Johnnie Flores & Jerry Quarry 1967-68 . . .

By Rick Farris

I was fifteen, when Muhammad Ali was stripped of the Heavyweight title and exiled from boxing for more than three years.

Somebody would have to take his place, and there were ten contenders suddenly eligable to win the title that Cassius Clay had held since stopping Sonny Liston in 1964.

Nobody had come close to beating Ali, not at that point in his career, not at age 25. But Ali was gone, at least for a few years and there would have to be a tournament to find his successor.

New York quickly declared the winner of a 15-round bout between Joe Frazier and Buster Mathis, as the new heavyweight champ. However, the rest of the world would recognize the winner of the eight man WBA Heavyweight Tournament as the true Successor. Frazier beat Mathis for the N.Y. version of the title, but he would not be recognized universally as champ until he defeated the winner of the eight man contest.

This was a great time in my life. I had been boxing in the Johnnie Flores boxing stable for nearly three years, Johnnie handled Jerry Quarry. Johnnie had managed the 22-year-old heavyweight from the time he was a junior boxer, only seven-years-old. Jerry began his boxing career in the same place I would a dozen years later, at Flores' backyard gym in Pacoima, California. It was like a second home to me when I was a teenager.

I was within my element at the gym, and when Johnnie Flores walked in later in the evening, after eating his dinner, the place really came alive. Johnnie was one of the greatest story tellers I'd ever know. He'd walk thru the door, acknowledge everybody, usually a toothpick in his mouth. He'd then share his day with us.

One night, Johnnie had a big smile on his face. He had good news. His heavyweight, Jerry Quarry, would be among the eight contenders who would meet in a tourney to crown a new WBA Heavyweight Champ. This was a big deal, and Johnnie Flores would come very close to managing a World Heavyweight Champion before it was over.

In those days, Johnnie had a lot to share, a lot about current state of the heavyweight division. His boy, Jerry Quarry, was in the mix, seriously so after whipping favored Thad Spencer in Oakland in the semi-final, earning him a shot at the title in the championship match with Jimmy Ellis. Jerry had just turned 23, and a slight favorite to beat Ellis and take the title. Jerry's power roared in the Spencer match, and Ellis wasn't a "big" heavyweight. It would later be proven that Jerry could not beat either Frazier or Ali, however, he was favored to beat Ellis, and rightly so.

Of course, the Jerry Quarry that showed up to fight Ellis in Oakland, forty-one years ago, wasn't the same Jerry that showed up for Scrap Iron Johnson, or Earnie Shavers, or Ron Lyle, or Spencer, or Mac Foster, or even Joe Frazier the following year. That Jerry Quarry was a dangerous heavyweight, an explosive puncher with great boxing skills. Jerry's worse opponent was himself, and when he wasn't right, he was a dog with a lot of fleas. It was all about his mind. He was never predictable, but don't be foolish enough to take Quarry for granted.

I remember Jerry was matched with Floyd Patterson in the quarter-final. Patterson had held Jerry to a draw a few months earlier, but this Jerry was on a mission and Patterson would lose a decision this time.

As the tournament progressed, right thru to the title fight, Johnnie Flores kept us on top of things. And of course, he had a couple other headliners as well, featherweight Dwight Hawkins and the "Maravilla Kid" Ruben Navarro. Ruben was getting a Jr. title fight with Rene Barrientos, the WBA 130lb Champ, in Manila. He also fought in Japan that year. Dwight Hawkins, in 1968, had three back-to-back bouts in Tokyo, in a three month period, KOing iniaki Shibata in 7, Rokuro Ishiyama in 2, and dropping a close decision to the great Fighting Harada.

Between Jerry's 1968 heavyweight title elimination bouts, Hawkins and Navarro's overseas bouts, and then his other boxers at home, Johnnie Flores was a busy man. He was one of the hottest managers on the West Coast, and in 1968, a major player in the world of world class professional boxing.

Those were exciting times for all of us. "Our Stable" nearly included the Heavyweight Champion of the World.
Unfortunatly, the "wrong" Jerry showed up for the Jimmy Ellis fight.