Joe Frazier Has Died

http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/07/sport/joe-frazier-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

CNN...

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Former heavyweight boxing champ Joe Frazier dies

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 1:52 AM EST, Tue November 8, 2011

Click on picture to play video

2009: Joe Frazier reflects on his legacy

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Former heavyweight champion suffered from liver cancer
He was diagnosed with the disease only recently
Frazier fought Muhammad Ali three times in the 1970s

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(CNN) -- Former heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier died Monday, after he was diagnosed with liver cancer, his family said in a statement.

Frazier was 67.

"We The Family of ... Smokin' Joe Frazier, regret to inform you of his passing," the statement said. "He transitioned from this life as 'One of God's Men,' on the eve of November 7, 2011 at his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."

He fought fellow boxing legend Muhammad Ali three times, including the famous "Thrilla in Manila" fight in 1975.

"He's a true gentleman," personal and business manager Leslie Wolff said Saturday when confirming Frazier's illness. "Along with Muhammad Ali, (he is) one of the two most recognizable athletes in the world."

Fans and well-wishers were encouraged to post their thoughts and prayers on a Facebook page at joefrazierscorner.com.

"Thank you for being such a class act," read a Facebook post written before the champ's death. "I grew up watching boxing with my dad and you were at the top of our list of exceptional fighters who were also great people."

Frazier, nicknamed "Smokin' Joe," used his devastating left hook with impunity during his professional career, retiring in 1976 with a 32-4-1 record and staging one last comeback fight in 1981.

The son of a South Carolina sharecropper, Frazier boxed during the glory days of the heavyweight division, going up against greats George Foreman, Oscar Bonavena, Joe Bugner and Jimmy Ellis. He made his name by winning a gold medal for the United States at the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo.

But it was his three much-hyped fights against Ali that helped seal his legend.

Frazier bested Ali at 1971's "Fight of the Century" at Madison Square Garden. In the 15th round, Frazier landed perhaps the most famous left hook in history, catching Ali on the jaw and dropping the former champ for a four-count, according to Frazier's bio at the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Frazier left the ring as the undisputed champ and handed Ali his first professional loss.

Ali won a 12-round decision in a January 1974 rematch, setting the stage for the classic "Thrilla in Manila" just outside the Philippine capital in 1975.

Ali took the early rounds, but Frazier rebounded before losing the last five rounds. By the end of the 14th, Frazier's eyes were nearly swollen shut, and his corner stopped the bout, according to the biography.

Later, Ali said, "It was the closest I've come to death."

Frazier was a two-time heavyweight champion for nearly three years until he lost in January 1973 to George Foreman.

He lived in Philadelphia, where he operated a boxing gym for many years.

"I don't mind working with the kids," Frazier told CNN's Don Lemon in 2009. "The kids is tomorrow. And if we don't do what we're supposed to do for them now, how are you going (to) expect them to carry on?"

Asked whether he was similar to Rocky Balboa, the title character in the "Rocky" series, Frazier replied, "Sure. I worked at the slaughterhouse. I'm the guy that ran in the streets of Philadelphia."

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CONTINUED...

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TIME...

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PART TWO...

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TIME wrote before the fight: "No amount of bluster is likely to deter Smokin' Joe, a raging, bobbing, weaving, rolling swarmer who moves in one basic direction-right at his opponent's gut. A kind of motorized Marciano, he works his short arms like pistons, pumping away with such mechanical precision that he consistently throws between 54 and 58 punches each round. He works almost exclusively inside, crouching and always moving in to slam the body. When the pummeling begins to slow his opponent, when the guard drops to protect the stomach, Frazier tosses a murderous left hook to the head. His coup de grâce is lethal. 'Getting hit by Joe,' says Light Heavyweight Ray Anderson, one of Frazier's sparring partners, 'is like getting run over by a bus.' Some of his victims, like Light Heavyweight Champion Bob Foster, literally have no recollection of what hit them."

In typically understated fashion, Ali labeled the fight "the biggest sporting event in the history of the whole planet earth." It was the first time two undefeated heavyweight champs had met for the title. Ed Sullivan, Alan Shepard, Bill Cosby, Michael Caine, Hubert Humphrey and Burt Bacharach were among the luminaries at ringside. Frank Sinatra took pictures for LIFE magazine. The fight lived up to the billing. Frazier, the body puncher, came out swinging for Ali's head. Ali, the ring dancer, tried matching Frazier hook-for-hook. Ali turned up the showmanship: he invited Frazier to swing at his gut, and when Frazier connected, he'd shake his head, as if a little kid was punching him. "Nooo contest," Ali crowed at one point.

In the eleventh round, however, Frazier pummeled Ali with two left hooks. Ali staggered, and barely survived the round. In the 15th and final stanza, Frazier landed one more roundhouse left, sending Ali to the canvas. He got got back up, but by that point it was finished: Frazier won the fight on a unanimous decision.

