PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Joe Frazier had to throw his greatest punch to knock down
“The Greatest.”
A vicious left hook from Frazier put Muhammad Ali on the canvas in the 15th
round in March 1971 when he became the first man to beat him in the Fight of the
Century at Madison Square Garden.
“That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life,” Frazier said.
It was his biggest night, one that would never come again.
The relentless, undersized heavyweight ruled the division as champion, then
spent a lifetime trying to fight his way out of Ali’s shadow.
Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at 67,
will forever be associated with Ali. No one in boxing would ever dream of
anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin’ Joe.
“I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration,” Ali said in a
statement. “My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones.”
They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and once in the
morning in a steamy arena in the Thrilla in Manila in the Philippines. They went
41 rounds together. Neither gave an inch and both gave it their all.
In their last fight in Manila in 1975, they traded punches with a fervor
that seemed unimaginable among heavyweights. Frazier gave almost as good as he
got for 14 rounds, then had to be held back by trainer Eddie Futch as he tried
to go out for the final round, unable to see.
“Closest thing to dying that I know of,” Ali said afterward.
Ali was as merciless with Frazier out of the ring as he was inside it. He
called him a gorilla, and mocked him as an Uncle Tom. But he respected him as a
fighter, especially after Frazier won a decision to defend his heavyweight title
against the then-unbeaten Ali in a fight that was so big Frank Sinatra was
shooting pictures at ringside and both fighters earned an astonishing $2.5
million.
The night at the Garden 40 years ago remained fresh in Frazier’s mind as he
talked about his life, career and relationship with Ali a few months before he
died.
“I can’t go nowhere where it’s not mentioned,” he told The Associated
Press.
Bob Arum, who once promoted Ali, said he was saddened by Frazier’s passing.
“He was such an inspirational guy. A decent guy. A man of his word,” Arum
said. “I’m torn up by Joe dying at this relatively young age. I can’t say
enough about Joe.”
Frazier’s death was announced in a statement by his family, who asked to be
able to grieve privately and said they would announce “our father’s homecoming
celebration” as soon as possible.
On Tuesday, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson posted his condolences on
Twitter. Tyson wrote, “As a young fighter it has always been an honor to be
compared” to Frazier.
Also, the International Boxing Hall of Fame announced its flags in
Canastota, New York, will fly at half-staff in memory of Frazier. Frazier was
elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990.
Manny Pacquiao learned of the death shortly after he arrived in Las Vegas
for his fight Saturday night with Juan Manuel Marquez. Like Frazier in his
prime, Pacquiao has a powerful left hook that he has used in his remarkable run
to stardom.
“Boxing lost a great champion, and the sport lost a great ambassador,”
Pacquiao said.
Don King, who promoted the Thrilla in Manila, said Frazier always fought
with courage and for respect.
“One cannot underestimate the contribution Smokin’ Joe and Ali made to
progress and change by creating the space, through their talent, for black men
to be seen, visible and relevant,” King said. “The Thrilla in Manila helped
make America better.”
Though slowed in his later years and his speech slurred by the toll of
punches taken in the ring, Frazier was still active on the autograph circuit in
the months before he died. In September he went to Las Vegas, where he signed
autographs in the lobby of the MGM Grand shortly before Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s
fight against Victor Ortiz.
An old friend, Gene Kilroy, visited with him and watched Frazier work the
crowd.
“He was so nice to everybody,” Kilroy said. “He would say to each of
them, ‘Joe Frazier, sharp as a razor, what’s your name?”’
Frazier was small for a heavyweight, weighing just 205 pounds when he won
the title by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their 1970 fight at
Madison Square Garden. But he fought every minute of every round going forward
behind a vicious left hook, and there were few fighters who could withstand his
constant pressure.
His reign as heavyweight champion lasted only four fights—including the
win over Ali—before he ran into an even more fearsome slugger than himself.
George Foreman responded to Frazier’s constant attack by dropping him three
times in the first round and three more in the second before their 1973 fight in
Jamaica was waved to a close and the world had a new heavyweight champion.
Two fights later, he met Ali in a rematch of their first fight, only this
time the outcome was different. Ali won a 12-round decision, and later that year
stopped George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire.
There had to be a third fight, though, and what a fight it was. With Ali’s
heavyweight title at stake, the two met in Manila in a fight that will long be
seared in boxing history.
Frazier went after Ali round after round, landing his left hook with
regularity as he made Ali backpedal around the ring. But Ali responded with left
jabs and right hands that found their mark again and again. Even the intense
heat inside the arena couldn’t stop the two as they fought every minute of every
round with neither willing to concede the other one second of the round.
“They told me Joe Frazier was through,” Ali told Frazier at one point
during the fight.
“They lied,” Frazier said, before hitting Ali with a left hook.
Finally, though, Frazier simply couldn’t see and Futch would not let him go
out for the 15th round. Ali won the fight while on his stool, exhausted and
contemplating himself whether to go on.
“It was unworldly what we had just seen,” Arum said. “Two men fighting
one of the great wars of all time. It’s something I will never forget for all
the years I have left.”
It was one of the greatest fights ever, but it took a toll. Frazier would
fight only two more times, getting knocked out in a rematch with Foreman eight
months later before coming back in 1981 for an ill-advised fight with Jumbo
Cummings.
“They should have both retired after the Manila fight,” former AP boxing
writer Ed Schuyler Jr. said. “They left every bit of talent they had in the
ring that day.”
Born in Beaufort, South Carolina, on Jan. 12, 1944, Frazier took up boxing
early after watching weekly fights on the black and white television on his
family’s small farm. He was a top amateur for several years, and became the only
American fighter to win a gold medal in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo despite
fighting in the final bout with an injured left thumb.
“Joe Frazier should be remembered as one of the greatest fighters of all
time and a real man,” Arum told the AP in a telephone interview Monday night.
“He’s a guy that stood up for himself. He didn’t compromise and always gave 100
percent in the ring. There was never a fight in the ring where Joe didn’t give
100 percent.”
After turning pro in 1965, Frazier quickly became known for his punching
power, stopping his first 11 opponents. Within three years he was fighting
world-class opposition and, in 1970, beat Ellis to win the heavyweight title
that he would hold for more than two years.
Frazier was a fixture in Philadelphia where he trained fighters in a gym he
owned and made a cameo in “Rocky,” but it was his fights with Ali that would
define Frazier.
Though Ali was gracious in defeat in the first fight, he was as vicious with
his words as he was with his punches in promoting all three fights—and he
never missed a chance to get a jab in at Frazier.
Frazier, who in his later years would have financial trouble and end up
running a gym in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, took the jabs personally.
He felt Ali made fun of him by calling him names and said things that were not
true just to get under his skin. Those feelings were only magnified as Ali went
from being an icon in the ring to one of the most beloved people in the world.
After a trembling Ali lit the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was
asked what he thought about it.
“They should have thrown him in,” Frazier responded.
He mellowed, though, in recent years, preferring to remember the good from
his fights with Ali rather than the bad. Just before the 40th anniversary of his
win over Ali earlier this year—a day Frazier celebrated with parties in New
York,
