Two spring-loaded heavyweights, toe-to-toe, 44 years ago, engaged in a Fight of the Year slugfest!
It?s the weekend before ?The Long Weekend? (See The Long Weekend No. 2: The Prodigy ? July 1, 2012, The Long Weekend ? June 30, 2011) and I?m chopping and piling wood on the beach for a big bonfire next week, ?Canada Day?. I?m also burning off some old wood from the bush down near the pond, and the smoke is getting in my eyes. The sun is rising up, early morning over Georgian Bay. I?m sitting, taking a break, looking at the sky turn early morning pink/orange and contemplating last night?s effort by Mr. J. Banks. Perplexing! I walk a few hundred feet to the boathouse, enter the upstairs room where the wood shutters are folded back and the windows are wide open, with a light bay breeze blowing in, taking me back in time. I plug in a DVD and take a break.
June 23, 1969, Madison Square Garden, New York City
Johnny Addie is ring announcing the entry of Bellflower ?Irish? Jerry Quarry. He enters the ring in a pink robe, blue golf hat, and that Kennedy-like side part hairstyle. Arthur Mercante is the referee and the atmosphere is electric and it?s the day before the legendary Dempsey?s birthday. Ringside tickets have sold at a record price for an indoor heavyweight fight.
What?s not to like about the charismatic 23-year-old Jerry Quarry with his 31-2-4 record? He comes from a hard as nails background. An escalated argument with an umpire?s call one time ended with Quarry breaking his hand on said Mr. Umpires head. On another occasion when a customer once tried to steal a pool cue from Quarry?s Bar and was politely asked by Jerry to return the said cue, which was ungraciously whacked over Quarry?s head, the said cue customer, knocked cold by Quarry, ended up in the hospital.
?Fifteen Rounds, for the Heavyweight Championship of the World?Joe Frazier. ?Smokin? Joe Frazier.? Back then those words sent chills up your spine!
Joe Frazier is a 203-pound considerately sized up heavyweight Henry Armstrong version. An unrelenting machine, hungry, with a style of forced fury, marks what Frazier is. He was an Olympic Gold Medalist and enters the ring, 25 years old, with 23 wins, no losses, and 20 KOs.
Quarry was at peak confidence. ?I boxed Frazier in the gym about four years ago,? he said. ?It was the Main Street gym in the afternoon. He?s putting out a bunch of stuff that he dominated me. That?s a bunch of crap. I hit him some good shots, and I discovered he really can?t punch too good. I?m going in there and I know I can beat him. You ever felt that way? That there?s one guy that you just know that you can beat??
When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Quarry, an intuitive back-against-the-ropes counterpuncher, is putting his natural instincts style aside and is proclaiming Irish bar room brawler-like fashion, ?Frazier will go down in the first.? Legendary trainers such as Cus D?Amato and Angelo Dundee are leaning towards a Quarry victory. Dundee, pre-fight, states, ?Joe Frazier is a perfect foil for Quarry?he?ll come to Quarry and anybody who does is in trouble.?
Fight of the Year
ROUND 1
That distinctive Madison Square Garden buzz and ring bell goes and we see why we love Quarry and Frazier to this very day. They embody truth transmitted from the mental to the physical. Quarry moves straight to the center of the ring and lays out a lead right hand and a huge left hook to the body of Frazier. Quarry, who pre-fight had stated he wanted to find out ?who was the toughest, who?s the best puncher and who can take the best punch,? is throwing punches true to his word.
Give-and-take and take-and-give goes one of the great first rounds in heavyweight history as Frazier is buzzed by a Quarry right hand with 30 seconds to go. Both fighters are digging huge shots to the body. The bell rings and the crowd erupts in excitement.
ROUND 2
The fight is a slugfest! Frazier has landed three huge left hooks and a right hand. With approximately one minute left to go Quarry has sunk two hard rights on Frazier?s head to little effect.
ROUND 3
Both fighters again meet each other center ring. A huge right and a left hand by Frazier sends Quarry to a corner. ?Quarry is a tough kid,? Hall of Famer Howard Cosell comments. ?I?ll tell you that.?
ROUND 4
Frazier has found his rhythm. Two hundred pounds plus of black granite, all churning hands and elbows, machine-like in memory, takes over. A giant Henry Armstrong, bobbing, weaving, moving left hand and right hand, punctuated by the occasional elbow, bores down on Jerry Quarry. The sound of the blows resonates: ITALIC?Humpfff, Humpfff, Humpfff? Frazier grunts, as if a thousand memory blows on rhythm, smacking a heavy bag, but it?s not a heavy bag, it?s bone, flesh, and human soul, being that of Jerry Quarry.