It was the only time he beat Ali. Frazier lost his championship belt to George Foreman, who knocked Frazier down six times before the ref stopped their 1973 title fight in the second round ("Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!" Howard Cosell memorably cried.) The next year, Ali got his rematch with Frazier, and won it in a decision to set up their rubber match, in Manila, on October 1, 1975. The "Thrilla' in Manila," took place in 100-degree heat, before an estimated 700 million closed-circuit and television viewers in some 65 countries. It became the duo's most famous brawl. Frazier refused to wear down, but by the 14th round Ali was pounding him at will. Frazier's eyes were almost swollen shut. Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, threw in the towel at the end of the round. "I want him, boss," Frazier screamed. Futch refused. "It's all over," Futch replied. "No one will forget what you did here today." He was right. Afterwards, Ali said he had never felt closer to death. He described Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all time, next to me."

Frazier lost to Foreman one more time, in 1976, and attempted an early 1980s comeback, thankfully short-lived. He started a musical act, "Smokin' Joe and The Knockouts": that didn't last long either. He opened up a gym in North Philadelphia, and like too many ex-fighters he fell on hard times. "Over the years, Frazier has lost a fortune through a combination of his own generosity and naïveté," read a 2006 profile in the New York Times, "his carousing, failed business opportunities and deep hatred for his former chief boxing rival, Muhammad Ali."

After their fighting days, Frazier matched Ali's past unseemliness with some hurtful remarks of his own. "Look at him now," Frazier told writer Thomas Hauser for his 1992 book on Ali. "He's damaged goods. I know it; you know it. Everyone knows it ... He was always making fun of me. I'm the dummy; I'm the one getting hit in the head. Tell me now; him or me; which one talks worse now?" In 1996, after Ali lit the Olympic torch at the Atlanta games, Frazier told a group of reporters "I wish Ali had fallen into [the flame]. If I had the chance, I'd have pushed him in." Such comments did not endear Frazier to any corporate sponsors.

But in recent years, Frazier's bitterness faded. "Nobody has anything but good things to say about Muhammad now," Frazier told SI.com in 2009. "I'd do anything he needed for me to help." A few years ago, they pair conducted a photo-shoot together at Frazier's gym, which is now shuttered. The day before Frazier's death, Ali said, in a statement: "My family and I are keeping Joe and his family in our daily prayers. Joe has a lot of friends pulling for him, and I'm one of them."

Frazier lost this last fight. But in so many others, he thrilled the world.

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Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2098907,00.html#ixzz1d5ddT97s

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http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2098907,00.html

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TIME...

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Joe Frazier, Former Heavyweight Boxing Champ, Dies at 67
By Sean Gregory Tuesday, Nov. 08, 2011

PHOTO:
Joe Frazier, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World poses for a portrait at his boxing gym on March 18, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Al Bello / Images

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PART ONE...

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Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight boxing champ who died of liver cancer on Nov. 7 at 67, won't go down in history as the greatest fighter of all time. Muhammad Ali, the man with whom Frazier sparred so epically, both inside and outside the ropes, owns that distinction. Frazier's role in his rival's outsized life will always define his own legacy: it's impossible to mention "Smokin' Joe" without summoning Ali a few seconds later.

But if Ali defined Frazier, well, Frazier made Ali too. If not for Frazier's greatness - his left-hook crumbled opponents, and he defended his heavyweight title four times between 1970 and 1973 - Ali could never have been called "the Greatest." And though the annals of boxing won't remember him as the better fighter, at times Frazier could be the bigger man.

Ali feared Frazier, and that insecurity brought out the worst in him. During the height of their rivalry in the racially-charged, post-civil-rights 1970s, Ali belittled Frazier whenever he could. He'd call Frazier an "Uncle Tom," "ignorant," "The Gorilla." In black communities, Ali characterized Frazier as the white man's champ. "I'm not just fightin' one man," Ali bellowed before their first bout, in 1971, the "Fight of the Century" at New York's Madison Square Garden. "I'm fightin' a lot of men, showin' a lot of 'em here is one man they couldn't conquer. My mission is to bring freedom to 30 million black people. I'll win this fight because I've got a cause. Frazier has no cause. He's in it for the money alone." (Frazier won the bout in a 15-round decision.)

Frazier, who was inelegant, introspective, and prone to mood swings that he called "the slouchies," rarely rose to Ali's bait. "I don't want to be no more than no more than what I am," he once said. Friends wondered whether Frazier paid any mind to the social injustices that Ali harped on. Ali relished his role as cultural provocateur; his preaching, as much as his pugilism, is why he is revered. Still, Ali never had reason to use Frazier as a comic foil, especially since the shots he took were far from funny. "Ali can't touch me," Frazier said, "in ability or decency."

Joe Frazier grew up in Beaufort, South Carolina, where he was raised in a four-room shack on a farm, the second-youngest of 13 children. He threw his first punches against a feed-bag stuffed with rags, hung from an oak tree. Frazier told his siblings he'd be the next Joe Louis. "I'd hit that heavybag for an hour at a time," he once said. "I'd wrap my hands with a necktie of my Daddy's, or a stocking of my Momma's or sister's, and get to it." At school, kids would give him a quarter or a sandwich to walk with them, as a repellent against bullies.(See TIME's Thrilla in Manila coverage.)

