Joe Frazier
Smokin Joe Frazier | |
|---|---|
 Frazier (center) presented with the Daily News Front Page Award in 2011 | |
| Born | Joseph William Frazier January 12, 1944 Beaufort, South Carolina, United States |
| Nationality |  American |
| Other names | "Smokin" Joe" |
| Statistics | |
| Weight(s) | Heavyweight |
| Height | 5 ft 11+1⁄2 in (1.82 m) |
| Reach | 73 in (185 cm) |
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 37 |
| Wins | 32 |
| Wins by KO | 27 |
| Losses | 4 |
| Draws | 1 |
| No contests | 0 |
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Boxing | ||
Representing the  United States
| ||
 |
1964 Tokyo | Heavyweight |
Joseph William "Joe" Frazier, known as Smokin' Joe (pronounced /ˈfreɪʒər/; born January 12, 1944), is a former Olympic and World Heavyweight boxing champion, whose professional career lasted from 1965 to 1976, with a brief comeback in 1981.
Frazier emerged as a contender in the mid-1960s, defeating Jerry Quarry, Oscar Bonavena, Buster Mathis, Eddie Machen, Doug Jones and Jimmy Ellis en route to becoming undisputed heavyweight champion in 1970, and followed up by defeating Muhammad Ali in the highly-anticipated "Fight of the Century" in 1971. Two years later Frazier lost his title when he was knocked out by George Foreman. He launched a comeback, beating Joe Bugner, losing a rematch to Ali, and beating Quarry and Ellis again.
Frazier's last world title challenge came in 1975, but he was beaten by Ali in their brutal rubbermatch. He retired in 1976 following a second loss to Foreman. He made a comeback in 1981, fighting just once, before retiring for good. The International Boxing Research Organization (IBRO) rates Frazier among the ten greatest heavyweights of all time.[1] He is an inductee of both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.
Frazier's style was often compared to that of Henry Armstrong, dependent on bobbing, weaving and wearing down his opponents with relentless pressure. His best known punch was a powerful left hook, which accounted for most of his knockouts. Compared to Ali's style, he was close enough to the ideal bruiser that some in the press and media characterized the bouts as the answer to the classic question: "What happens when a boxer meets with a brawler?"
Since retiring Frazier has made cameo appearances in several Hollywood movies, and two episodes of The Simpsons. His son Marvis also became a boxer - trained by Frazier himself - although was unable to emulate his father's success. Frazier continues to train fighters in his gym in Philadelphia. His later years have also seen the continuation of his bitter rivalry with Ali, in which the two periodically exchange insults, interspersed with brief reconciliations.
Career
After Frazier won the USA's only 1964 Olympic boxing gold medal, his trainer Yancey "Yank" Durham helped put together Cloverlay, a group of local businessmen who invested in Frazier's professional career and allowed him to train full-time. Durham was Frazier's chief trainer and manager until Durham's death in August 1973. Frazier turned professional in 1965, defeating Woody Goss by a technical knockout in the first round. He won three more fights that year, all by knockout, none going past the third round.
In 1966, as Frazier's career was taking off, Durham contacted Los Angeles trainer Eddie Futch. The two men had never met, but Durham had heard of Futch through the latter's reputation as one of the most respected trainers in boxing. Frazier was sent to Los Angeles to train, before Futch agreed to join Durham as an assistant trainer. With Futch's assistance, Durham arranged three fights in Los Angeles against Al Jones, veteran contender Eddie Machen, and George "Scrapiron" Johnson. Frazier knocked out Jones and Machen, but went 10 rounds with Johnson to win a unanimous decision.
After the Johnson match, Futch became a full-fledged member of the Frazier camp as an assistant trainer and strategist, who also advised Durham on matchmaking. It was Futch who suggested that Frazier boycott the 1967 WBA heavyweight elimination tournament to find a successor to Muhammad Ali, after the heavyweight champion was stripped of his title for refusing to be inducted into the military, although Frazier was the top-ranked contender at the time.
Futch proved invaluable to Frazier as an assistant trainer, helping modify his style. Under his tutelage, Frazier adopted the bob-and-weave defensive style, making him more difficult for taller opponents to punch, while also giving Frazier more power with his own punches. While Futch remained based in Los Angeles, where he worked as a supervisor with the U.S. Postal Service, he was flown to Philadelphia to work with Frazier during the final preparations for all of his fights.
When Durham died in 1973, Futch was asked to succeed him as Frazier's head trainer and manager. In fact, Futch was also training heavyweight contender Ken Norton at the time. He was in Norton's corner in March 1973, when Norton broke Ali's jaw and won a split decision. After Norton lost the rematch to Ali in September 1973, Norton's managers, Robert Biron and Aaron Rivkind, demanded that Futch choose between training Frazier and Norton. Futch chose Frazier, but not without regret at being forced to make the choice.
