RIP Mike Quarry

[H2O Man]

Former light heavyweight contender Mike Quarry died yesterday. Sports fans will remember him as the younger brother of heavyweight contender Jerry Quarry. Mike was a better boxer, but lacked the punching power that made Jerry more exciting to watch.

Mike's most famous fight was 34 years ago this month, when he challenged the great Bob Foster for the title. I remember after the end of the first round, Mike raised his hands, confident he could beat the man many experts rate as the best ever in that division. In the 4th round, Foster flattened Quarry. Bob was in his prime, and Mike was too young to be in the ring with him. When Bob was inducted in the Hall of Fame, he told Mike's brother-in-law that Mike was probably the best fighter he ever beat.

That fight was on the undercard of the 2nd Ali-Jerry Quarry match. Angelo Dundee rates that night as being one of the best of Ali's career. It wasn't that Jerry made a great fight of it, but Ali was in great condition, and at the top of his game.

In later years, Mike -- like Jerry -- suffered from the Irish flu. The combination of substance abuse on top of the physical damage from boxing resulted in pugilistic dementia. His sister said that he had lost the ability to walk or talk about three months ago. He was transferred from an Orange County nursing home to an assisted living community in La Habra.

Mike was disappointed that he lost to Foster. He also joked about being known primarily as Jerry's kid brother. He said that his epitaph would read, "Here lies Jerry Quarry's little brother." I'll remember him as a heck of a good fighter, who beat guys like Andy Kendall, Tommy Hicks, and Tom Bethea, and lost to guys like Chris Finnegan, Pierre Fourie, and Pedro Soto. And he split fights with Mike Rossman.

[jobycom]

1. Thanks for posting this

I'm not as learned as I'd like to be about boxing. It's always nice to hear from someone who is, and to read such a respectful tribute.

RIP Mike Quarry, and condolences to the family.

[H2O Man]

2. Thanks.

I figured there would be more sports fans who would remember Mike. He was a good man. Jerry and Mike were both good-looking Irishmen, who brought a lot of attention to the sport of boxing. Tough guys, who would have been world champions if they fought in different eras. Nicest guys you could meet outside the ring, too. Jerry was the type of guy that it didn't matter if he started the day with $100 or $10,000 in his pocket: by sun-down, he had given it away to someone he recognized as down on their luck. Those guys were as close as brothers can be.

Jerry in particular was friends with Mike Nixon, a fighter from Binghamton that my brothers and I knew well. I think Mike Rundell hung out with them, too. My west coast brother saw them all the time. He told me how even when Jerry was doing poorly (too many punches, too many "good times"), he watched him hit the heavy bag. He was surprised, though punching a bag isn't the same as fighting. Jerry tried an ill-fated "come back," that did him no good. Jackals dressed as promoters let the poor guy fight.

Back to Mike. He beat future world champion Mike Rossman in New York in 1975. Rossman had been undefeated in 22 fights (with 12 KOs) before losing to Mike Nixon in Binghamton. I fought on the undercard. That was 5-19-75. They had a return match on 8-1 on Wide World of Sports. It was in Vegas. Nixon was splitting from his trainer, because he wasn't dedicated to training. Rossman took him out in 7. Then Rossman fought Mike Quarry, who beat him in 10 by decision. Rossman was a disciplined fighter, though. He trained hard. He was from NJ. He fought Mike Quarry 15 months later, and took a 10 round decision.

Man! Those were the days.

[Kingofalldems]

3. Sorry to hear about Mike's death

I remember both of them. Jerry was known as 'The Bellflower Bomber' as I recall. I specifically remember him fighting in a tournament in the late sixties to determine the heavyweight champ. It was during the time when Ali was suspended. He had a pretty good punch. Mike, on the other hand was not a big puncher but a good boxer. Do you remember Irish Mike Baker? He was a welterweight I think.

[H2O Man]

6. There was a guy

named Mike Baker from South Carolina. He was a Jr. Middleweight, right around the time that Freddie Little held that crown. It wasn't fully recognized as a "division" yet. Anyhow, if this is the same one you refer to, he was a tough guy. He turned pro in about 1973, and fought on both coasts.

He fought a lot of fights fast, and had a good record. The year before I fought on the Rossman card in Binghamton, Baker dropped a decision to Mike Rossman, who was growing into a light heavyweight. Baker also lost to Tony Licata around that time.

He won a "regional" title, the US Jr Middleweight crown. I am big on regional titles, rather than having multiple "world" titles. One world champ, numerous regional (North American, European, etc) titles.

At the time, guys who were jr. middleweight were forced to fight guys a lot bigger. The Rossman example shows that.

This Mike Baker was a typical handsome Irishman, who was always a "fan favorite."

[Kingofalldems]

7. I think that's him--red hair

He fought out of DC for a while. What weight class did you fight in?

[H2O Man]

8. Many pounds ago ....

I started boxing as a youngster, but when I was older and fought, I was 132-138 pounds. I moved up and down in weight pretty easily. Here is an amateur fight in Syracuse. I'm on the right. I was 135 lbs here.

[H2O Man]

9. And here is Jerry

at a fight card that my oldest brother was on. George Foreman was in the main event. I think Jerry was thinking about fighting young George; I'm glad he didn't.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. Wow, I'm glad you posted that picture

Helps me remember the younger and more vital Jerry Quarry, in his prime.

My images,sadly, are the drunken version, slumped much lower than his true height and with a puffy face and simpleton grin, leaning against the bar in the Caesar's Palace sportsbook. That had to be early to mid '90s, not many years before he died.

[H2O Man]

11. It's a sad thing to see .....

My oldest brother, who had the same defensive skills as Jerry in the ring, and the same bad habits after he retired, is suffering from the same disease. Starting a few years back, he was unsure if I was me or my brother. And he thought he and I were running an errand at the lumber yard for our father, six years dead, when I last took him to detox. Seeing a man reduced to that is harsh.

[Awsi Dooger]

4. I remember both Quarrys

Mike was a smoother more conventional fighter but without the wild flails that made Jerry so interesting to watch. I remember the fight with Foster and hard to believe it was 34 years ago. Let's hope Mike's later years were better than his brother's. I saw Jerry leaning on the bar near the Caesar's Palace sportsbook many times in the years before he died, always drinking and with slurred speech while one person after another would come up and talk to him about the old fights. Jerry was smiling and seemingly happy, but it was always tough for me to stand and listen for too long, considering how much he had slipped.

[H2O Man]

5. My brother said

he saw Jerry in front of a liquor store every morning, waiting for it to open. My brother was a mail man in the neighborhood. The Irish flu is a sad disease, that does an ugly type of damage to the brain of a person who has absorbed punishment in the ring.