Ali portrayed Frazier as some sort of puppet of the white man, but in truth, Jim Crow sent Frazier fleeing from South Carolina. "Son," Frazier's mother told him. "If y'all can't get along with the white man in the South, ya'll better leave home.'" A teenaged Frazier hitchhiked to Charleston and, as he said, "caught the first thing smokin' that was goin' north.'" Frazier settled in Philadelphia, where he took a job as a butcher in a kosher slaughterhouse. He caught the eye of a fight manager at a local Police Athletic League, and lost only one of his amateur fights, to Buster Mathis at the trials for the 1964 Olympics. Mathis got hurt, however, and the trip to the Tokyo Games fell to Frazier. Despite fighting his final match with a broken thumb, Frazier came home with the heavyweight gold.

The medal didn't make Frazier rich: after Tokyo, he took a job as a janitor in a North Philadelphia Baptist church. He soon found some financial backing, however, and turned pro in 1965. With Ali stripped of his boxing license because of his refusal to serve in Vietnam, Frazier soared through the heavyweight ranks, and won the world title in 1970. But that same year, Ali returned to the ring; their first faceoff - the "Fight of the Century" - came on March 8, 1971.

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http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/133414573.html

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Philly Sports...

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Philly.com
The Philadelphia Inquirier...

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PART ONE...

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Mr. Frazier, known as "Smokin' Joe," was small for a heavyweight, just under 6 feet tall, but compensated with a relentless attack in the ring, bobbing and weaving as if his upper body were on a tightly coiled spring, constantly moving forward, and throwing more punches than most heavyweights.

"A kind of motorized Marciano" is how Time magazine described his style in a 1971 cover story before Mr. Frazier's $5 million fight with Muhammad Ali, the first of their three epic battles and the most lucrative boxing match ever at the time.

Fans could watch Mr. Frazier fight for minutes at a time and not see him take one step back.

"There were fights when he didn't step backward. He took very few backward steps in his career," recalled Larry Merchant, the HBO boxing analyst, who was a Philadelphia newspaperman during Frazier's early years. "What made him good was not so much his punching power as his willingness to keep coming and walking through the fire, his toughness and grit - and willingness to train so he could take the kind of punishment a fighter take in order to get to his opponent."

Mr. Frazier's signature weapon was a destructive left hook, which he used to win his first title in 1968 and floor Ali in their first meeting in 1971. He developed his powerful left as a young child, growing up without electricity or plumbing in rural Beaufort, S.C. His father had lost his left arm in a shooting over a mistress, and young Joe became his father's left arm.

"When I was a boy, I used to pull a big cross saw with my dad. He'd use his right hand, so I'd have to use my left," Mr. Frazier once said. After watching boxing on TV with his father, he filled a burlap sack with a brick, rags, corncobs, and moss, then hung it from a tree.

"For the next six, seven years damn near every day I'd hit that heavy bag for an hour at a time," he wrote in his 1996 autobiography.

At age 15, Mr. Frazier moved north to New York and then Philadelphia, where he found work at Cross Bros. Meat Packing Co. in Kensington. He began training in a Police Athletic League gym, won three national Golden Gloves titles, and then a gold medal at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

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http://www.boxingnews24.com/2011/11/joe-frazier-passes-away-from-liver-cancer/

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Boxing News 24...

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Joe Frazier passes away from liver cancer

November 8th, 2011

By Eric Thomas: Boxingnews24.com is sad to report that Joe Frazier has lost his battle against liver cancer today and has passed away at age 67.

Frazier only found out about the diagnosis last month and by then the disease was too far advanced to successfully treat.

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CBS SPORTS NEWS...

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In this undated photo, boxer Joe Frazier is seated in the corner of the ring. The former heavyweight champion died after a brief fight with liver cancer. He was 67. The family issued a release confirming the boxer's death on Monday, Nov. 7, 2011. (AP Photo)

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PART TWO (CBC SPORTS)...

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Frazier was described in one contemporary newspaper account as a Man Out of Time.
It was likely the most anticipated fight in boxing history - only the rematch between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling would probably compare - and it lived up to the hype. One of the nearly 20,500 fans in attendance at a star-studded Madison Square Garden died of a heart attack.

An even fight turned in the 11th when Frazier wobbled Ali with a left, and he incited one of the biggest roars in arena sports history when he decked the Louisville fighter in the 15th and final round to clinch a decision win.

The winner was 27 years old and unbeaten in 26 fights, but enjoying the victory would have to wait. Jubilant in the ring immediately after the win, he would have to spend several days in hospital after the gruelling fight. He he would fight just 10 more times, winning six.

Both men earned $2.5 million US for their efforts; boxing observers estimated they'd have earned at least twice as much if they'd foregone the guaranteed rate for a take of the closed-circuit revenues.

Frazier won by unanimous decision and made two easy defences before the disaster with Foreman in 1972.