Late 1960s
In 1966, Frazier won a disputed decision over Argentine fighter Oscar Bonavena, despite Bonavena flooring him twice in the second round (a third knockdown in that round would have ended the fight).
In 1966, Frazier won all four of his fights, including a sixth-round knockout of Doug Jones and a fourth-round technical knockout (TKO) of George Chuvalo.
By February 1967 Joe had raked up 14 wins, all by KO. His name was starting to appear a lot more often in boxing, with Frazier appearing on the cover of Ring Magazine highlighting this. In this month he met Ali, who hadn't yet been stripped of his title. Ali said Joe would never stand a chance of whopping him, not even in his wildest dreams. Later that year, Muhammad Ali was stripped of his world heavyweight title due to his refusal to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War. To fill the vacancy, the New York State Athletic Commission held a bout between Frazier and Buster Mathis, with the winner to be recognized as "World Champion" by the state of New York. Although the fight was not recognized as a World Championship bout by some, Frazier won by a knockout in the 11th round and staked a claim to the heavyweight championship. He then defended his title by beating Manuel Ramos of Mexico in two rounds, and closed 1968 by beating Bonavena via a 15-round decision in a hard-fought rematch.
1969 saw Frazier defend his New York title in Texas, beating Dave Zyglewicz by a first-round knockout, and beating Jerry Quarry by TKO in the seventh round. The competitive, exciting match with Quarry was named 1969 Ring Magazine fight of the year.
World Championship
On February 16, 1970, Frazier became the undisputed world champion when he defeated WBA champion Jimmy Ellis at Madison Square Garden by a fifth-round knock-out. Ellis had beaten Jerry Quarry in the final bout of a WBA elimination tournament for Ali's vacated belt, but Frazier had declined to participate.
In his first title defense, Frazier travelled to Detroit to fight world light-heavyweight champion Bob Foster, who had set a record for the number of defenses in the light-heavyweight division. Frazier (26-0) retained his title by knock-out in two rounds. Then came what was quickly dubbed the "Fight Of The Century", his first fight with Ali. This would be the first meeting of two undefeated heavyweight champions, since Ali (31-0) had not lost his title in the ring, but rather been stripped because of his refusal to be inducted in the Armed Forces.
On March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden, Frazier and Ali met in the first of their three bouts which was widely called the "Fight of the Century" in pre-bout publicity and the press feeding frenzy.[2] Each fighter was paid the then-unheard of purse of $2.5 million. With a worldwide television audience, and an in-house audience that included luminaries such as Frank Sinatra (as a photographer for Life magazine to get a ringside seat), comedian Woody Allen, singer Diana Ross, and actors Dustin Hoffman and Burt Lancaster (who served as "color commentator" with fight announcer Don Dunphy), the two undefeated heavyweights met in the kind of media-frenzied atmosphere not seen since Joe Louis' youth.
Many factors came together for Frazier in this fight. He was 27 years old and at his lifetime peak both physically and mentally, while Ali, 29, was coming back from a three-year absence, taking on Frazier soon after a bruising battle with Oscar Bonavena, whom Ali had defeated by a TKO in 15. Frazier had exhaustively trained specifically for Ali under the tutelage of famed coach Eddie Futch, who had developed a strategy based on Ali's tendency to throw the right-hand uppercut from a straight standing position after dropping the hand in preparation to throw it with force. Futch instructed Frazier to watch Ali's right hand and, at the moment Ali dropped it, to throw a left hook at the spot where they knew Ali's face would be a second later.[3][4] Frazier's staggering of Ali in the 11th round and his knock-down of Ali in the 15th round were both executed precisely in this way.
Frazier lost a number of early rounds but took Ali's combinations without backing down. As Ali started to slow in the middle rounds, Frazier came on strong, landing hard shots to the body as well as the powerful left hooks to the head by virtue of Futch's instructions.
Consequently, Frazier won a clear, 15-round, unanimous decision. Ali was taken to the hospital immediately after the fight to have his badly swollen jaw x-rayed, and Frazier spent time in the hospital during the ensuing month, the exertions of the fight having been exacerbated by his existing health problems, such as hypertension and a kidney infection.
In 1972, Frazier successfully defended the title twice, beating Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, both by knockout, in the fourth and fifth rounds respectively.
