Rear View Mirror: Noel Quarless

Rear View Mirror: A look back at the career of Liverpool's fearsome Noel Quarless

GBN columnist Donald C Stewart takes a look into his rear view mirror at the career of Liverpool's heavyweight hero, Noel Quarless

His final fight was in 1990 and up against the man we believe was the best British heavyweight, Lennox Lewis.

But his story began, as a professional, some 9 years earlier in 1981 and in 31 professional fights, Noel Quarless, 19-12, 11 KOs managed to revel in the limelight, grab opportunities that came his way and then fade as the lights dimmed and the career faltered before he gave Lewis his 7th straight win as professional fighter.

That final night came in the spiritual home of British boxing, a small hall with a big heart, the gateway to dreams and the source of many failures: York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. There are many small halls up and around the United Kingdom but this one has the balcony close to the action, a limited numbers of seats in the house and no limits on the volume and the enthusiasm that appears in the crowd as they goad and cheer the fighters to get close, up personal and knock each other out.

Quarless came from a traditional working-class background in South Liverpool, which had been devastated by unemployment and Quarless who had a promising amateur career ahead of him, had he chosen it, decided at 19, to go professional.

In an interview with Chris Walker, Quarless reflected on becoming a professional, “I thought I knew best and I wouldn’t listen,” roars Quarless, recalling the infancy of his pro career with impressive accuracy. “Money ruled my life then and I didn’t really have a trainer or manager who would go all out for me. It didn’t matter how much notice I had for a fight or how fit I was. If I was offered a fight for a sum of money, then I took it. It’s how things were then. There were no jobs to be had, I had a mortgage to pay, and I was with a woman back then who was on my fucking case all the time. It’s not like today with managers and sponsors. I would’ve loved someone to offer me a few protein, shakes before my fights, but you didn’t even have that. The modern fighter doesn’t want for much and the ones that do need to take a look at the time I fought in.”

Quarless’ debut came at another iconic small hall venue – the Stadium in Liverpool. It was, by this time, showing its age and struggling to stay open, a fight it eventually lost, but a win was at least recorded for local boy, Quarless who beat Phil Clark by stopping him within 30 seconds of the first round.

Quarless was mobile, fast and had heavy hands. And of his record people in the know, suggest you should look beyond his record and see a man who coulda, shoulda, woulda. The problem of course is that every scrap heap is filled with those pretensions. Liverpool believed, of course they did, that Quarless would finally deliver to Liverpool a heavyweight champion. The city had many fighters from other weight divisions to respect, admire and revere but a big man was the holy grail. Quarless was considered to be that man; except he wasn’t.

His history may be littered with being a bit part, but there is little doubt, that Quarless was a heavyweight fighter with the movement of a much lighter man. When you see the way that Deontay Wilder or Tyson Fury can move, Quarless could sue for copyright infringement.

He became part of other’s planning for fights: a willing and useful sparring partner. In the interview he had with Walker, he admitted that, “I should’ve stayed in The States when I was over there. Michael Spinks had me down in New Orleans as one of his sparring partners for the [first] Larry Holmes fight [in 1985]. As soon as I got off the plane, Spinks’s people grabbed hold of my gut and said, ‘You hurt our man, and then we hurt you.’ These fellas had guns in open view when they were driving me to my accommodation, but I’d travelled that far with the intention to make a good impression and I think I did that. People there involved with Spinks asked me to stay over and told me they could look after me and get me fights, but I didn’t even entertain the offer. I came back to Liverpool and regretted it immediately.”

In the ring, one of the fights that caught my eye was the 1983 win against Funso Banjo. It will not be a name known to many in casual boxing circles, but his two sons, Ashley and DAZN regular Jordan from Diversity will certainly be known to people. In January of that year Quarless lost to their father, stopped in the 3rd round at The Royal Albert Hall no less!

Iconic venues were being ticked off but Quarless was also chasing iconic opponents. Blaming politics, and believing that he never fancied it, his pursuit of a showdown with the darling of British heavyweight boxing, Frank Bruno was never to happen. It has some traction as Quarless could punch, and Bruno had some frailties that could have been exploited by Quarless: but it is all speculation now. As he revealed to Walker,  “they didn’t want me in with Bruno because on my day I was a handful for anyone.”

Whilst he may not have shared a ring with the legend, he did put on some pretty legendary performances like taking the European title against Anders Eklund in no more than 70 seconds, and became John L Gardner’s last opponent, less than 2 weeks later in 1983! Gardner was despatched in November at the Crest Hotel, Bloomsbury in London in a 2nd round stoppage after the October defeat of Eklund at the same venue. Quarless took Gardner apart in that fight, so his reputation was really beginning to build but it was a reputation built on a journeyman style existence. He spoke to Chris Walker about those golden times, “Anders Eklund was a [two-time] European champion, and I knocked him out in one round. Even though that was the best win of my career, it was something of a curse in the end as it made people making big decisions think twice about me. I wanted that fight so bad because I knew I had what it took to beat Bruno. I wasn’t world class and I’m not saying I should’ve won this or won that, but there was a time when I had Bruno’s number and because far too many people knew it as well, they kept me out the sport so I couldn’t be seen or heard.”