Frazier was outboxed by Ali when both were mere contenders in their second meeting in early 1974, but the final bout in their trilogy a year-and-a-half later defined their careers, and the rest of their lives.

Writing in the New York Times about The Thrilla in Manila, the great sportswriter Dave Anderson said the two rivals "maintained a level of boxing violence seldom seen."

While the official scorecards had Ali ahead comfortably, many boxing observers thought Frazier was winning through 12 rounds but Ali summoned a second wind and pummelled him at will over the bout's next two rounds.

Trainer Eddie Futch decided to not allow a grotesquely swollen Frazier out for the 15th. Frazier agreed with the decision at the time but later added it to his list of resentments.

He fought just twice more in five years. (It's a measure of his incredible self-belief and stubbornness that he thought it wise to try on Foreman for size again in 1976, losing in five rounds)

Frazier managed and train a slew of young Philly fighters, most notably his son Marvis, who like many fighting scion couldn't nearly match his father's accomplishments.

While not naturally charismatic, Frazier enjoyed being a social animal, sometimes too much.

As early as the Ellis win he was talking about retiring so that he could "sing rock 'n' roll" with his band. Some called it warbling, but he didn't care. Frazier rarely passed up a promoter's invite to appear at a fight card to mingle and sign for fans, included on more than one occasion in Canada in recent years.

He called Ali a "great champ" after their final fight, expressing astonishment at Ali's ability to withstand what he said were some of the hardest punches of his career. And when the pair appeared at functions together in their advancing years, it was civil.

But with Ali eventually silenced by the effects of Parkinson's, it was usually Frazier's turn to talk. He rarely passed up an opportunity to throw in a barb, even revelling in the damage his punches caused his famous rival.

He joked in 1996 that he wished Ali had fallen into Atlanta's Olympic cauldron after that famous moment. It might have sounded ghastly to the uninitiated, but to longtime boxing fans, it was darkly comical.

"People ask me if I feel sorry for him. Nope. Fact is, I don't give a damn," Frazier said in his 1996 autobiography. "They want me to love him, but I'll open up the graveyard and bury his ass when the Lord chooses to take him."

Unfortunately, Frazier got the equation wrong one last time.

Frazier never in a million years would have used a word like hagiography, but he saw how over time the thornier parts of the Ali story (controversial views on race and women, for example) were being forgotten or smoothed over in countless depictions of his life.

The eulogies will undoubtedly focus on the two great men, but I think it's important to mention the next one in the heavyweight title succession.

In the 1980s, Ali was forever changed and Frazier never really did change. Unbeknownst to everyone, and away from the public eye for over a decade, Foreman was in the process of changing himself to a degree almost unprecedented in public American life, a comeback Dick Nixon would have envied.

During that halcyon early 1970s era of heavyweight boxing, Foreman was much more unlikable than Frazier, a scowling, often monosyllabic brute.

Foreman found God after his boxing career apparently ended for good in 1977. When he re-emerged en route to his improbable recapturing of a heavyweight belt in 1994, he had obviously studied just a bit from the Ali playbook.

He was a garrulous, jolly bear to the media and fans and also hit the jackpot outside the ring endorsing a certain well-known product (Ali and Frazier, like many ex-champs, didn't have great luck with money matters).

That he was able to do some of this was in large part due to the fact that he made peace with his own bitter defeat against Ali, one that had consumed him for years.

Smokin' Joe could never quite get to that point.

He was a true fighter until the end.

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http://www.cbc.ca/sports/blogs/chrisiorfida/2011/11/frazier-walked-among-giants....

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CBC Sports...

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Frazier walked among giants

By Chris Iorfida
Posted: Monday, November 7, 2011 | 11:51 PM

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PART ONE (CBC SPORTS)...

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Joe Frazier, part of the greatest rivalry in sports history, was usually defined by what, and who, he wasn't.

He wasn't Muhammad Ali, wasn't particularly articulate nor a defining athlete for a generation. He was Smokin' Joe inside and outside of the ring, often complaining bitterly about injustices real and perceived.

"Down Goes Frazier" is a popular sports catchphrase based on his lowest moment, possibly the lowest moment of any notable heavyweight champion, when he was bounced off the canvas six times in two rounds by the much bigger George Foreman.

The civic leaders of Philadelphia would pile on years later, choosing to erect a statue commemorating the white movie fighter who toiled in the slaughterhouse, not the snorting, ferocious one who actually did hammer the slabs of meat on his way up, Frazier.

But no big name heavyweight champion got more out of his ability. None possessed a will as giant.

Few in the history of sport overcame greater odds than Frazier, who at a listed five-foot-11, was among the shortest heavyweight champions of all time.

He was among 13 children in his family, his father a South Carolina sharecropper who had lost his arm in an automobile accident.

Frazier left for the Northeast at 15 and was aimless for a couple of years before taking up boxing in earnest. He ended up in Philly and the Broad Street Gym under the tutelage of Yank Durham.

