Joe frazer boxing professional#
He lost only four times in 37 professional fights - twice each to Ali and Foreman.įor several years, Mr. In 1964, he won an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo, despite fighting with a broken thumb. He left home at 15 and began an amateur boxing career in Philadelphia. He showed an early interest in boxing and pounded a heavy bag he hung from a tree. 17, 1944, in Beaufort, S.C., one of 13 children. “Tell your dad the things I said I really didn’t mean,” Ali said. Frazier’s son Marvis, who later had a notable boxing career, visited Ali’s dressing room.
“It’s the closest I’ve come to death,” Ali said.Īfter the fight, Mr. “I hit him with punches that bring down the walls of a city,” he said. Frazier landed more than 440 punches on Ali. Frazier’s protest, to end the fight.ĭuring the bout, Mr. Frazier’s eyes were swollen almost completely shut. Frazier absorbed more than 30 blows to the head, the referee had to lead him to his corner. Frazier’s mouthpiece flying into the fourth row of the crowd.Īfter the 14th round, in which Mr. In the 10th round, Ali found new reserves of strength and began to assault Mr. “They told me you was washed up!” Ali shouted. Seemingly with each punch, the sweating crowd switched its allegiance from one boxer to the other. The fight took place in extremely hot conditions. Frazier’s speech at news conferences, called him a “gorilla” and pulled a small rubber gorilla from his pocket for the cameras. 1, 1975, in the Philippines.īefore the fight, Ali sharpened his rhetoric into venomous psychological warfare. That October, in the fight that was known as the “Rumble in the Jungle,” Ali reclaimed his championship by defeating Foreman with an eighth-round knockout in Zaire.Īli and Frazier met again on Oct. Frazier and Ali met in January 1974 in a lackluster non-title fight that Ali won by decision. Frazier lost his title when George Foreman knocked him down six times in two rounds, prompting ABC broadcaster Howard Cosell’s memorable exclamation: “Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!” Frazier won a unanimous decision, giving Ali the first loss of his career. Frazier landed a left hook on Ali’s jaw, sending him to the floor, with his head bouncing off the canvas. For the first time, he looked confused and defeated in the boxing ring.Ībout 25 seconds into the 15th and final round, Mr. By the 11th round, Ali was reeling backward from a succession of blows. Each fighter was guaranteed $2.5 million, the highest purse in boxing history at the time.Įarly in the fight, Ali shook his head in disdain whenever Mr. Frank Sinatra was a ringside photographer for Life magazine. The crowd was studded with celebrities, including Woody Allen, Dustin Hoffman and Diana Ross. Their first fight took place at New York’s Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971, with a glittering backdrop. “What do he know about hard times? Bigmouthing and loud talk, he’s an expert on that, but hard times - that’s something else.” In response, he referred to Ali by his original name of Cassius Clay, which Ali considered an affront. Frazier, who had admired Ali, was baffled and insulted by what he considered a betrayal of the brotherhood of boxers. Frazier “ignorant,” “dumb” and an “Uncle Tom.” With Ali returning to boxing after a three-year layoff, the stage was set for a showdown.Īgainst a background of political and racial upheaval, Ali called Mr. Frazier beat Jimmy Ellis to become the undisputed heavyweight champion. Frazier turned from ordinary ribbing to something deeper that reflected the divisions of race and opportunity in America.Īli had been the heavyweight champion from 1964 to 1967, when he had to relinquish his title after refusing to participate in the military draft. Frazier and Ali fought in the ring were complicated by a personal antipathy rare in sports. The last of their three fights, the “Thrilla in Manila” in 1975, is widely ranked as the greatest match in boxing history.īut the bouts that Mr. Frazier’s quiet stoicism was no match for Ali’s glib flamboyance. The most exciting thing about him was his nickname, “Smokin’ Joe.” His crouching, relentless style of boxing was in stark contrast to the tall, graceful presence of Ali. Frazier, a sharecropper’s son from South Carolina, was stocky and powerful. Both fighters had won Olympic gold medals, but in most other respects they were very different. Frazier and Ali were the dominant heavyweights of their generation, and their rivalry was considered one of the most heated and enduring in all of sports. His family said he died in hospice care in Philadelphia. Joe Frazier, a onetime heavyweight champion whose epic battles with Muhammad Ali in the 1970s spilled from the boxing ring into a decades-long war of words, died Nov.
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