The problem was that Quarless was winning but he was also losing. The Gardner fight was his 13th; he had won only 9 of them. The next 3 fights he had saw him lose another 3 times. In fact, he got disqualified in his next fight, against Conroy Nelson in 1984 as his stamina waned. Along with punch resistance starting to go, the time was becoming increasingly wrong for him. He was fighting, he was winning but he was still losing.

That mouth was in fine fettle when he commented on sparring with Michael Spinks, "I certainly didn't learn anything. In fact, I reckon I taught him a few things," he was to comment afterwards. Such bragging though was the precursor to things going all wrong for the big man.

There then came three wins and it led in 1985 to a British eliminator on the 3rd of October 1985 back at The Stadium in Liverpool. He was knocked out in the 7th round, whilst gassing badly.  It was 1985 and the end was nigh, but the real knockout blow came with promoter wrangling and legal action which saw him out the ring until 1987. He recounted his tale to Chris Walker, “Twenty-three grand in solicitors’ fees to get my career up and running again, twenty-three fucking grand.”

As Walker notes, Quarless’s purse was never the equal to what it cost to fight people away from Quarless’ earning potential. It left a stain on him which nothing could rub out, and his love of the sport was gone. “I needed help, in all honesty. Not just at the end of my career, but from day one. I grew up too quick because my dad died of cancer when I was sixteen and straightaway I tried to be a big man and I thought I knew better than everyone else. I’d smoke weed before fights but knock it on the head about three weeks before, but if I would’ve had someone there to explain to me how much of a dickhead I was being then I think I would’ve listened. I had nobody. And by the time I’d clicked on to what was needed to have a go and be a success, it was too late. I was fighting for money because I had bills to pay. I’d do anything to be fighting in this era with the help the lads have got today. There was nothing like that in my time.”

It was not to be an ending without a fanfare as he recorded a win against John Tate in 1988 though by then Tate was his own shadow as well as his own self – a massive 281 pounds! Tate was a former world champion, Olympian and should have been THE scalp on Quarless’s record; instead, it was a sad and sorry sight for all to see.

The final flourish was fight against another up and coming fighter, Lewis in 1990. He talked of stopping Lewis in 3; instead, Lewis stopped his career in 2, once again in that mecca of British boxing, York Hall.

In Liverpool Scousers still remember him fondly and many have compared his career to that of David Price who may echo the fights that Quarless had, the hype that Price enjoyed and the collective disappointment that has followed his professional career. It’s NOT a bad analogy nor is it a terrible one for Quarless was fearless.

His legacy though is much more than just his record as his nephew; Nathan Quarless took the step to go professional as cruiserweight for the Salisbury ABC in Liverpool. The Solly, as it is known, also brought Olympians like David Burke, the aforementioned David Price, future world champion Derry Mathews and ABA champions including James Dickens, Stephen Burke, Courtney Fry and David Mulholland to our attention.  Nathan was last in a ring in June of this year and has an 18-fight record with 14 wins, though has been hitherto unable to bring home the world title he wanted to do so, in honour of his uncle.

I could leave the last word to the Liverpudlian boxing legend and former WBC Emeritus Cruiserweight champion, Tony Bellew who reflected in an article a few years back he wrote, “Noel is great guy who also saw something in me and put a fair bit of work into me. Noel was a good heavyweight himself in his day fighting the likes of Lennox Lewis, Funso Banjo and beating the likes of Anders Eklund and John L. Gardner, not to mention boxing the head off former world champion John Tate in a points win and also working as a sparring partner for the great Michael Spinks and Larry Holmes.”

But instead, let me leave it to the man himself, who ended his interview with Chris Walker thus, “I’ll help anyone because I know how hard the sport is and I don’t take a single penny from anyone even though I could do with the money. This sport has made me so bitter, and I always think back to the people who were around me and how they took from me. There’s not a chance that I would do that to young lads coming through trying to make a few quid one of the hardest ways possible. It’s nothing to do with the money why I’m bitter though, it’s all about what I could’ve achieved. I was good enough to beat some of the best fighters about like Anders Eklund, John Tate, and John L. Gardner; I had American promoters showing interest in me after sparring with Michael Spinks. I must’ve been good, even great, at one point, but I do feel a little let down that I haven’t got a belt to show for it.”

And as the latest young boxer meets the legendary Noel Quarless, they can look forward to finding out that Liverpool may be a city that occasionally sleeps but as Bellew proves, it never forgets.