He actually lost in the Olympic trials to the much bigger Buster Mathis, but Mathis injured his hand. Frazier went on to Tokyo and captured the gold medal in the heavyweight division.
Legend has it when Frazier first encountered the man with whom he would be forever linked, who had won the Olympic heavyweight title four years earlier, Ali - then Cassius Clay - advised him he should drop down to light heavyweight because he was too small.
Wishful thinking.

Aside from tough Argentine Oscar Bonavena, Frazier's rise to the top of the heavyweight rankings met with little resistance. He was the first to stop iron-chinned Canadian heavyweight George Chuvalo, then a veteran of over 60 bouts, and he also disposed of contenders Mathis, Doug Jones and Jerry Quarry.

He draped himself on opponents with relentless pressure, bobbing and weaving under their punches and rising up with a two-fisted attack to the body and the head, highlighted by a pulverizing left hook.
Sportswriter-turned-television commentator Larry Merchant aptly described Frazier as a "Truth Machine" who tested an opponent's willingness to go beyond normal levels of pain.

With Ali on the sidelines after refusing induction into the military during the Vietnam War, Frazier stopped Jimmy Ellis in five rounds in early 1970 to become the undisputed champion of the division among active fighters.

Ali was finally granted a license again that same year, and after two tune-up fights, what would become known as The Fight was arranged for March 8, 1971.

It was a rare meeting of two bona fide champions, long before boxing's power brokers would pervert the meaning of that word through a surfeit of "world" titles and absurd decisions.

The build up to the fight saw the loquacious Ali taunt Frazier mercilessly for his lack of intelligence, and worse, called him an Uncle Tom who was a pawn of the white establishment.

Ali resented the fact Frazier took advantage of his misfortune and didn't speak up politically on his behalf when he was threatened with jail time. Frazier was admittedly uninterested and uncomfortable being anything other than a fighter.

It was a curious attack at best. Of the two fighters, Ali was the one with a white trainer and white blood in his lineage. Frazier had grown up almost desperately poor. But Frazier couldn't compete in the war of words and could have enjoyed more defenders in the press; Ali, once reviled, was made a more sympathetic figure due to his three-year exile and the rising counterculture opposition to the war.

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The Washington Post...

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Jan. 13, 1966

Olympic heavyweight champion Joe Frazier, left, strikes a pose in Philadelphia before a group of men who agreed to sponsor him. Frazier went professional just a few months prior, after winning four fights.

Warren Winterbottom / AP

Click the above link to view many wonderful photos...

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http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-joe-frazier-obituary-20111107,0,4527878.sto...

Los Angeles Times...

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Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion, dies at 67

He beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century, battled him nearly to the death in the Thrilla in Manila. Then Joe Frazier spent the rest of his life trying to fight his way out of Ali's shadow

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PHOTO:
Joe Frazier is directed to the ropes by referee Arthur Mercante after decking Muhammad Ali in a 1971 title fight. (AP Photo / March 8, 1971)

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From the Associated Press

November 7, 2011, 8:29 p.m.

He beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century, battled him nearly to the death in the Thrilla in Manila. Then Joe Frazier spent the rest of his life trying to fight his way out of Ali's shadow.

That was one fight Frazier could never win.

He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that. Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971.

But he bore the burden of being Ali's foil, and he paid the price. Bitter for years about the taunts his former nemesis once threw his way, Frazier only in recent times came to terms with what happened in the past and said he had forgiven Ali for everything he said.

Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be linked to Ali. But no one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

"You can't mention Ali without mentioning Joe Frazier," said former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. "He beat Ali, don't forget that."

They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and once in the morning in a steamy arena in the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together, with neither giving an inch and both giving 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. "That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life."

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 hotel-casino 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 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," Schuyler said. "They left every bit of talent they had in the ring that day."

Born in Beaufort, S.C., 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.

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.

It was his fights with Ali, though, 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 it the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter 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 -- he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali.

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http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/7206261/joe-frazier-former-heavyweight-cham...

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Updated: November 7, 2011, 11:51 PM ET

Boxing legend Joe Frazier dies

Associated Press

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ESPN...

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PHILADELPHIA -- He beat Muhammad Ali in the Fight of the Century, battled him nearly to the death in the Thrilla in Manila. Then Joe Frazier spent the rest of his life trying to fight his way out of Ali's shadow.

That was one fight Frazier could never win.

He was once a heavyweight champion, and a great one at that. Ali would say as much after Frazier knocked him down in the 15th round en route to becoming the first man to beat Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971.

Rafael Joe Frazier will be forever linked with Muhammad Ali, but Smokin' Joe was so much more Ali's foil, writes Dan Rafael.

But he bore the burden of being Ali's foil, and he paid the price. Bitter for years about the taunts his former nemesis once threw his way, Frazier only in recent times came to terms with what happened in the past and said he had forgiven Ali for everything he said.

Frazier, who died Monday night after a brief battle with liver cancer at the age of 67, will forever be linked to Ali. But no one in boxing would ever dream of anointing Ali as The Greatest unless he, too, was linked to Smokin' Joe.

"You can't mention Ali without mentioning Joe Frazier," said former AP boxing writer Ed Schuyler Jr. "He beat Ali, don't forget that."

