Page 8 - lw3520

This remarkable photo sequence
shows the knockout of Alexander.
Far left: A powerful right just
under the heart makes Joe wince.
Left: A followup left hook
buckles Joe's knees. Reading
\ .
down; A right dumps Alexander
with such force his . legs fly
into the air. Bottom: He's out!
fool I was," he rememberp thjnk-
ing. "Sticking my chin out and get-
ting hit like that. I net/er saw the
punch coming. If I haq t sure· a~
hell wouldn't have stuck my chin
out like that and said 'Hit me.':
"It was an accident. It could hap-
pen to anybody. You gonna tell me
Muhammad Ali stuck his chin out
on purpose when Frazier caught
him? You gonna tell me he stuck
it out when Cooper hit h~m? I
wasn't taunting him by sticking my
chin out and saying 'Hit me.' He just
. caught me when I wasn't expect-
ing it."
The blow · did snap Jerry out of
his· first round lethargy, caused by
a combination of Alexander's awk-
w·ardness ·a'nd Quarry's lack of
.Work.
·,,1 just haven't had that m_uch
action," Jerry noted, "My last fight
went just 'one round. If you look at
it, I've had just _seven .rounds of
boxing in the ring since a year ago
February 9th. Now how the hell are
you gonna be strong?
"Gi_l and I ,talked about getting
some work in this fight. I hoped
it would _ last awhile. But the 'min-
ute ·1 came back fo the corner . I
told Gil Tm sorry, Gil. I didn't
mean that.' He said 'Alrigh( Get
close to him and· start throwing and
get him out of there.' So I did."
Quarry did admit the pressure of
· the Frazier fight and not wanting
to blow it made him a little tighter.
But he emphasized that he had not
taken Alexander lig-htly and that
"r trained my ass off for this fight!"
Jerry emphasized that there was
no chance Alexander could've fin-
1
ished him"-off in that first round.
''I'll tell you this right now. There's
no chance of me staying down. The
man who beats me from here on in
· is going to have to beat me to
death to beat me. Except I'm not
going to get beat any more." □