It was Frazier's turn to lose his undefeated record of 29-0 and position as undisputed world champion at the hands of powerful puncher George Foreman on January 22, 1973, in Kingston, Jamaica. Foreman towered over the shorter, more compact champ, and soon dominated the brief bout despite Frazier being the favorite. Two minutes into the first round, Frazier was knocked down. This led to Howard Cosell's famous call for HBO, "Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier! Down goes Frazier!" Foreman continued to tee off on Frazier, who was knocked down again with just under thirty seconds in the round. After he got up again Foreman went back on the attack, and before the first round was over the champion was on his back for a third time. However, since the three-knockdown rule was not in place for this fight and Frazier kept getting up, the fight was allowed to continue. Foreman continued to press Frazier in the second round, and dropped the champion three more times. After being knocked down a sixth time, referee Arthur Mercante would not allow Frazier to continue and awarded the victory to Foreman by technical knockout.
After his loss to Foreman, now 29-1, Frazier won his next fight, a 12-round decision over Joe Bugner in London to begin his quest to regain the title.
Mid 1970s
Frazier's second fight against Ali took place in 1974, in New York, with Ali winning a 12-round unanimous decision. Frazier finished that year with another rematch, knocking out Jerry Quarry in five rounds.
1975 was, once again, a year of rematches for Frazier, but this time they involved more overseas travel. He met Jimmy Ellis, the man from whom he had originally taken the WBA title, in Melbourne, Australia, knocking him out in nine rounds. That win made him once again the number-one challenger for the world crown, now held by Ali after an eighth-round knockout of George Foreman in the famous "Rumble in the Jungle".
Ali and Frazier met for the third and final time in Quezon City (a district within the metropolitan area of Manila), the Philippines, on October 1, 1975: the "Thrilla in Manila". Ali took every opportunity to mock Frazier, again calling him The Gorilla, and generally trying to irritate him.
The fight for Ali's title, which was attended by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, caused another media frenzy and was seen live around the world. It was far more action-filled than the previous encounter (there was no belt at stake in the second fight), and was a punishing display that ended when Eddie Futch stopped the fight before the 15th and final round with Frazier sitting on his stool.
In 1976, Frazier (32-3) fought and again lost to George Foreman, this time by fifth-round knockout, and retired.
Frazier made a cameo appearance in the movie Rocky later in 1976 and dedicated himself to training local boxers in Philadelphia, where he grew up, including some of his own children.
1980s comeback and coaching career
In 1981, Frazier attempted a comeback that lasted only one fight, drawing in 10 rounds with Floyd "Jumbo" Cummings in Chicago, Illinois. He then retired for good.
Since then, Frazier has involved himself in various endeavors. Among his sons who turned to boxing as a career, he helped train Marvis Frazier, a challenger for Larry Holmes's world heavyweight title, and trains his daughter, Jackie Frazier-Lyde, whose most notable fight to date was against Laila Ali, the daughter of his rival.
Frazier's overall record is 32 wins, 4 losses and 1 draw, with 27 wins by knockout. He won 73 percent of his fights by knockout, compared to 60 percent for Ali and 84 percent for Foreman. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall Of Fame.
In 1986, Frazier appeared as the "corner man" for Mr. T against Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 2 at Madison Square Garden. In 1989, Frazier joined Ali, Foreman, Norton and Holmes for the tribute special Champions Forever.
1990s to present
Frazier lives in Philadelphia where he owns and manages a boxing gym but Frazier put the gym up for sale in mid 2009. He has diabetes and high blood pressure. He and his nemesis, Muhammad Ali, have alternated over the years between public apologies and public insults.[6]
Frazier appeared as himself in an episode of The Simpsons ("Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?") in 1992, in which he would be beaten up by Barney Gumble. Frazier's son objected and was instead shown beating up Gumble and putting him in a trash can. He appeared in another episode of The Simpsons ("Homer's Paternity Coot") in 2006. Since the debut of the Fight Night series of games, Frazier appeared in Fight Night 2004, Fight Night Round 2, Fight Night Round 3 and Fight Night Round 4, games made by EA Sports.
Frazier's autobiography is titled Smokin' Joe and he was widely criticized by Ali fans for relating many of Ali's actions that he considered offensive. Some feel that Frazier has hurt himself with his unrelenting bitterness toward Ali. In 1996, when Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta, Frazier told a reporter that he would like to throw Ali into the fire.[7] Frazier made millions of dollars in the 70's, but the article cited mismanagement of real-estate holdings as a partial explanation for his economic woes. Frazier has repeated that he no longer has any bitter feelings towards Ali.
Frazier is still training young fighters, although he needed multiple operations for back injuries sustained in a car accident. It has been reported that he and Ali recently attempted a reconciliation, but as of October 2006 Frazier still claimed to have won all three bouts between the two. He declared to a Times reporter, when questioned about his bitterness toward Ali, "I am what I am."
Financial Status and Legal Battles
According to an article from New York Times Frazier ' Over the years, Frazier has lost a fortune through a combination of his own generosity and naïveté, his carousing, failed business opportunities and a deep hatred for his former chief boxing rival, Muhammad Ali. The other headliners from his fighting days — Ali, George Foreman and Larry Holmes — are millionaires.