They fought three times, twice in the heart of New York City and once in the morning in a steamy arena in the Philippines. They went 41 rounds together, with neither giving an inch and both giving 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.

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"I can't go nowhere where it's not mentioned," he told The Associated Press. "That was the greatest thing that ever happened in my life."

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 hotel-casino 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 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," Schuyler said. "They left every bit of talent they had in the ring that day."

Born in Beaufort, S.C., 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," promoter Bob Arum told the AP in a telephone interview on Tuesday 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.

It was his fights with Ali, though, 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 it the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta, Frazier was asked by a reporter 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 -- he said he no longer felt any bitterness toward Ali.

"I forgive him," Frazier said. "He's in a bad way."

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Smokin' Joe Frazier...

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http://www.joefrazier.com/

The tributes are already pouring in...

SMOKIN' JOE FRAZIER

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/richard_hoffer/11/07/joe.frazier/i...

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Sports Illustrated...

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Posted: Monday November 7, 2011 11:28PM ; Updated: Monday November 7, 2011 11:29PM

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/richard_hoffer/11/07/joe.frazier/i...

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Frazier's legacy, record would have been greater if not for Ali trilogy
Story Highlights

Joe Frazier's style was a slightly reconsidered version of a threshing machine
That the first Ali-Frazier fight did happen was a result of Frazier's respect for Ali

Frazier never got over the Ali losses, the insults and the legacy it all left him

Joe Frazier beat Muhammad Ali via unanimous decision in the Fight of the Century on March 8, 1971.

Tony Triolo/SI

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It's a pointless speculation, but it might be interesting to wonder just where Joe Frazier would be today without those little run-ins with Muhammad Ali. Well, he'd probably be alive, for one thing. That's a good theory for starters. Word came Monday that Frazier died of liver cancer at 67. Maybe that would have overtaken him in any event. But anybody who saw any of those three fights, particularly the two horrifying bookends of their heroic trilogy, would not be insulting medical opinion if he guessed Ali somehow had a hand in Frazier's ultimate mortality.

Those two fights, especially their first meeting in the Garden 40 years ago, and even more especially 1975's Thrilla in Manila, the fight that essentially ended their careers, were such violent affairs, such protracted examples of desperation, that any seasons lived beyond them have to be considered a kind of boxing gravy. They were not heavyweight title fights so much as near-death experiences, a brutally choreographed and lightly regulated self-destruction, their pride and ambition so inflamed that survival was no longer part of either fighter's plan.

It was bad, bad. Frazier won the first fight and spent three weeks in the hospital. Ali won the last and spent most of the rest of his life locked behind the mask of Parkinson's, shut up for good. Collateral damage is an insufficient descriptor. Forever after, those run-ins became a catchphrase for an exaggerated style of competition, for when athletic urgency just went a little too far, got out of hand, produced something both awful and wonderful, created injury disproportionate to any possible rewards. We hear it to this day: It was good, but it was no Ali-Frazier.

Whether or not he'd still be alive without Ali, it's probably more of a certainty that he'd have been happy. The two had begun as friends, Frazier something more than a place-holder while Ali endured a political exile smack dab in the middle of his prime. Frazier, the son of a South Carolina sharecropper, had easily captured the heavyweight title in Ali's absence, his relentless style a slightly reconsidered version of a threshing machine. It was not at all obvious that Ali, even if he were reinstated, could cope with this new and improved whirly-gig. Frazier was not called Smokin' Joe for nothing.

That the fight did happen was more a result of Frazier's respect for Ali, the champion willing to forgo a bigger split to help a guy out. Frazier had befriended Ali on several occasions, throwing timely lifelines, notably petitioning President Nixon to reinstate the former champ, but this one was the most important. And Ali was not unappreciative, the two of them more like brothers than rivals during Ali's suspension from boxing. Yet when it came time for the fight, Ali went off the promotional rails and began marketing the bout -- in 1971 after all -- as a cultural and political referendum. Ali would be the revolutionary, the man of the times; Frazier would be the Uncle Tom, a sociological and perhaps athletic throwback. Frazier was stunned, aggrieved, hurt.

Perhaps the fury of that fight was heightened by the back story, though most likely it was simply what happened whenever you put these two guys in the same ring. But it opened a wound in Frazier that never healed. When they met again in 1975, the intervening years not kind to either man (Frazier lost his title to George Foreman, Ali gaining no purchase on history either, and their second meeting so insufficient to memories of the first that it is rarely remembered), it was Ali who again resorted to a campaign of ugliness, his famous teasing gone unforgivably bad, his foe now devolved from Uncle Tom into the Gorilla in Manila.

The pain of those taunts outlasted even Frazier's disappointment in the result, 14 rounds of sheer recklessness, first Ali's fight, then Frazier's, then miraculously Ali's gain. Ali later said it was the "closest thing to dying I know of." It was a question of who would quit first, and the answer was neither; Frazier's corner had to cut his gloves off before the final round, surely a lifesaving event. Yet it was probably Ali's mockery that kept Frazier awake so many nights later.

