for the whole fight and his brother later said that the day after the fight Jerry was 'gone'..... had a vacant look and started becoming confused. Very sad. People talked about him having brain damage in 82 when he made his original comeback but he laughed off these claims and seemed to be ok on the outside... seems it was the last fight that pushed him over the edge.
I see worrying parallels between Quarry and Thomas Hearns with the difference being that Hearns is already showing outward signs of problems yet is still being allowed to box.
Other worrying cases are Tyson (his speech has changed quite a bit I think) Holifield and Bowe.

I've heard that Hearns' speech difficulties are due to damage to his nasal cavities and facial structure as opposed to brain damage.

Marciano Frazier wrote:

silkov wrote:I think Quarry first made a comeback in '82-83 when he was 38... if I remember right he had one or two fights and though he won on points he was badly cutup in both fights and the comeback came to a halt. His last fight at 46 was in about 1990... from what I've heard he was pounded about for the whole fight and his brother later said that the day after the fight Jerry was 'gone'..... had a vacant look and started becoming confused. Very sad. People talked about him having brain damage in 82 when he made his original comeback but he laughed off these claims and seemed to be ok on the outside... seems it was the last fight that pushed him over the edge.
I see worrying parallels between Quarry and Thomas Hearns with the difference being that Hearns is already showing outward signs of problems yet is still being allowed to box.
Other worrying cases are Tyson (his speech has changed quite a bit I think) Holifield and Bowe.

I've heard that Hearns' speech difficulties are due to damage to his nasal cavities and facial structure as opposed to brain damage.

Damage to the nose etc wouldn't affect how long a person takes to answer questions and follow a conversation. I'd like to think that Hearns is ok but after watching fighters and exfighters for 30+ years I don't think Hearns is 100%... not by a long way.

scottcall wrote:Heros of the past who ended up thick tounged include: Ali, Ken Norton, Joe Frazier, Floyd Patterson, Ray Leonard, Thommy Hearns, Jorge Paez, Frank Bruno, Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whiticker, Jerry Cooney, Jeff Harding, Leon Spinks, Bobby Chacon, Greg Page, Iran Barkley, the late Jimmy Young, Kid Gavilan, Jerry Quarry tec...etc...etc...although we all love boxing, sadley nothing comes for free, and everything has a price, even a career in boxing.

Gerry Cooney seems fine to me.

If I recall correctly and I think I do a Sports Illustrated did an article in the 70's on fighters possibly suffering brain damage and even then Jerry was showing signs of brain damage. This would have been between the Norton and Zanon fights and I believe was still doing such an excellent job as a commentator for CBS

It's obviously a moot point now, but one wonders what would have happened had Quarry decided to continue fighting after the Zanon fight?

Would it have been "better" for him to have continued then with another fight or two & the inevitable loss as opposed to the beatdowns he got later on at a more physically depleted stage & a more advanced age?

Could he have gotten himself another couple of wins along the way to a final title opportunity? Had he managed another couple of wins over fringe guys like Zanon, it doesn't take much imagination to see him getting one of the title shots that went to Alfredo Evangelista, Ozzie Ocasio or even Mike Weaver in late '78 - early '79.

Of course, Holmes wouldn't stopped him inside five rounds, but maybe that would've prevented Quarry from attempting those other two comebacks. But, then again, maybe by then his subsequent health issues with dementia were already pre-destined & it wouldn't have mattered.
There's no way of knowing.

Though there's little question that the horrific beating that he took against Cranmer in that final debacle of a fight pushed him far over the edge into oblivion.

And the one to blame for that was that piece of shit John Ellis who promoted it. He took advantage of an individual who at that point was incapable of making those types of decisions for himself & actually had Jerry believing that he was on his way to a title shot if he won! When in reality, if I remember correctly, he was just trying to set up an eventual match between Quarry & Ellis's brother journeyman heavyweight Jimmy Ellis.

Apparently Jimmy's getting whacked out in a couple of rounds by George Foreman on HBO in big George's first post-Holyfield bout wasn't enough of a moneymaker for them, so they lured poor Jerry out of retirement & decided to fatten him up for the kill by matching him with Cranmer as an appetizer. Unfortunately, ol' Jerry was much farther gone than they thought & they wound up almost getting the guy killed. The bastards.

All of which brings up the question, should boxers be denied the right to fight? Even if you just look at the burden they become to society based on their long-term medical care, I think there is an argument that at some point they should be banned from fighting.

Cap

edit

whenever people mention Jerry Quarry's last fight.
Immediatly comes to my mind was his fight at Caesers Palace in Las Vegas with Lorenzo Zanon in November 1977.
Quarry was loosing the fight on points until he stopped Zannon later in the fight.I remember he looked really out of shape in it.
This bout was aired live on one of the Sports shows.
Im not sure if Howard Cossell called it.