Asked about his situation, Frazier became playfully defensive, but would not reveal his financial status.
“Are you asking me how much money I have?” he said. “I got plenty of money. I got a stack of $100 bills rolled up over there in the back of the room.”
Frazier blamed himself, partly, for not effectively promoting his own image.
Frazier-Lyde is a lawyer and has worked on her father’s behalf in pursuit of money they claim he was owed in a Pennsylvania land deal. In 1973, Frazier purchased 140 acres in Bucks County, Pa., for $843,000. Five years later, a developer agreed to buy the farmland for $1.8 million. Frazier received annual payments from a trust that bought the land with money he had earned in the ring. When the trust went out of business, the payments stopped.
Frazier sued his business partners, claiming that his signature was forged on documents and that he had no knowledge of the sale. In the ensuing years, the land was subdivided and turned into a residential community. The property is now worth an estimated $100 million.[8]
Relationship with Muhammad Ali
While Ali's characteristic taunts of his opponent began typically enough, after regaining his title, his taunts of Smokin' Joe eventually turned mean-spirited and racist. Joe was painted by Ali as the white man's hope and as an "Uncle Tom" interjecting an element of racism into an already contentious and controversial series of great bouts. (The early controversy was whether Ali should be allowed to fight at all.)
Joe Frazier petitioned President Nixon to have Ali's right to box reinstated setting up the whole series of matches. Frazier boycotted the 1967 WBA heavyweight elimination tournament to find a successor to Muhammad Ali, when the champion was stripped of the title.
After years of remaining bitter, Frazier told Sports Illustrated in May 2009 that he no longer held hard feelings for Ali.[9]
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (April 2009) |
- Some of the most memorable moments in the 1976 boxing-themed feature film, Rocky - such as Rocky's carcass-punching scenes and Rocky running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as part of his training regimen - are taken from Joe's real-life exploits, for which he received no credit.[10]
"But he never paid me for none of my past. I only got paid for a walk-on part. Rocky is a sad story for me."
- Joe had his Olympic gold medal cut up into eleven separate pieces to divide it between his eleven children.[11]
- In March, 2007, a Joe Frazier action figure was released as part of a range of toys based on the Rocky film franchise, developed by the American toy manufacturer, Jakks Pacific.[12][13]
- When Joe was young, his family was poor so he couldn't afford a punchbag. He had to improvise, so he got the outline of a punchbag made of leather, and made it so it could be suspended from the ceiling. He put bricks in the middle of the improvised punchbag and thick foam on the outside, and he honed his boxing skills on this.
Professional boxing record
See also
- Frazier's portrayal in the film Ali (2001); directed by Michael Mann.
- List of heavyweight boxing champions
- List of WBA world champions
- List of WBC world champions
- Notable boxing families
References
- ^ ibroresearch.com
- ^ "The Great Fights: Ali vs. Frazier I". Life Magazine. 03/01/1971. Retrieved 05/04/2010.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - ^ Article about Ali-Frazier match of 1971.
- ^ The Men Who Could Beat Ali
- ^ AP South Carolina (September 27, 2010). "Smokin' Joe to get SC award". USA Today. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Joe.html
- ^ October 18, 2006 New York Times article on Frazier
- ^ "Joe Frazier financial status". boxingmemories.com. Retrieved 2011-11-03.
- ^ Christopher Wink (2009-04-22). "Frazier gets his time to shine". SportsIllustrated.com. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
- ^ McRae, Donald (2008-11-11). "Big Interview: Joe Frazier". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
- ^ "What I've Learned: Joe Frazier". Retrieved 2007-02-17.
- ^ "Joe Frazier Action Figure". Retrieved March 2007.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Jakks Pacific Philadelphia Media Preview For Rocky". Retrieved 8 September 2006.
External links
- Official Website
- Official Collection Website
- Official Facebook Fan Page
- Boxing record for Joe Frazier from BoxRec (registration required)
- Dispute hits sour note with residents, Bucks County Courier Times
- Fire Still Burns Inside Smokin’ Joe Frazier, New York Times
1904–1908: +158 lb (71.7 kg) · 1920–1936: +175 lb (79.4 kg) · 1948: +80 kg · 1952–1980: +81 kg · 1984–2012: 81–91 kg · 2016–: 82–91 kg | |
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- Articles with trivia sections from April 2009
- 1944 births
- Living people
- Heavyweights
- African American boxers
- Boxers at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Boxers from Pennsylvania
- International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
- Olympic boxers of the United States
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States
- Sportspeople from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- People from Beaufort, South Carolina
- WBA Champions
- WBC Champions
- World Heavyweight Champions