That fight was pretty much the end of their careers (Frazier lost once more to Foreman then gave it up; Ali stuck it out several more years, though never again as brilliant or determined), and Frazier was left to a life of resentment. He never got over the losses, the insults, the legacy that was left him. Ali became a world hero, lighting Olympic flames, an example of political courage the rest of his mute life. Frazier, a bitter, old warrior, instead had to consider the inadequacies of grit in a time that was more inclined to reward glamour.

What would we think of Frazier, without those run-ins? As it is, he ranks among the top 10 heavyweights of all time, his remorseless attack usually punctuated by one of history's greatest left hooks, properly celebrated in boxing's Hall of Fame. His record of 32-4 would have been improved by Ali's nonexistence for sure, and without those losses might have been able to coast a bit further on the championship franchise. He made money and was famous, but more is always better. And maybe, had Ali not been allowed to dictate the ridiculous terms of their debate, he could have represented his race and his generation (which, after all, were exactly Ali's) to greater appreciation. Why couldn't Joe Frazier be the young black hero the counterculture wanted?

Pointless speculation. This is how it turned out, Frazier both ruined and elevated by Ali, marinating in his bitterness all those years later. He dabbled in music, dabbled in training (most disastrously with the failed career of his son Marvis), dabbled in character reconstruction. To no great affect.

It's too bad. Frazier forever confused defeat with disgrace, as if he wasn't as ennobled in Manila as in Madison Square Garden. Well, that is how we usually keep score. But not many who saw those fights, such demonstrations of human determination that even today we wince at their extremes, would make the same mistake.

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http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/richard_hoffer/11/07/joe.frazier/i...

SI

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http://hot1079philly.com/sports/hot1079philly/breaking-joe-frazier-dies-at-67/#m...

Breaking: Joe Frazier Dies At 67

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Hot1079Philly...

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Former Olympic and Undisputed World Heavyweight boxing champion, and Philly born athlete Joe Frazier has died at the age of 67 from a fight with liver cancer. His legend will be remembered for handing Muhammad Ali his first lost of his career. Philly has lost a great solider and a true champion.

RIP Joe Frazier

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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/boxing/story/2011-11-06/joe-frazier-dead-liver-ca...

USA TODAY...

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Former heavyweight champion Joe Frazier dies of cancer at 67
By Bob Velin, USA TODAY
Updated 4m ago

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Joe Frazier, a tough, underrated heavyweight boxer from Philadelphia and one of the sport's fiercest competitors who spent a lifetime playing second fiddle to his nemesis, Muhammad Ali, died Monday night from liver cancer. Frazier was 67.

Heavyweight boxing legend Joe Frazier has died at age 67.

By Bebeto Matthews, AP

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Heavyweight boxing legend Joe Frazier has died at age 67.

Frazier was diagnosed with cancer in late September, said his personal and business manager, Leslie Wolff. He had made several personal appearances since then.

Though there was lingering animosity between Frazier and Ali for more than 40 years, their names became synonymous with each other. Ali and Frazier. Frazier and Ali. It was almost as if you couldn't say one without the other, said boxing historian Bert Randolph Sugar, who covered their amazing trilogy of fights in the 1970s.

Frazier, who was known as "Smokin' Joe," was the first fighter to defeat Ali, putting the loquacious "Louisville Lip" on the canvas with his signature vicious left hook during their first fight, the so-called "Fight of the Century" in Madison Square Garden on March 8, 1971, one of the most epic ring battles of all time. Frazier went on to win by unanimous decision.

Both fighters were paid an unheard of sum of $2.5 million, far more than any boxer had ever been paid for a prize fight.

Frazier and Ali came into the match undefeated. Ali had gotten under Frazier's skin leading up to the fight, called him such names as "Uncle Tom," "ugly," "chump," "ignorant" and "dumb."

It was racial taunting at its worst, and it would affect Frazier for the rest of his life. Ali made it worse by continuing to taunt Frazier throughout their careers, calling Frazier a "gorilla" before their final fight in Manila.

In an interview with USA TODAY's Erik Brady two years ago, Frazier's bitterness came out in the form of religious bashing. Frazier believed Ali's Parkinson's Disease was God's judgment for Ali's Muslim beliefs.

"Regardless of who you are, you have to think one way, and the right way, to be accepted by the man above," Frazier said. "He calls the shots."

Asked if he could ever forgive Ali for gorilla, Uncle Tom, and the rest, Frazier said, "Sure . . . but the Man above, you'd better ask Him. . . . (Ali) must not pray. If you prayed, you'd have a better life than you have now. I'm 65 and I'm as strong as two bulls. So he must not bend down to the good Man above."

Ali and Frazier would meet twice more after the "Fight of the Century," and Ali won both, including the finale of their trilogy, the "Thrilla in Manila" on Oct. 1, 1975, one of the most brutal bouts in boxing history.

At one point during the slugfest, Ali whispered to Frazier during a clinch, "Ol' Joe Frazier. They told me you were washed up."

Frazier snorted back, "They lied, pretty boy."

