JOE FRAZIER:JOE FRAZIER, who has died aged 67, was a former world heavyweight boxing champion and is best known for three epic battles with Muhammad Ali in the 1970s. He won the initial bout in 1971; it was Ali's first defeat.
The third encounter, dubbed the “Thrilla in Manila”, is widely regarded as the greatest fight of all time.
“The world has lost a great champion,” Ali said this week. “I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration.” Promoter Don King said: “Smokin’ Joe Frazier was the embodiment of what a great heavyweight champion and person should be.”
Former world featherweight champion Barry McGuigan said: “He was relentless; he was so resilient; he had so much heart and determination. Everybody loved him.”
Billy Joe Frazier was born in 1944 in Beaufort, South Carolina, the youngest of 12 children. His parents, Rubin and Dolly, worked in the fields and the young Frazier dropped out of school at 13.
Dreaming of emulating boxers such as Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles and Archie Moore, he headed for New York where he lived with a brother. He later moved to Philadelphia and worked in a slaughterhouse. Joining a boxing gym, he attracted the attention of trainer Yank Durham who guided him to a Golden Gloves championship.
“I’ve had plenty of other boxers with more raw talent,” Durham later said, “but none with more dedication and strength.” It was his trainer who gave him the nickname “Smokin Joe”.
“Yank used to say in the dressingroom before sending me out to fight: ‘Go out there, goddammit, and make smoke come from those gloves’.”
Frazier’s style was reminiscent of Rocky Marciano’s. Bobbing and weaving, he aggressively wore down his opponents with relentless pressure, and his powerful left hook accounted for most of his knockouts. Summing up his attitude, he said: “I like to hit guys and see their knees tremble. I like to feel my strength and go for broke.”
George Foreman said, “If you hit him, he liked it. If you knocked him down, you only made him mad.” He enjoyed notable success as an amateur until his defeat at the hands of Buster Mathis in the US Olympic trials of 1964. But after Mathis broke his thumb Frazier was added to the team for Tokyo where he beat Hans Huber of Germany to win gold.
Turning professional, he won his first 11 fights by knockout. In March 1968 he triumphed over Mathis to secure the New York state world title. By stopping Jerry Quarry in seven rounds in New York in June 1969 he earned a shot at the undisputed world crown. He duly became champion in February 1970, having seen off Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round at Madison Square Garden.
But his career was to be defined by his rivalry with Ali, who jeered him as a black man in the guise of a great white hope.
Their first fight, for the undisputed heavyweight title, came after Ali had been stripped of his title and convicted of evading the draft. In 1970 Ali won a legal battle to regain his boxing licence, and then knocked out the contenders Quarry and Oscar Bonavena to set up an Ali-Frazier showdown at Madison Square Garden in March 1971. Each man was guaranteed $2.5 million, the fight attracted a worldwide television audience of 300 million people and the $1.35 million gate set a record.
Frazier won with a 15-round decision, having floored Ali in the last round. But he was bewildered to find himself derided in some quarters for lacking Ali’s black militancy and anti-war views. He was particularly dismayed by the Boxing Illustrated headline: “Is Joe Frazier a white champion in a black skin?” And he was deeply hurt when many in the black community turned their backs on him.
His world title reign ended in brutal fashion in Kingston, Jamaica, in January 1973. George Foreman floored him six times before the referee stopped the fight in the second round. Frazier recovered to put himself back in contention with a points win over Britain’s Joe Bugner at Earls Court six months later.
At Madison Square Garden in January 1974, however, Ali scored a 12-round decision over him in a non-title bout. Frazier sought a quick rematch and strengthened his case with knockout victories over Quarry and Ellis. The scene was set for the Thrilla in Manila.
By now Ali was once again world champion having regained the title with a breathtaking knockout of Foreman in the Rumble in the Junglein Zaire.
At a pre-fight press conference with Frazier he said: “It will be a killa, a chilla and a thrilla when I get the gorilla in Manila.” The contest, on October 1st, 1975, was one of frightening intensity. In sweltering heat before 28,000 people, Ali won the early rounds; Frazier rallied but Ali came back. By the end of the 14th Frazier could barely see and his trainer Eddie Futch refused to allow him continue. “Sit down, son, it’s all over,” he famously told Frazier. “But no one will ever forget what you did here today.”
Ali collapsed after rising from his stool to celebrate. Frazier, recalling that he had hit Ali with punches that would “bring down the walls of a city”, acknowledged the winner as a great champion.
Eight months later Frazier again fought Foreman only to announce his retirement after being stopped in the fifth round.
He embarked on a singing career but, drawn once more to the ring, in December 1981 fought out an unconvincing 10-round draw against former convict Floyd “Jumbo” Cummings. It was the end of a 37-fight career in which he won 32, drew one and lost four.
Frazier managed his son Marvin, who unsuccessfully challenged Larry Holmes for the world heavyweight title in November 1983. He saw his daughter Jacqui drop a narrow points decision to Ali’s daughter Laila at Verona, New York, in June 2001.
Gerry Storey of Holy Family boxing club, Belfast, was a friend of Frazier’s, and in 2003 the boxer accepted an invitation from former lord mayor Alex Maskey to visit the city. “The humility of the man struck me back then,” Maskey said. “He didn’t ask for a penny and he didn’t get a penny – yet he left Belfast saying the people reminded him what it felt like to be a world champion all over again.”
In recent years Frazier lived in an apartment over the boxing gym he ran in Philadelphia’s Badlands. In a documentary screened in 2008 his anger at Ali was still evident. Their rivalry had spilled over into personal animosity, bordering on hatred. Ali called Frazier an Uncle Tom, while Frazier insisted on addressing Ali as Cassius Clay, his name before he converted to Islam.
One exchange led to a brawl on live television. Frazier was particularly aggrieved as he had supported Ali when he was barred from boxing and lobbied to have his licence restored.
While Frazier never forgot the insults, earlier this year he said he had forgiven Ali. Yet, as he said in 2006: “Ali always said I would be nothing without him. But what would he have been without me?” Frazier’s marriage ended in divorce; he is survived by his partner Denise Menz and 11 children.
Joe Frazier:born January 12th, 1944; died November 7th, 2011