Joe Frazier, Rest In Peace

It's being reported that Joe Frazier is not going to live much longer due to liver cancer.

A good guy and a great champion.

Many people consider Frazier/Ali 1 as the greatest sports event of the 20th century on US soil. It transcended sports on so many levels.

It was also one of the rare events that lvied up to its hype.

The next two fights were also classics.

After retiring Frazier opened a rib place around the corner from St. Joe's. it did very well until someone cane in to rob and killed several people.

Luckily the group that managed Frazier kept him well taken care of throughout his life.

Thanks Smokin Joe!!

Say it ain't so, Joe.

The concept of Rocky working out in a meat locker is a direct homage to Joe Frazier working as a butcher in a simialr company while he was working his way into the 1964 Olympics.

RJKarl said:

The concept of Rocky working out in a meat locker is a direct homage to Joe Frazier working as a butcher in a simialr company while he was working his way into the 1964 Olympics.

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Cool stuff. Maybe you could post less about politics and more about 50s-70s sports?

But seriously...I don't think I or others my age have a real idea for how big and important boxing was then. My dad loved talking about old boxers and matches (well, he was a wrestler, so maybe it's just him)...and the Yankees. I don't know the last time I heard someone talk about modern boxing in a social setting.

The huge boxing matches of the day were broadcast using a "closed circuit" concept. The promoters could make more money by showing the matches in movie theatres across the country than by selling the broadcast rights. Tickets were $40 or so which was a lot in those days.

deacfreke2 said:

Tickets were $40 or so which was a lot in those days.

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Wow you're not kidding that's a lot! I was choking at the thought of buying UND hockey tickets for 55-60!

Frazier/Ali 1 was so much more than a fight. It was us versus them. It was hippie versus striaghts. It was the man verus the 60s potestors.

Unless there is a Cold War again, there won't be another fight like that one.

What devastated Joe was being belittled as not being black enough.

RJKarl said:

Frazier/Ali 1 was so much more than a fight. It was us versus them. It was hippie versus striaghts. It was the man verus the 60s potestors.

Unless there is a Cold War again, there won't be another fight like that one.

What devastated Joe was being belittled as not being black enough.

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Sad to say that it was white folks for Frazier and black folks for Ali. Ali was just such a polarizing figure. Hard to believe he's considered "beloved" at this point.

Hard not to love Ali at this point.

I grew up near Philly and always liked Smokin' Joe.
Wish him the best and hope he doesn't suffer much

It's strange to me that you like to announce death, give your own little eulogy, and tell us why the person should be deified. Weird.

RJKarl said:

Frazier/Ali 1 was so much more than a fight. It was us versus them. It was hippie versus striaghts. It was the man verus the 60s potestors.

Unless there is a Cold War again, there won't be another fight like that one.

What devastated Joe was being belittled as not being black enough.

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He was called an Uncle Tom. It was ridiculous. Frazier was one of the toughest customers ever in the ring. I hope he passes peacefully.

RJKarl said:

Hard not to love Ali at this point.

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No it's not. The way that man treated Joe Frazier was despicable and cowardly and he has never asked nor sought for forgiveness. Because of that I will always view Ali as the over-hyped media whore that he was/is. Frazier was a better fighter (and proved it in the ring) but more importantly he was a better man.

There was a great documentary on HBO a few years ago about all of this. I don't remember the name but if you watch it you will change your opinion on Ali.

SkinsNDeacs said:

No it's not. The way that man treated Joe Frazier was despicable and cowardly and he has never asked nor sought for forgiveness. Because of that I will always view Ali as the over-hyped media whore that he was/is. Frazier was a better fighter (and proved it in the ring) but more importantly he was a better man.

There was a great documentary on HBO a few years ago about all of this. I don't remember the name but if you watch it you will change your opinion on Ali.

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I love Joe Frazier, but Ali was a much better fighter. It's not that close. Ali was forced to take three of his prime off and not fight and still beat Frazier two out of three times.

There are two problems with your premise about Ali never approaching Frazier.
First it is well known that after the Thrilla in Manilla, Ali approached both Marvis and Joe's manager Butch Lewis for the express purpose of apologizing to Joe. Frazier refused to even allow Lewis to give Ali his phone number.

Secondly about ten years ago they got together and supposedly made peace at an NBA game.

Ali did reach out to Joe. Frazier was having no parts of it.

Ali has done so much good for so many people throughout his life that opinion of him is gibberish.

Love me some smokin' Joe! That is one tough guy. He kicked Ali's ass!

I was at Wake for that first Ali-Fraizer fight. We all drove over to the Greensboro Colosseum to see if we could buy some scalped tickets cheap for the closed circuit showing because we couldn't afford the list prices. We couldn't, stood around for a while and came back to Winston. People were pretty stunned that Ali had lost.

rj is right about the social preceptions of the fight, even if these perceptions were way wrong. Ali played it like that, and he had the media in his pocket.

A couple of years later I was dating a girl from Plymouth Meeting, who lived in the same suburban neighborhood as Joe. Fraizer's house was huge on Christmas decorations. People came from miles to see it. It had everything from a life-sized Santa complete whith sleigh and reindeer on the roof to flashing lights on every tree and bush.

Right after Fraizer returned from the Olympics in Tokyo in 1964, where Joe had won his gold medal, my dad met him in Philadelphia. He said Fraizer was a very polite, quiet, soft-spoken, friendly guy, not the sort of person you might think of as an Olympic and later heavyweight boxing champ.

I accidently shook hands with him one day near Temple University. Eddie Futch, his long-time trainer and friend, had died and there was a memorial service. Joe was leaving and politely shaking hands with anyone who happened to be on the sidewalk. Always a gentleman.

I may have made a mistake. It not have been wasn't Butch Lewis whom Ali contacted. It could have been Eddie Futch.

Joe was always nice when you ran into him. He wouldn't leave a table at his restaruant until he had spoken with everyone. I've been to clubs where the Champ was and he would talk to people like he was simply there like you.

Didn't Ali try to make things racial? I was watching the ESPN 30 for 30 on "The Real Rocky" and he tried to get the alleged real Rocky to call him a n***** during a press conference. But supposedly the alleged real Rocky woudln't do it.

Ali kind of seemed like a dick. In a good way though. Like a good WWE heel kind of dick. One that at least kept things interesting.

PS - Floyd Mayweather is a b*tch for ducking Pacquiao.

Ali understands what sells. He understood that getting the media and the public to hate him made him extra millions.

Ali's maserty of the press is what hurt Frazier so deeply. It was bad. However it could have been resolved after Manila, but to Joe the wounds were still to raw.

What some don't know is that as recently about about fifteen years ago Ali adopted a kid to help the child have a better life. He was well into his disease but still was reaching out to those less fortunate.