Both men could barely stand by the end of the fight, and Frazier couldn't see, his eyes swelled shut.

By the end of the 14th round, Frazier had had enough. When he came back to his corner, his trainer, the legendary Eddie Futch, told him, "Sit down son. It's all over. Nobody will ever forget what you did here today."

Ali called that fight, fought in the extreme heat and humidity of The Philippines, "The closest thing to death."

Frazier, who fought just twice after the "Thrilla in Manila," finished his career with a 32-4-1 record. But his four losses came against two opponents, Ali and George Foreman, who handed Frazier the only two knockouts of his career.

Frazier's first knockout by Foreman is best remembered for Howard Cosell's iconic call, "Down goes Frazier!"

Frazier retired after the second loss to Foreman in 1976, but came out of retirement in 1981, and fought to a 10-round draw against Floyd "Jumbo" Cummings in Chicago. Then he hung up his gloves for good.

Frazier spent most of his years in retirement working with kids in his Philadelphia boxing gym, including two of his own who became boxers, son Marvis and daughter Jacqui. In an interesting twist, Jacqui Frazier Lyde, fought Ali's daughter, Laila Ali a decade ago. Ali won a majority decision. Jacqui went on to become a municipal court judge.

A few years ago, Frazier and Ali did a photo shoot together at Frazier's gym, which has since closed. Ali, now 69, said upon hearing the news that Frazier was terminally ill, "The news about Joe is hard to believe and even harder to accept. … Joe is a fighter and a champion, and I am praying he is fighting now."

Ironically, it was Frazier who petitioned President Richard Nixon to have Ali's boxing license reinstated after Ali refused induction into the Army during the Vietnam war. Frazier also boycotted a heavyweight tournament to crown a new champion after Ali was stripped of his title in 1967. They were friends then.

That was before their trilogy, and all the name-calling, much of which came from the brash Ali's penchant for poeticizing his fights and trying to get under his opponents' skin, not so much from his hatred of Frazier or anybody else.

Joseph William Frazier was born Jan. 12, 1944 in Beaufort, S.C. He fell in love with boxing as a child after watching such legendary figures as Sugar Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano and Willie Pep on his parents' old black and white TV, and left Beaufort at the age of 15 to seek his fortune in boxing.

Frazier became a great amateur boxer and ended up making the 1964 U.S. Olympic boxing team, where he won a heavyweight gold medal in Tokyo in 1964.

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http://www.npr.org/2011/11/07/142119616/boxing-great-joe-frazier-dies-after-figh...

NPR...

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Boxing Great Joe Frazier Dies After Fight With Cancer

by The Associated Press
Joe Frazier (left) hits Muha
mmad Ali during the 15th round of their heavyweight title bout — the "Fight of the Century" at New York's Madison Square Garden in March 1971.
Enlarge AP

PHOTO:
Joe Frazier (left) hits Muhammad Ali during the 15th round of their heavyweight title bout — the "Fight of the Century" at New York's Madison Square Garden in March 1971.

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November 7, 2011

Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion who handed Muhammad Ali his first defeat yet had to live forever in his shadow, died Monday night after a brief final fight with liver cancer. He was 67.

The family issued a release confirming the boxer's death.

Frazier, who took on Ali in three momentous fights in the 1970s including the epic "Thrilla in Manilla" had been under home hospice care after being diagnosed just weeks ago with the cancer that took his life, a family friend said. Until then, Frazier had been doing regular autograph appearances, including one in Las Vegas in September.

Smokin' Joe was a small yet ferocious fighter who smothered his opponents with punches, including a devastating left hook he used to end many of his fights early. It was the left hook that dropped Ali in the 15th round at Madison Square Garden in 1971 to seal a win in the so-called "Fight of the Century."

Though he beat Ali in that fight, Frazier lost the final two and for many years was bitter about the role Ali forced him to play as his foil.

Frazier was diagnosed last month with the disease, his personal and business manager said. Leslie Wolff, who has been Frazier's manager for seven years, said the boxer had been in out and out of the hospital since early October and receiving hospice treatment the last week.

Frazier was the first man to beat Ali, knocking him down and taking a decision in the so-called Fight of the Century in 1971. He would go on to lose two more fights to Ali, including the epic "Thrilla in Manila" bout.

Frazier was bitter for many years about the way Ali treated him then. More recently, he said he had forgiven Ali for repeatedly taunting him.

While the "Fight of the Century" is celebrated in boxing lore, Ali and Frazier put on an even better show in their third fight, held in a sweltering arena in Manila as part of Ali's world tour of fights in 1975. Nearly blinded by Ali's punches, Frazier still wanted to go out for the 15th round of the fight but was held back by trainer Eddie Futch in a bout Ali would later say was the closest thing to death he could imagine.

Frazier won the heavyweight title in 1970 by stopping Jimmy Ellis in the fifth round of their fight at Madison Square Garden. Frazier defended it successfully four times before George Foreman knocked him down six times in the first two rounds to take the title from him in 1973.

Frazier would never be heavyweight champion again.

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