{"id":49391,"date":"2014-12-28T16:59:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T22:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=49391"},"modified":"2014-12-28T16:59:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T22:59:08","slug":"jeff-candy-slim-merritt-what-might-have-been","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=49391","title":{"rendered":"Jeff \u201cCandy Slim\u201d Merritt: What Might Have Been\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jeff-Merritt\"<\/a>By Jim Amato<\/strong><\/p>\n

He began his career in 1964 but it was not until 1973 that he crashed into the heavyweight ratings. In between were periods of inactivity and a multitude of meaningless bouts. He was a murderous, punching prospect that no worthy opponent wanted to chance his career against. By the time he got his \u201cshot\u201d at the big time, he was 21-1, 16 KO\u2019s. He scored seven 1st round kayos and eight 2nd round stoppages. Yet up to this point his claim to fame was being a Muhammad Ali sparring partner. It is a shame that today very few remember Jeff \u201cCandy Slim\u2019 Merritt. True, his tenure as a mainstream contender was less than a year but oh what a reputation he had. Many at that time considered him the hardest puncher in the heavyweight division, bar none.<\/p>\n

Although Jeff had one bout in 1964 his career really began in 1968. In 1969, Jeff established himself as a legitimate prospect with decision wins over Ray Williams, Roger Russell and Henry Clark. Finally on September 10th, 1973, Jeff stepped into the ring to face former WBA Heavyweight Champion Ernie Terrell. \u201cBig\u201d Ernie had held the WBA title from 1965 to 1967 before losing a unification fight with Ali. He then lost to Thad Spencer in the WBA eight-man elimination tourney and followed that with a loss to Manuel Ramos. A kayo victory over Jose Luis Garcia propelled Ernie back in to the Top Ten ratings. Despite a very controversial loss to Chuck Wepner, Ernie was still ranked when he faced Merritt. Less than one round later Ernie was a retired ex-champion as Jeff destroyed him. Jeff followed this with a three round butchering of rugged Ron Stander.<\/p>\n

Jeff kept his name in the headlines serving as Earnie Shavers sparring partner while Earnie prepared for his bout with Jerry Quarry. Archie Moore was training Shavers and he allowed Merritt to spar with Earnie. A couple of vicious hooks caused the Quarry bout to be postponed, as Earnie\u2019s jaw was broken. Don King, Earnie\u2019s manager was livid. Archie was dismissed and Quarry\u2019s trainer Gil Clancy said something to the effect that Merritt was the kind of guy you fought for money, not in the gym.<\/p>\n

All was going well until March 4th, 1974. Jeff faced old foe Henry Clark. This time Clark abandoned his usual cautious style and took Jeff by surprise. Jeff was now the victim of a one round kayo loss. The defeat put Jeff\u2019s career into a tail spin. It was almost 2 1\/2 years before he would fight again. His opponent would be tough fringe contender Stan Ward. For two rounds Jeff out boxed the ponderous Ward, shutting one of his eyes. In round three the half blind Ward connected and again Jeff\u2019s chin betrayed him. The bout was soon stopped and Ward had handed Jeff his ticket to boxing oblivion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jim Amato He began his career in 1964 but it was not until 1973 that he crashed into the heavyweight ratings. In between were periods of inactivity and a multitude of meaningless bouts. He was a murderous, punching prospect that no worthy opponent wanted to chance his career against. By the time he got […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11639],"class_list":["post-49391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-jeff-candy-slim-merritt-what-might-have-been"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49391"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}