?Quarry has a granite chin,? observes Cosell. ?Quarry is cut under the eye and his face is becoming a puffy mess.?
ROUND 5
Dundee, ringside, has stated that Frazier is now dominating and before the bell rings the ring doctor and Arthur Mercante are both over in Quarry?s corner taking a close look.
As the bell rings for the fifth, Quarry tries to get up on his toes and lay out some jabs but Frazier is all over him now. Quarry has a bad cut under the eye. Miraculously, with only the inner sanctum of Quarry?s mind to answer how he stands remaining, Jerry, with about one minute left, fires off 11 straight punches. Frazier brings a massive uppercut. Quarry responds with a massive uppercut of his own. Frazier brings a left hook. Quarry brings a left hook. It?s Quarry?s last stand. As the bell rings Jerry heads to his corner in big trouble.
ROUND 6
Frazier is again in full rhythm thumping off short jabs, hooks, forearms and how Quarry is taking Frazier?s huge hook at the end of the round is perhaps a Leprechaun?s deep in the woods conversation of Irish magic still whispering deep of Quarry?s pain all these years forward.
ROUND 7
Frazier pounds the bleeding Quarry without mercy. Incredibly Quarry lets loose of one last huge left hook to Frazier?s body.
After round seven the fight is stopped and the sobbing disconsolate Quarry circle walks the squared circle on the edge of a shattered dream.
Fight of the Year!
The glory of it all, laid out in the mythical Madison Square Garden?of Mercante, Addie, Cosell, Dundee, Yank Durham always speaking of prot?g? Frazier entwined as one (?I was in shape, and I was ready to go fifteen?); of Jimmy Ellis suit of blue in the ring after the fight and soon enough to feel the blues; of the superb Gil Clancy, of the shadow of ?Clay?, the Ali exile hovering over the garden, and of Quarry, Frazier, ?Smokin?.?
The sun is up full now over Georgian Bay and I am alone on 1,000 feet of private beach and bush. I have chopped wood for a couple of hours and moved a few thousand pounds of patio slabs over near the pond to make a path. There?s a breeze up over Georgian Bay and a single sailboat way off in the distance. I hear a few seagulls off in the distance.
I feel healthy! Touch wood or in this case knock on rock! My god the pain and physical abuse these guys take. I wipe some sweat off my face. Fuck me! Maybe it?s the smoke that?s gotten in my eye. Maybe it?s a small drop of nostalgic admiration. To the fighters, Quarry and Frazier, who both some 44 years back wanted to find out something about themselves, internal, not to be measured by the simplicity of leather against skin and bone.
The Platters Shall Not Pass to the Next
?Something here inside cannot be denied?oh when your heart?s on fire?you must realize?you must realize?smoke gets in your eyes?when a lonely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes.??The Platters
Bring on Your Wrecking Ball / Another Fight of the Year?
Golovkin!!!
We are at the half-year mark and could we possibly get more than the likes of Rios vs. Alvarado II or Bradley vs. Provodnikov as Fight of the Year candidates.
Next weekend, HBO time, two other wonderful warriors, Gennady Golovkin and Irish ?Mack the Knife? Macklin will engage to see who is best, and to see who?s toughest. Sometimes it isn?t easy being Irish green. Oh yes, by nature, the Irish like to fight. But who?s to say? If Macklin finds a way to plant that right hand, which is substantial, on the superb Golovkin, perhaps, years moving forward, we will be speaking once again of moments of the past superb.
Make no mistake about Golovkin. I have watched him upfront ringside and he is all that has been spoken of, in style, in substance, either hand knockout power and wonderful in-and-out footwork.
It is hard not to conjure forth warlike metaphors when watching and thinking about Champion Golovkin. Each and every second is an explosion waiting to happen. As for Macklin I can tell you this much, as well, in consideration of his power; as I sat ringside last year at Chavez Jr. vs. Martinez, ?Mack the Knife?, like Quarry, a few seconds off the first bell, popped a right hand onto Joachim Alcine and seconds later Mr. Alcine was moving sideways and I mean that in a very real physical sense.
Is there anything more requisite than the power of one-punch dispatch? These two superb boxers, fighters, Macklin and Golovkin bring such to this fight. In the end result this is the resulting end that makes us sit on the edge of our entertainment seats. This long weekend!
