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Coming out of an enforced layoff, of his career by losing to · Quarry. his strength and undermined his con-
Muhammad Ali staggers Jerry Quarry Ali went so far as promising to fidence. He is his own man and
(above) with a right hand during sign for another fight against Quarry. ready for the top. Jerry Quarry has
their Atlanta fight. Quarry runs Then he backed out at the last mom- matured.
into an uppercut (below) in their 'ent. Ali is an intelligent man. He In Quarry's first fight against Ali,
second bout in Las Vegas, Nevada. knew what he was doing. the first bout Ali had after coming
But Quarry hadn't yet reached his
prime in those fights. Ali had. Ali is professional enough to recog- · out of his forced retirement,
nize that his gifts are slipping away Muhammad won when Quarry suf-
from him. And he also recognizes fered an ugly gash above his right
that the improvement in Jerry eye in the fifth round. The second
Quarry makes him a much more dan- fight drove Quarry into his second
gerous .fighter than the man he retirement.
successfully defeated twice before. Quarry claims he lost the second
Jerry Quarry always had the physi- Ali fight when his brother, Mike,
cal equipment to become the heavy- lost his light heavyweight title bid
weight champion. However, emotion- against Bob Foster in the preliminary
al strains and family troubles made bout. He saw his brother get plastered
it impossible for him to devote his by a devastating left hook of Fos-
concentration solely to his career. ter's and listened while the referee
Without singleminded determination counted to IO over Mike's un-
no man can become the best in any conscious body.
field. "'I lost my. desire when Mike lost
The reasons Quarry now pos- his fight," Q,uarry said at the time.
sesses the mental stability to become . "Watching my brother lose like he
champion have been well docu- did was seeing him go thro.ugh the
mented - his new wife, who gjves same frustrations I'd gone through."
him encouragement without strings Today, Quarry no longer confuses
attached, and his new manager, Gil the fate of the Quarry family with
Clancy. Quarry has shaken off the his heavyweight boxing career. He
well-meaning parasites that sapped wants the championship and the fin-
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